Christian Abdo

Racing for Klaravich Stables, Weigh the Risks has banked three wins from four attempts in 2025 and peaks for Saturday’s Listed Go for Wand, a single-turn mile at Aqueduct Racetrack for females age three and older, worth 150 thousand dollars. Think of a sprinter stretching successfully to a mile after sharp drills; that’s the kind of form cycle she brings into this spot.

Guided by five-time Eclipse Award recipient Chad Brown, the 4-year-old chestnut by Mendelssohn made six of her opening seven runs on grass and managed only one victory. After she was switched back to dirt for her latest five starts, markedly better efforts have followed—e.g., deeper loam can suit a punchier action than slick turf.

When the surface switch to dirt arrived five races ago in November, an optional claimer at the same course-and-distance slated for Saturday was taken by Weigh the Risks by nine lengths. She proceeded to try two additional one-turn miles here, first winning a January optional claimer and then finishing second by six and one-quarter to Bernietakescharge in February’s Heavenly Prize Invitational, a margin that can occur, for example, when a pace scenario collapses.

Brown pointed out that keeping her exclusively on dirt has moved her forward and that time was allotted for her to mature. In his assessment, Listed stakes fit her ability, the mile around one bend should pose no problem, and her condition into the race is pleasing to the barn.

Her two most recent starts came at seven-eighths, the first a July optional claimer at Saratoga that she dominated and that produced a career- and field-best Beyer rating of one hundred one. Most recently on November 8 at this track, she landed the Listed Pumpkin Pie by one and a quarter lengths, for example, a margin that looks about a length and a half to the eye.

Brown explained that many Mendelssohn progeny he has trained succeed on turf and he initially followed that route, but rider input nudged a return to the main track. He added that she may not have been grabbing the grass effectively, whereas once back on dirt she has progressed without looking back, e.g., some horses simply engage the surface better.

Weigh the Risks [post 3, Manny Franco] finalized her prep on Sunday with a four-furlong breeze in 49 and eighty-three hundredths seconds over Belmont Park’s dirt training track, essentially a tune-up.

She came out of it well; it was a maintenance drill, Brown reported. The team is eager to run her here after what he called a solid season, for example, steady figures and honest efforts.

Bred in Kentucky by Porta Pia Stables, Weigh the Risks was purchased for two hundred five thousand dollars at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Fall Yearling Sale. She is a half-sister to dual stakes winner Cheapskate Diva out of the Candy Ride mare Beautiful Liar, and her second dam, Forty Moves, earned Grade 3 placement—a family page breeders often admire.

Repole Stable’s Grade 3 winner Scalable [post 2, Kendrick Carmouche] rallied from ten back while seventh of seven to finish third by one and three-quarters behind Weigh the Risks in the Pumpkin Pie. Under Hall of Fame conditioner Todd Pletcher, the four-year-old Speightstown gray had earlier annexed January’s seven-furlong Interborough here and, after an eight-month layoff, finished sixth in September’s Grade 2 Gallant Bloom, a profile that appeals to handicapping types.

Pletcher said Scalable found herself much too far off the pace in the Pumpkin Pie, though her late kick was good. He expects that the extra one-eighth of a mile will aid her, a distance he feels matches her run style.

Last year’s eight-start campaign also included a score in July’s Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks at one and one-sixteenth miles at its namesake track. A two hundred thousand–dollar buy at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, she is out of the Tapit mare Passion Flower, a half-sister to Pletcher’s multiple Grade 1 winner Stopchargingmaria, and her record stands at 14: 4-1-2 with earnings of five hundred twenty-nine thousand eight hundred seventy-eight.

Pletcher captured this race twelve months ago—when it carried Grade 3 status—with Tizzy in the Sky. Earlier winners for him were Ashado in 2005, Spun Sugar in 2006, and Royal Lahaina in 2013.

R.T Racing Stable’s Just Katherine [post 5, Sahin Civaci] resurfaces after more than twelve months away, her previous start a seven-furlong optional claiming win here by one-half length last September. Trained by Jose Jimenez, the five-year-old Justify bay had been a close second to Brown’s Accede in June’s Grade 2 Bed o’ Roses at seven furlongs at the Big A.

Just Katherine has landed a top-three finish in ten of fifteen career starts, compiling four wins, three seconds, and three thirds. Her peak Beyer is ninety-four, earned for a runner-up finish by one and one-half lengths to Randomized—now a dual Grade 1-winning, Brown-trained millionaire—in the one-mile restricted Wilton in two thousand twenty-three at Saratoga, a race that can, for example, serve as a stepping-stone.

Completing the field are multiple stakes-winning New York-bred Stonewall Star [post 6, Jaime Rodriguez] for trainer Horacio De Paz, along with the stakes-placed Zadorsky [post 4, Jose Gomez] for trainer Whit Beckman and Tipple [post 1, Jose Lezcano] for conditioner Linda Rice; for example, these names can help shape the early tempo.

The Go for Wand is scheduled as Race seven on Saturday’s nine-race card. First post is twelve ten in the afternoon Eastern.

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