Vandy and the Dandy
Real Writing on Racing 💯
It was HOT at the old Spa on Friday but the bright side was that the races were actually run and not cancelled like many of the other east coast venues. Those of the nebulous 25,119 that remained for the feature race of the day, the Amsterdam, saw an entirely different sort of heat that had many veteran racing dignitaries swooning in its aftermath. Plus it was a rare double Ortiz brothers shutout afternoon with an interesting mix of long shots and chalk.
🥵 The steamy day started off with Finger Lakes invader, Bustin Away going wire to wire to take down the 2yo NY bred MSW going 6f on the main track. Mike Ferraro has been successfully training for a long time out in western New York but rarely ventures a few hours East to take a shot at the Spa. This season he has taken a few more rides to the Spa and this Bustin Stones gelding was his first winner, rewarding him and owner Micheal Di Tomasso with a $48,400 payday, a nice ROI for their $8k yearling buy. Under Finger Lakes regular Keiber Coa, the chestnut gelding broke so fast that a minor stumble was immediately recovered from, shot to the front, took steady pressure from Weaver first timer and post time favorite, Aggelos the Great, and grimly held on to register a head victory over Mischief Joke, returning $29.40 to his backers.
🏅Race three was a super competitive maiden $75000 claiming race for older fillies and mares going a mile on the inner turf. The Chad Brown duo of St Benedict’s Prep and Lookinforbargains was sent off the slight post time favorite at 2.20-1 but many other contenders were all under 10-1. One of those was River Tay (Ire), trained by the “other Brown”, Bruce and ridden by Katie Davis who was breaking from post eight. Davis set the filly up in a stalking position in 4th down the backside behind a tepid pace set by Ellis Park invader Nursekringledances. River Tay (Ire) moved up while three wide at the top of the stretch and looked to have a very short lead as the field fanned out at the top of the stretch. Davis fumbled her whip mid-stretch, endured a few brushes with Volatility and held the field safe in the final 50 yards under a vigorous hand ride to get the W by a neck. It was the first Saratoga win for Davis and a nice training job by Brown who haltered the US Navy Flag filly from Wesley Ward for 40k in early June. *Hear from Katie Davis on her first Saratoga victory HERE.
🤬 The sixth, a MSW for older horses going 11 furlongs on the inner turf turned out to be a wild affair. Post time favorite Swore was bodychecked 100 feet from the wire by longtime leader Smart Uncle, when appearing to be making the winning move, allowing Faraday to sneak up the inside and grab the money under JJ Castellano. The three year old son of Ghostzapper was making his second start, first since last October, adding blinkers and subtracting testicles for Chad Brown. He himself had to endure traffic issues, swerving to the inside mid-stretch to find room on the rail, though he was likely going to settle for the runner up spot without the assistance from Jose Ortiz and Smart Uncle.
😳 Race 7 had another horse that appeared to be rallying on the outside of the grass course to win before being sidetracked but this time it was self induced. City Mischief with Irad aboard for the elder Casse, was charging down the lane after a blazing pace had cooked the pace setters in the 5.5 furlong NY bred NW1x allowance race. He then abruptly bobbles twice inside the last sixteenth, causing Ortiz’ foot to become dislodged from his iron, Irad almost falling off in the process. Irad amazingly recovered in a heartbeat and City Mischief just got up for second in the last jump, the final 1/2 length margin behind winner Disarmed almost assuredly would have been made up without the stumble. Alas the winner did win, the Maclean’s Music colt giving Rudy Rodriguez his second on the day. Finger Lakes shipper Honor Among Men, who ran huge in defeat, checked in third.
☄️The Amsterdam went with five after the scratch of Joey Freshwater who is re-entered in a softer spot this weekend. On paper it looked like a potential three way speed duel between favored Drew’s Gold from the rail, Ryvit (winner of 5 in a row) from post four and undefeated but first time dirt runner New York Thunder from the outside. When Ryvit stumbled leaving the gate it turned into a two horse duel and when New York Thunder cleared to the lead and got to the rail, there wasn’t a duel at all. Tyler Gafflione didn’t even try to slow the Nyquist colt down on the lead, it was a gaudy display of pure speed cutting insane fractions of 21.48 and 43.56, while opening up on the field turning for home. Despite not changing to the proper lead till deep stretch, New York Thunder passed the six furlong marker in 107.77 and in doing so had just annihilated what looked to be a strong field of three year old sprinters, taken in hand late crossing the wire in a final time of 1:14.65. After Echo Zulu blitzed the Honorable Miss field on Wednesday earning a seasons best Beyer of 112, it will be interesting to see what this fig comes back. The Time Lord, Craig Milkowski of TimeformUS reported that his TFUS fig was a 134 which is the fastest figure they have recorded this year, topping the legend that is Repo Rocks 131 from his “emergence” back in January and Echo Zulu’s ~133 on Wednesday. It’s hard to not be a bit skeptical when you see performances like this these days but New York Thunder made really good three year old sprinters Drew’s Gold and Ryvit wilt after chasing him…and that’s not something that I think anyone expected to see.
