WHITNEY STAKES

(GRADE1)

RICK Violette slammed his right fist down on the ledge of his front-row box and yelled one word – one sharp, definitive, door-slamming, declaration of a word.

“Yes,” Violette said.

Seconds later, Diversify galloped past Violette, home free in the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga last Saturday. In front from the start, Diversify powered home, three and a half lengths clear of Mind Your Biscuits and Discreet Lover in the $1.2 million stakes. Owned by Ralph Evans and his daughter Lauren, Diversify won his 10th race and second Grade 1 stakes.

Winner of the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup last year, Diversify tacked on his third consecutive stakes win this season. The five-year-old gelding, bred in New York by Fred Hertrich III and John Fielding, pushed his career earnings to $1,959,425.

Ten days before the Whitney, Violette said he wasn’t going to the Whitney, factoring in his dominant win in the Grade 2 Suburban at Belmont Park July 4th. Well, the veteran trainer said it but left the door squarely open.

“I’m probably not going to the do the Whitney, I nominated, just as a hedge because it’s falling apart,” Violette said. “The two California horses aren’t coming. Mind Your Biscuits is going to run but you’re not supposed to shy away from him going a mile and an eighth. A million two, ‘Win and You’re In,’ we’ll see.

“I’ll breeze him this weekend, if he’s like crazy, maybe I’ll do it. The right thing to do is wait for the Woodward, I know it, but…”

Four days later, Diversify zoomed five furlongs in :59.06 over the main track as Violette, on his walkie-talkie to his exercise rider, tried to temper it.

“This breeze was scary, he went 46 and change and I said, ‘whoa, whoa, whoa.’ He had gone off in almost 24 and he chirped to him and he went, zzzrrmmm, he was throttled down in 59 flat,” Violette said.

“And was good since, ate up, looked great, energy was up. Every day, he said, ‘come on chicken ----, run. I’m ready, are you?’ You’re supposed to listen to your horse, sometimes, we don’t so well. Today, we did.”

Sometimes, it’s a simple game. Violette listened to his horses and Evans listened to Violette, like always. Violette convinced Evans to buy Diversify for $210,000 at Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale in 2016. The gelded son of Bellamy Road had won twice for WinStar Farm and Violette before the sale.

“Good for you, it took (nerve) to run, in four weeks, because you would have been second-guessed, not by me,” Ralph Evans said.

“Well, you’re the only one that counts,” Violette said.

PASSING THE TEST

Nick and Tris de Meric made it to upstate New York in time to pull double duty – scouting potential racing or pin-hooking prospects and then see a filly they picked out as a weanling, raised, prepped and send off to Grade 1 success do it again after a surgery rehab and more training this winter and spring.

Separation of powers achieved Grade 1 success a second time, winning the $500,000 Test Stakes with the de Merics on hand with owner Seth Klarman and trainer Chad Brown.

The three-year-old daughter of Candy Ride outslugged Mia Mischief through the stretch to win the Test, adding the historic seven-furlong stakes for sophomore fillies to her win last year in the Grade 1 Frizette.

Ridden by Jose Ortiz, Separationofpowers won in 1:22.78.

Nick de Meric, a longtime Ocala-based horseman who operates de Meric Thoroughbred Sales with his family, picked out Separationofpowers and bought her for $190,000 on behalf of Klarman at the 2015 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.

The bay filly grew up on the de Meric’s farm and training center in Marion County before being broken and trained in the autumn of her yearling season.

“We just thought this filly should win the Test when the time comes,” de Meric joked. “She’s just an athletic looking filly, just had that perfect balance and that perfect look.”

Fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar, she came out of the race with an ankle chip that required surgery and more time off.

Separationofpowers rehabbed from the surgery with the de Merics and went to Brown’s string in the spring and again ready for a summer campaign