Custom For Carlos Eyes Tom Fool

At this time last year, Homewrecker Racing’s Custom for Carlos had won the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector at Gulfstream Park and was pointing for Aqueduct’s Grade 3 Toboggan Stakes on the Gotham Day undercard, a race in which he yielded a neck decision to Wall Street Wonder.

This year, the Grade 3 Tom Fool has replaced the Toboggan on Gotham Day, and while Custom for Carlos again exits the Mr. Prospector stakes, this year he was beaten four lengths by sprint champion Big Drama while earning a 109 Beyer Speed Figure to the winner’s blazing 120.

“He’s always been a quality horse,” said trainer Eddie Kenneally. “He was coming off a huge layoff in the Mr. Prospector, but we expected a good race from him because he was training really well and he came up to the race really sharp.”

Custom for Carlos injured a hoof in his stall the night before a planned run in last year’s Grade 2 True North Stakes at Belmont Park on June 5, and was forced to scratch. The 5-year-old son of More Than Ready has been a regular on the worktab at Palm Meadows since early November and recorded three bullet works leading up to the January 15 Mr. Prospector.

“He came back [from the layoff] as good or even better than you might expect from a horse of his caliber,” said Kenneally. “He’s been doing really well since that race and he has the advantage of having a race over the inner track last year. Even though he didn’t win, he ran a big, big race.”

Kenneally said Custom for Carlos would breeze five furlongs at Palm Meadows on Saturday before shipping to New York on Wednesday.