🆓 Click HERE for free DRF formulater PP’s for the Jim Dandy
🤷🏼♂️ Several scary incidents with jockeys this week have been botched by track and medical personnel and it’s not really acceptable. Read Ron Flatter’s piece from HRN on this issue HERE.
🏇🏻 I demand that you checkout todays edition of the Saratoga Special as it’s simply good for your mental health.
The Going in Circles Digest Barry ‘Sniper’ Spears play of day for Saratoga
Vanderbilt (Gr I) $350,000 3&up 6 furlongs dirt
Gun It - no relation to Gunite though Asmussen did train till claimed away this spring by the Rice win factory. Linda has been waving a magic wand at the Spa thus far but even her wizardry isn’t likely to be enough to threaten the marquee names in here.
Synthesis - displays a late closing style that is likely to not fare well against this breed of cat.
Awesome Aaron - not sure why owner-trainer Troy Green thought this would be a neat spot to ship up to Saratoga for but he is here and he will most likely ensure that a decent early pace develops and I’m sure Mr Mott is appreciative of this.
Elite Power - paired - 5.5 TG’s. No one in the country outside of barnmate Cody’s Wish can pump out figures like that and he will be watching this from the comfy confines of his stall awaiting next Saturday’s Whitney (Gr I). The only worry might be the 6f distance but there doesn’t appear to be anyone that can just run the field off its feet like what happened in the Amsterdam.
Gunite - in great form and would be a huge favorite if not for the presence of Elite Power. Won the Amsterdam (Gr II) over this surface last year and always shows up but has to figure out how to make up a few lengths on EP.
Dean Delivers - hard knocker that always shows up is in excellent form shipping up from south Florida on a two race win streak. Adds to the early pace scene.
Little Vic - another that figures to contribute to the early pace but hasn’t shown the ability needed that would allow him to take down Elite Power or Gunite.
Jim Dandy (Gr II) $500,000 3yo 9 furlongs
Disarm - has shown steady improvement since getting a tardy start on the Derby trail earlier this spring. Tough to figure exactly what the plan is in this relatively paceless affair which is pretty much what you can say about four of the five as Saudi Crown has to be going to the lead. He has shown an affinity for saving ground so post one is better for him than any other and has a nice developing TG pattern suggesting that he will run a new lifetime top here…but will it be good enough anyway? Tough call in an inscrutable Jim Dandy.
Forte - all eyes on Forte and his newly added blinkers especially coming on the heels of his demonstrative owner making some foreboding statements about the status of his participation in the game earlier in the week. Obviously Pletcher is trying to get the Violence colt involved earlier in races, perhaps sharpening his speed so that he isn’t left with so much to do late. Will it work especially in light of the absence of early speed outside of Saudi Crown? On figs he isn’t consistently faster than anyone in this group and will likely need to improve to win, which is the case with the entire field…but he will likely be the shortest price. Tough horse to use with a lot of confidence at a short price with so many unknowns.
Hit Show - his two triple crown appearances weren’t bad races, he appears to be cycling to a lifetime best and will likely be the longest price in the field. However like most of the rest, he doesn’t possess much early foot and what manner of trip can we expect for him under Luis Saez?
Saudi Crown - semi-surprise last minute entrant should be on the loosest of leads moving up to face the top of three year old division. Cox has two others here that need some pace to run at and the big question is what is he in here for? To be a pace maker for his more established stablemates or are they simply trying to go wire to wire in a completely pace less race? If I wager on this race it’s most likely that it will be on this son of Always Dreaming to bottom the field out on the lead
Angel of Empire - ran well in the Derby before an absurdly wide ride in the Belmont doomed his chances, he is a one run closer in an race with little pace which usually isn’t a good thing and it’s hard to figure him to be anything other than last coming out of the first turn.
We often show the namesake of the days stakes race in action as our video of the day and today we have topped them all with this rare film of Jim Dandy at 100-1 upsetting the great Gallant Fox in the 1930 Travers. Big crowd and short field show the more things change, the more they stay the same. Click here to watch.
Ah, another angle; "adding blinkers and subtracting testicles." I shall now consider such information as something to think about when the occasion presents itself and bet accordingly.