 Trainer Robbie Bailes confirmed Monday that Scrappy T will run Saturday in the Grade 1, $350,000 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct. The Cigar Mile is the centerpiece of the Big A's stakes-heavy HolidayFest weekend.
It begins Thursday with the $100,000 Fall Highweight Handicap and continues Friday with the Grade 2, $150,000 Top Flight Handicap for fillies and mares.
In addition to the Cigar Mile on Saturday, the Big A offers a pair of Grade 2, $200,000 juvenile stakes: the Remsen and the Demoiselle for fillies.
The weekend stakes schedule concludes Sunday with the $75,000 Montauk Handicap for New York-breds.
Scrappy T returns to scene and the distance of his lone graded-stakes victory, the Grade 3 Withers on April 30.
After the Withers, Bailes set his sights on the Preakness, where Scrappy T ducked out in the lane and into the path of the onrushing Afleet Alex, the eventual winner.
Scrappy T came out of his second-place finish in the Preakness with a "pulled muscle in the back," Bailes said, and was rested over the summer.
He returned in October and ran second in the Grade 2 Indiana Derby at Hoosier Park and in the Grade 3 Discovery Handicap on the Breeders' Cup card at Belmont Park.
In the Discovery, Scrappy T set the pace and lost by three-quarters of a length to Magna Graduate.
"He came out of the race real well," Bailes said. "I couldn't ask him to being doing any better. Right now, I think he's as good as he's ever been."
Scrappy T will be making his first appearance against older horses on Saturday.
"I think he's ready for the challenge," Bailes said. "It's hard to find a 3-year-old race unless you head to California. We're aiming for this one Saturday, and we'll see how he goes after that."
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