Saratoga
Jockey Club Gold Cup (Grade 1)
THE feature race of the closing weekend of Saratoga proved the most dramatic all season.
Contrary Thinking was drawn six of seven and only in the field to set the pace for favourite Sierra Leone, both from the Chad Brown stable.
From the break, Kendrick Carmouche on Phileas Fogg from stall seven rode his horse hard to get ahead of the pacemaker on his inside and cut across, pushing Contrary Thinking into White Abarrio in stall five and that horse then bumped Mindframe, unbalancing rider Irad Ortiz who for one moment swayed over to almost be on board White Abarrio before he fell back and hit the ground between the two horses.
Mindframe raced around riderless and Ortiz was carried off the track to an ambulance before the field had come back round to the point where the incident took place.
Slowly away, favourite Sierra Leone had to move wide several strides in attempting to avoid the fallen Ortiz and travelled last and well off the pace before making a wide run in the straight.
Phileas Fogg had won the Suburban from the front and he made his bid going into the final turn, taking over from the pacemaker as Sierra Leone was pushed along to close from the back.
Antiquarian was the only horse not affected by the early incident and, early in the straight, Antiquarian came on strong and cut Phileas Fogg down. Sierra Leone stayed at it but never looked like overhauling the winner. Phileas Fogg finished third but was disqualified with Highland Falls promoted.
Not happy
Mindframe’s main owner Mike Repole was not happy afterwards, going on social media X saying: “The stewards should not have taken that entry of a horse (Contrary Thinking) who had no intention of winning,” and calling him an “emotional support rabbit” for Sierra Leone.
“The good guys won. I love Kendrick, but it was careless,” he said.
Another of the US prominent owners, John Stewart, engaged in a bit of war of words over the opinions with Repole, who was the Saratoga meeting’s leading owner.
Luckily, neither Ortiz nor Mindframe were hurt. “Thankfully, Irad looks like he escaped anything serious, and our horses came back.
“Sierra Leone went quite wide in the stretch. It was a very challenging trip, but I’m very proud of the horse that he persevered, stayed with it, and still ran a pretty remarkable race,” Chad Brown was quoted on Blood-Horse.
Both first and second now head for the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar, with plans uncertain for Mindframe.
Fierceness bounces back in full flight this time
Del Mar
Pacific Classic (Grade 1)
WHEN he’s good, he’s very good. And last Saturday was one of those days when Fierceness bounced back from a weak effort in the Whitney Stakes at Saratoga, to storm home clear in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar. In doing so, he inflicted a comprehensive defeat on the US second-best three-year-old colt, Journalism.
The win, his seventh in 13 runs, brought the Repole Stable, and Smith/Tabor and Magnier-owned colt’s career earnings to $5,155,320.
The only moment of concern was when Fierceness swerved toward the inside rail after breaking smartly.
Recovering quickly, he was tucked into fourth on the rail, despite impressions previously that he didn’t like being behind horses.
“We got bottled up in behind horses; it looked like he was trapped. I was concerned that he was a little headstrong. I thought Johnny made a great decision when he split horses and let him make his move a little bit early.” Pletcher said.
Journalism was settled early over six lengths off the leaders as Fierceness raced in fourth on the rail.
John Velazquez made a smooth move to the front as they moved into the final bend and, though Journalism also moved forward at the same time, he had five lengths to make up and Fierceness had built up a daylight lead, leaving Journalism with too much to do.
The younger horse never gave up, but this time Fierceness wasn’t about to quit, increasing his lead to three and a quarter lengths at the line with over six lengths back to the third.
Opinions differed on whether Umberto Rispoli had given the second a poor ride. Sitting last early and caught a bit on the back foot when Fierceness kicked before the turn. Journalism has also been beaten the three times he has run over a mile and two furlongs.
Last year, Fierceness finished second to Sierra Leone in the Breeders’ Cup at this track and many felt he had run too fast too early, as the winner’s late run caught him in the stretch.
“We felt like when he ran at Del Mar in the Breeders’ Cup Classic that he ran a winning race,” Pletcher said. “He just was involved in fractions that were a little too fast and couldn’t sustain it at that distance.” How Sovereignty will fit into the mix is still unclear after Journalism’s performance, but this year’s race promises to be something worth waiting for.
Irish-bred winners
Also on the Del Mar card, Irish-bred son of Belardo, Gold Phoenix was back to his favourite race, taking victory by a neck in a four-way blanket finish for the Group 2 Del Mar Handicap and winning the race for the fourth year in a row.
“It’s an incredible story, this horse will now bring us to four consecutive Breeders’ Cups. He’s just a tremendous horse, a horse that you don’t get very often,” said Gary Fenton, representing co-owner Little Red Feather Racing.
