Saratoga Race Course Notes | |
| By NYRA Press Office | August 30, 2009 |
Summer Bird was every bit his usual self Sunday morning after a decisive 3½-length win in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Shadwell Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. Napping in his stall just after 8 a.m. following a walk around the shedrow, Dr. Kalarikkal and Vilasini Jayaraman’s colt woke before 9 a.m. to receive peppermints and observe the humans gathered outside his stall. “He walked great this morning, he ate up last night, so today everything is looking up,” said trainer Tim Ice. “We’ll make decisions here in a couple days, make sure everything looks well.” Ice said one of two races in October were the most likely possibilities for the 3-year-old son of Birdstone, who followed in his sire’s footsteps yesterday in completing the Belmont-Travers double. “[Louisiana Downs] has the Louisiana Super Derby in three weeks (Grade 2, $750,000, Sept. 19) which is a little close, that’s the long shot,” Ice said. “[Belmont Park] has the Jockey Club Gold Cup (Grade 1, $750,000 1¼-miles) October 3, then on October 10 Santa Anita has the Goodwood (Grade 1, $350,000 1 1/8-miles).” Looking ahead to an anticipated start in the Grade 1, $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on November 7, Ice said he wasn’t sure Summer Bird would need a race over a synthetic track to get there. “What if he goes out there and he runs bad in the Goodwood, then we passed up the Jockey Club Gold Cup on a racetrack that he loves?” Ice queried. “I’m not saying that he would or he wouldn’t like the [synthetic], he was out there for three months last year from October to January and he seemed to work well over it. He seems to adapt well everywhere he goes, whether it takes him a week to get used to it, but eventually he handles it. Overall I think that if we get him out there in enough time, he’ll be used to the track and it won’t be an issue.” So far, Ice said the Shadwell Travers win had sunk in much more quickly than his Belmont Stakes victory nearly three months ago. “Last night at dinner I was thinking about Birdstone and what he did, and for Summer Bird to accomplish the same thing with five years time in between…I think it sunk in a little faster for the Travers. The horse is a great horse. One thing that I loved [yesterday] was that that Kent Desormeaux (jockey) couldn’t pull him up. The outrider had to grab him, Kent wasn’t going to pull him up on his own. He’s a racehorse – he loves what he does.” Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott has not made any plans for Shadwell Travers’ runner-up Hold Me Back, but said the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita was on the radar for the WinStar Farm colt. “I haven’t discussed the future with any of the connections,” he said. “In my mind, I am always thinking of the Breeders’ Cup.” Hold Me Back trailed for about a mile before jockey Julien Leparoux made a six-wide move around the far turn as the colt continued to rally in the middle of the stretch. “I would have liked to won the whole thing, but the horse ran well,” Mott said. “We didn’t win, but we were second-best. We were proud of him. He came into the race the right way. Everything was coming together and he didn’t let us down.” A chipper Todd Pletcher said Sunday that Quality Road, beaten favorite in the Shadwell Travers, was “excellent” after his third-place effort in the 1¼ mile race. “I thought he ran very well,” said Pletcher. “He didn’t exactly get the kind of trip we were hoping to get.” Quality Road did not break well, then was hemmed in on the rail behind Our Edge and inside of Kensei and Summer Bird down the backside before splitting horses to mount a challenge straightening for home. Second at the top of the stretch, he was passed in the final yards by longshot Hold Me Back. “The mile and a quarter had nothing to do with it,” said Pletcher. “And he handled [the wet track] fine. I think the biggest thing is he wasn’t able to get into a high cruising speed.” Next up for Edward P. Evans’ colt could be the Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at 1¼ miles on October 10 at Belmont Park, said Pletcher. Unlike Quality Road, said Pletcher, Munnings did not appear to handle the wet going during his third-place finish as the favorite in the Grade 1 NetJets King’s Bishop. “Everything that could have happened did happen in the race,” said Pletcher of Munnings, owned by Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith. “He was slipping and sliding throughout.” While the Breeders’ Cup may be on the radar for Quality Road, Munnings will not be pointed to the race over the synthetic surface at Santa Anita. “We’ll look at a race like the Vosburgh (Grade 1, 6 furlongs, October 3, Belmont Park) and the Hill ‘n’ Dale Cigar Mile (Grade 1, $300,000, November 28, Aqueduct) instead of going back to California,” said Pletcher. A new addition to the barn is Grade 2 Ballston Spa winner Salve Germania, the Irish-bred filly who was making her first start in the United States after a career in France and Germany. “I was contacted about a month ago by her connections,” said Pletcher. “She shipped in