Overanalyze Is Favorite in Gotham Stakes

CLEVELAND - The 60th running of the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes is the Kentucky Derby trail headline race this Saturday at Aqueduct Racetrack.

A field of 12 contenders will take to the track with Overanalyze listed as the favorite despite drawing the outside post position.  Owner Mike Repole purchased the son of Dixie Union for $380,000 as a yearling.  To his credit Overanalyze has two graded stakes wins, the Futurity at Belmont, and the 1 1/8 mile Remsen where he barely beat competitor Normandy Invasion on November 24th.

Overanalyze has been preparing for Saturday's race under Trainer Todd Pletcher at Palm Meadows in Florida.  It has been four months since the colt has raced but he has been training well, and breezed 1/2-mile in 48.75 on Monday.  John Velazquez will take the reigns once again as this Hall of Fame rider has had profitable momentum at Gulfstream with top earnings this winter.  Trainer Todd Pletcher ranks the Gulfstream leader board with 37 first place finishes out of 118 starts.

Vyjack is the undefeated co-favorite in the field with current odds at 3-1. With all of his wins coming off the Aqueduct track he is threatening to the rest of the Gotham field including Siete de Oros, who will be looking for revenge after Vyjack beat him by a head in the stretch of the  Grade 2 Jerome on January 5th.  The competition is getting stringent and Vyjack will have a jockey change on Saturday with Joel Rosario.

Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin will saddle three colts in Saturday's race including first time Lasix runner Elnaaw, who won it's maiden race at Aqueduct on January 12th by four lengths.  Now and Then recently won his maiden at Aqueduct and Transparent drew the 5th post with jockey Irad Ortiz taking the mount.

Here is the field from the inside post out:  Post time is at 5:02pm (ET)

1.  Champion Boy  Jockey E. Castro  M/L 30-1

2.  Escapefromreality  Jockey  D. Cohen   M/L 6-1

3.  Ore Pass  Jockey  J. Pimentel   M/L 12-1

4.  Amerigo Vespucci    Jockey Erick Rodriguez    M/L 20-1

5.  Transparent    Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr.,   M/L  8-1

6.  Now and Then   Jockey Junior Alvarado    M/L 8-1

7.  Siete de Oros    Jockey Angel Arroyo    M/L  15-1

8.  Vyjack        Jockey Joel Rosario   M/L 3-1

9.  Elnaawi    Jockey Channing Hill   M/L 8-1

10. Sky Captain  Jockey Miguel Mena   M/L 8-1

11. West Hills Giant  Jockey Jose Espinoza  M/L  20-1

12. Overanalyze   Jockey John Velazquez  M/L  5-2