There was another Irish-bred winner for many of the same ownership in the nine-furlong Grade 2 Caesars Sportsbook Del Mar Derby on turf when Ghaiyyath’s son The Padre set a slow pace to win by a length.
The winner had won a Dundalk maiden for Josh Halley last January and this was just his fourth run. Phil D’Amato was impressed, saying afterwards: “That’s a real racehorse.”
Hopeful Stakes (Grade 1)
Spinaway Stakes (Grade 1)
THE first two Grade 1s of the season for two-year-olds took place over Labour Day weekend as Saratoga came to a close. Both the colts and fillies’ contests were won by horses sired by Into Mischief.
The seven-furlong Spendthrift Farm Hopeful Stakes went to the Todd Pletcher-trained grey/roan Ted Noffey took the honours in the colours of the sponsors, winning by eight and a half lengths from two colts from the second crop of Tiz The Law, in Buetane (Bob Baffert) and Curtain Call (Mark Casse).
Pletcher said of the colt, now two from two: “You never know when you jump into a race like this with a lot of horses coming off wins, but it was as good and maybe even more than we expected.”
The colt is named after Ned Toffey, the general manager of Spendthrift Farm, who had seen a social media post with the first letters of his name transposed.
The Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland in October is a likely next start for the colt.
Todd Pletcher and jockey John Velazquez were completing a trio of Grade 1 wins in three straight days after they won the Pacific Classic Stakes with Fierceness and Jockey Club Gold Cup with Antiquarian.
The Hopeful also capped a great weekend for Spendthrift, who won the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes on Saturday with the home-bred Tommy Jo, a filly named after the first grandchild of Eric Gustavson, owner of Spendthrift Farm.
The winner again was dominant, winning by six and a half lengths from Percy’s Bar, with over four lengths back to Rileytole.
Saratoga’s Grade 2 Flower Bowl Stakes brought an Irish-bred winner in the Moyglare Stud Farm-bred and owned Bellezza, a daughter of Siyouni, trained by Miguel Clement, who took the mile and three-furlong contest by two and a quarter lengths.
Hawkeye gives game, set and match to Dettori
Kentucky Downs
FRANKIE Dettori was in jubilant form at the big money meeting at Kentucky Downs, playing a guitar in the winner’s enclosure after gaining success on the sole British runner, the James Owen-trained Wimbledon Hawkeye, in the $2,780,000 in prize money, Dk Horse Nashville Derby Invitational Stakes.
The field contained some three-year-olds who had competed in the US classics not trying turf racing and it was Burnham Square, sixth to Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby, who emerged the biggest challenge.
Dettori made a decisive move to the front early in the long straight and also had to navigate the extra ground gained by breaking from post 12.
“I said, ‘Well, if anyone is in doubt about stamina, I’m going to make sure that they are,’” he said.
Wimbledon Hawkeye, a son of Kameko, bred by the Gredley family’s Stetchworth and Middle Park Studs Ltd, stuck to his task in fine style and held off Burnham Square by a head with Hill Road back three and three-quarter lengths in third. He took home $1,109,800 for the win.
Ryan King, assistant trainer to trainer James Owen told Kentucky Downs media team on Sunday: “It’s a question coming over whether they’re going to take the travelling, but he took it really well. Now that we know he takes it, he can come back here, he can go anywhere in the world and pick up lots of money, hopefully.”
Dettori also had a big payday on the Sunday, riding a four-timer and landing the feature race, the $1,000,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint Stakes on the favourite Johnny’s Red Storm.
Special Wan
Another big prize on the Saturday had an Irish link as the Belardo filly Special Wan, who began her career with Patrick Foley, brought her lifetime earnings to $827,598 when she won the $573,500 to the winner Grade 3 Resolute Racing Ladies Turf over a mile for Brendan Walsh.
Bred by Kilnamoragh Stud, and now owned by Team Valor International LLC and Steven Rocco, the filly had won at this fixture last season, she burst through in the final furlong and ran on strongly under Joel Rosario to beat Segesta a half-length and survived a stewards’ enquiry.
European-breds took three of the five stakes on the Saturday card, with German runner Flatten The Curve opening the action with a 5 1/2-length romp over 2 1/16 miles in the $655,000 Bowling Green Gold Cup Invitational Stakes for trainer Henk Grewe and jockey Thore Hammer Hanse.
The final overseas runner on the card came in the six-furlong Grade 3 Mint Kentucky Turf Sprint, another race with a big purse of $1,870,000.
The race went to Bear River, ridden by James Graham for trainer Keith Desormeaux, but Charlie Hills’ Khaadem (Dettori) again pinched decent prize money in taking $89,500 for Fitri Hay.