Tuesday from quarantine and basically I helped them get organized and familiar with her surroundings. She’ll stay here.” Pletcher said he had not yet spoken with her connections about what might be next. “We’ll see how she settles in and go from there,” he said. Trainer Steve Asmussen said Jess Jackson’s Grade 2 Jim Dandy winner Kensei came back in fine form from his sixth-place finish in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Shadwell Travers Stakes. “He’s a big, strong, beautiful horse,” said Asmussen. “Right now, we’ll do the responsible thing; take him back to the track and see how he goes. We’ll take a step back, regroup, and go from there. We had a good run with him.” With the Travers behind him, Asmussen is looking forward to running Jackson’s Rachel Alexandra in Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward Stakes against older males. “We’re always excited about Rachel,” he said. “She’s a tremendous talent, and very special. She’s got it all – a beautiful mind, beautiful movement, she’s very athletic and has tremendous cruising speed. She covers a lot of ground without it taking anything out of her.” The 3-year-old daughter of Medaglia d’Oro is scheduled to have her final serious move for the nine-furlong Woodward on Monday morning in the second set at about 5:50 a.m., either on the Oklahoma training track or the main track. “We’ll see how they are before deciding,” said Asmussen. Exercise rider Dominic Terry will be aboard for her work, which has been attracting substantial crowds the past few Mondays. “The attention is part of her life,” said Asmussen. “She doesn’t know that everyone else doesn’t get treated that day. She’s been on a pretty high stage for a while and thinks that 20-30 people follow everyone to the track.” Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito reported that Robert V. LaPenta’s Our Edge had an eventful outing in the Shadwell Travers. “He lost his left front shoe, either leaving the gate or jumping the first puddle, and grabbed his quarter, both places, left and right,” he said. “It was a rough trip. Alan [Garcia] did a good job with him.” As he had in his three previous wins, Our Edge ran with two bar shoes on, said Zito. “It was a Catch-20, 22, 21, whatever,” said Zito. “Saratoga mud is different. We did the best thing. He won his last three starts with those shoes, so I didn’t want to take them off. We’ll be OK. We took a big shot. I think he was a live longshot. I’m glad he’s in one piece.” Zito added that he was pleased for Summer Bird, a son of Birdstone, whom Zito saddled to victories in both the 2004 Belmont Stakes and Travers. “It was great the Birdstone won,” he said. Within a 36-minute span, trainer Ian Wilkes experienced the highs and lows of racing. Wilkes picked up his first Grade 1 victory when Capt. Candyman Can won the NetsJets King’s Bishop through a disqualification. Then Warrior’s Reward managed to get within two lengths of the leader at the quarter-pole before fading to fifth in the Shadwell Travers. “I’m just enjoying the win right now, but I feel bad for my other horse,” Wilkes said. “[Warrior’s Reward] just doesn’t want to go that far. I thought he could. I was trying to make him into a classic horse. I thought he had them because he was cruising. Then he stopped. There were no excuses. I had seen everything I wanted. I had a perfect horse coming into the race. Calvin [Borel] gave him a perfect ride. Everything was good.” Now that Wilkes knows Warrior’s Reward’s distance limitations, he plans to bring the A. Stevens Miles, Jr.-owned colt back to Kentucky and explore their options for the fall. “Now, I know where I am at with him,” Wilkes said. “I’ll probably bring him back to one turn. I think he’s a miler. He’s probably a better one-turn miler.” In the NetJets King’s Bishop, Joseph Rauch and David Zell’s Capt. Candyman Can was bumped twice by Godolphin’s Vineyard Haven, who was drifting out approaching the wire. “No one disagreed with the decision,” Wilkes said. “I thought Capt. Candyman Can had him beat. Then Vineyard Haven he bumped him. Even then, my horse came back and was only beaten a head.” Wilkes has not thought about Capt. Candyman Can’s plans for the fall. Since the spring, the NetJets King’s Bishop has been Wilkes’s goal. “When I took him off the [Kentucky] Derby trail, we were pointing for the King’s Bishop,” he said. “That’s what we have said all along. He’s going to tell us a lot. I’m going to see how he comes out. He wasn’t knocked out as much as I thought he would have been because he ran hard. That’s was a tough field from top to bottom. He’s consistent and shows up every time.” In a sequence with only two winning favorites, there were four 6 of 6 winners resulting in a $45,153 payout for the Shadwell Travers Day Pick 6: one on-track at Saratoga, one at Royal River Racing, and two at YouBet.com. The sequence of winners that comprised the Pick 6 was Bulldogger ($6.60, favorite), Salve Germania ($50.50), Music Note ($13.60), Capt. Candyman Can ($9.80), Summer Bird ($7.80), and Whirlwind Poppy ($6.20, favorite). There were also 115 consolation 5 of 6 winners that paid $523 each.
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