In his second missive covering recent events at the Spa, Steve Dennis looks ahead to a contentious-looking edition of the famous G1 event featuring the two most recent winners of the Breeders’ Cup Classic and last year’s Travers hero
A handicapper’s faith in the horses he or she bets on is a curious, mercurial thing, prone to marked deviation and internal struggle, barely on nodding acquaintance with rationality. I mean, you’ve seen the film Let It Ride, or at least you should have. You might be in it.
“Fifty bucks on Junebug to win!” says the hapless Looney on reaching the windows. “It’s the same name as my cat.”
Then again, as the film’s motif suggests, you could be walking around lucky and never know it.
That would be helpful when considering the $1m Whitney, the venerable, venerated G1 highlight of Saturday’s festivities at the Spa. Ten horses in the entry box, one of them an unlikely starter, another a confirmed pacemaker, all the main contenders requiring bettors to employ faith rather than confidence as they step towards the windows.
Such an open-ended range of possibilities makes the Whitney a magnetic prospect, a fascinating race. Here are the last two Breeders’ Cup Classic winners – when was the last time that happened? – but both have about them a feel of ‘Hail Mary’ rather than ‘Hail to the Chief’.
The 2023 BC Classic winner White Abarrio also won the Whitney that year, but has there ever been a more reliably unreliable character than this snowy individual?
Unless he’s at his home track Gulfstream Park, that is, where he is eight-for-ten lifetime. Outside the Sunshine State he is two-for-12, with those two big scores receding in relevance as time passes.
Sierra Leone, winner of the 2024 Classic, is zero-for-three at Saratoga – “I don’t think he hates this track,” says trainer Chad Brown, a little uncertainly – and his powerful victory at Del Mar last fall is the only win in his last seven starts. He prefers to run into a strong pace, so the presence of Contrary Thinking, recently purchased to play the rabbit role, is at least a positive.
The likely favorite is last year’s Travers winner and BC Classic runner-up Fierceness. There are fewer flaws in his profile and his Travers win was a standout performance, but he is coming off a below-par display in the G1 Metropolitan (Met Mile), although stretching back out will play to his strengths.
“He’s been training great like he always does and, so far, everything has gone according to plan,” says trainer Todd Pletcher. “He’s just super talented, and when he’s able to put together his ‘A’ race, he’s very, very good.”
Then there are Highland Falls and Disarm, first and third in last year’s Jockey Club Gold Cup, although that was a very moderate contest, and Post Time, third in the Whitney 12 months ago but more comfortable at a mile.
This Whitney is the perfect counterpoint to last weekend’s feature, when Sovereignty overshadowed and then overwhelmed the competition. The older-horse division is in a state of flux and the Whitney showcases that, providing at once an opportunity for something to emerge (re-emerge) to pose a threat to the sophomores in the major fall contests, and a chance for handicappers to get their teeth into one of the most competitive-looking G1s of the year.
Their faith will be tested to the hilt by the Whitney, and in some cases richly rewarded. It might be an advantage, though, to have a dog answering to Fierceness, a cat named Sierra Leone, or maybe even a rabbit called Contrary Thinking.
Horse of the moment
As the ancient seers foretold – and plenty of younger ones too, as he was a heavy chalk at 1-2 – Sovereignty continued his winning streak in the Jim Dandy, repositioning himself as leader of the three-year-old crop and front-runner for Horse of the Year honours ahead of his arch-rival Journalism.
He put away the unfortunate Baeza – something of a pinata for the Big Two, cursed by his foaling date – by an easy length under Junior Alvarado.
Not his most striking performance despite a Beyer speed figure of 104, but it didn’t have to be. The Jim Dandy is a stepping stone between the Triple Crown series and the summer highlight Travers on August 23, a race his trainer Bill Mott has, almost unaccountably, never won.
“I’ve gone into the Travers with some chances before, but this is probably our best chance to do it,” said Mott. “Expectations are high.”
For the next four weeks, they will remain high. Horse of the moment, certainly. Horse of the summer, probably. As people used to write on walls, and maybe still do, Sovereignty rules OK.
Jockey of the moment
We have not seen very much of Brian Hernandez at Saratoga – he is otherwise engaged booting home winners at Ellis Park, where he leads the meet standings on purse-money – but he dropped in last Friday to remind us of what we’re missing.
On just his third ride here this meet Hernandez showed he had not forgotten the way from gate to wire at the Spa, bringing Smoken Wicked clear of his rivals to win the G2 Amsterdam by a nonchalant 5¾ lengths, recording a 101 Beyer figure. It was the three-year-old colt’s Graded-stakes breakthrough for trainer Dallas Stewart.
“I just had to be a good passenger and let him show his stuff,” said Hernandez. “When I called on him, he was there for me. Turning for home he just showed his dominance.”
Smoken Wicked is being pointed towards the G1 Jerkens Memorial on August 23, the day before closing day at Ellis Park; maybe we’ll see Hernandez again.
Trainer of the moment
The name above the door has changed, but other things have not. Miguel Clement has continued the success of the barn run by his late father Christophe, who died in May at the age of 59, and maintained the family tradition of winning the G2 Glens Falls when La Mehana cleared away to win Sunday’s race by 8¾ lengths under Flavien Prat.
Clement snr won the distaff ‘marathon’ four times, and Clement jnr enhanced the happiness of the day by providing the exacta, the favored Bellezza hitting the place spot. Just like old times for the Clement family at the Spa.
“Maybe she’s like French wine where she’s getting better with age, because it’s rare to have a horse hitting top form as a six-year-old,” said Clement. His father, born in Paris, will surely somewhere be raising a glass of the finest vintage to his son’s notable achievement.
What they’re saying
“When we bought him, I gave him an ‘A’ and I don’t give a lot of ‘A’s. He’s an athlete. He’s more like a good running back than a basketball player.”
The unbeaten Ewing is NFL not NBA according to trainer Mark Casse, but will he be the MVP in Saturday’s G2 Saratoga Special?
“This is what dreams are made of. You wake up every morning and you come to work hoping one day one of these horses comes along.”
Dreams have become reality for Sovereignty’s jockey Junior Alvarado
“It’s my first Saratoga winner and a Grade 1 race as well, it’s extra special.”
Irish-based jockey Danny Mullins has won a heap of G1s jump races at home but got a big thrill out of riding Historic Heart to victory in the AP Smithwick Memorial Hurdle
Horse to watch
Many horses fall off the Kentucky Derby trail, but what counts is how they get up again. Chancer McPatrick got back on his feet in the Curlin, fighting hard to win Thursday’s stakes contest by a head under Irad Ortiz.
Last year the McKinzie colt won the G1 Hopeful here and the G1 Champagne at Aqueduct, but this year blew out in the G1 Blue Grass and that was goodbye Louisville. This score snapped a four-race losing streak, earned him a career-best 94 Beyer, and trainer Chad Brown now reckons to concentrate on his horse’s speed rather than his stamina.
“I’m not sure he wants to run further than this nine furlongs,” he said. “I’m leaning towards the H Allen Jerkens Memorial [over seven furlongs], cutbacks have worked for me in that race.”
Looking forward, the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile could be ideal for Chancer McPatrick. Now he’s up and running again, who knows how far he’ll go?
• Visit the NYRA Saratoga website
‘Everybody’s expectations are high’ – Sovereignty rules at Saratoga to enter world Top 5
Spotlight on Saratoga: Now it’s Sovereignty’s turn to lay down the law
• View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires