Welcome to Whitney Week
Real Writing on Racing 💯
🎪 It’s looking like a steamy week at the Spa with temps skirting the 90’s most of the week, Thursday might get close to 100. Stay turned to see if the cancellation police are in effect, potentially causing a card to be scrapped. The highlight of the action this week is the Whitney Stakes (Gr I) on Saturday with Life is Good as the headliner. Also on tap (no pun intended) is the Test (Gr I), the Hall of Fame Stakes (Gr II), the Troy (Gr III), the Glens Falls (Gr II), the Saratoga Cup (Gr I), Saratoga Oaks (Gr III) and Adirondack (Gr III). Not bad at all!
🏆 Two year champion Corniche took all the money in his return to the races; Accretive was well backed in his second race, first against stakes horses; Pinehurst was back racing on American soil off a Saudi triumph and a Dubai drubbing. Yet when the smoke cleared following the Amsterdam (Gr II) on late Sunday afternoon…it was Gunite standing tall in winners circle. Sent off at a generous 7-1, the Gun Runner colt stumbled at the start though quickly recovered under Tyler Gafflione to grab a good stalking position, laying right off the flank of pace-setter Pinehurst, with Corniche chasing outside in third. The fractions were hot, (21.78 - 44.60) and while Gunite was passing that half mile point, putting Pinehurst away, Corniche had already gone into rapid retreat. Gunite braced for the only challenger headed his way, Accretive and the two three year old colts hooked up for the final hundred yards, bumping lightly several times. In the end Gunite gamely held on (101 Beyer) refusing to be passed despite the rapid early fractions, winning his second Saratoga Stakes after taking the 2021 Hopeful (Gr I) last summer. Accretive ran lights out in just his second start with huge longshot Runninsonofagun rallying from the back of the pack to be third. I’d expect the first three to show up at the end of the month in the HA Jerkens (Gr I) on the Travers undercard, as well as Conagher who won the Housebuster Stakes at Colonial on Monday afternoon in impressive fashion (95 Beyer). Jack Christopher will still be the favorite in that spot, which is annually one of the top races of the year (2021 was Jackie’s Warrior vs Life is Good), but this extended weekend’s results showed that it won’t be a walk in the park.
🏇🏻 The Bowling Green (Gr II) Results:
Rockemperor (Ire) - ran well under Prat who delivered perfectly timed ride (Beyer 101)
Arklow - nice return to the races for the old warrior, if the race was 1 3/8 and three jumps he probably wins.
L’ imperator (Fr) - set slow pace, not good enough
Highland Chief (Ire) - prompted pace, no excuse
Cross Border - old Spa lover had good trip but no punch late
⭐️ Prank debuted in Sunday’s 6th and the half sister to Belmont winner Mo Donegal took no prisoners, blitzing a group of well bred maiden fillies by close to 10 lengths. The daughter of super-sire Into Mischief, bolted out of the gate to quickly assume command of the field of nine, flying through sizzling early fractions (21.91 - 45.11) before opening a clear lead in the stretch with jockey Irad Ortiz coasting home on her, geared down the last 1/16th. She stopped the clock in 1:03.94 which was good for a 91 Beyer figure. Amazingly she isn’t the fastest Pletcher debut runner this summer (Munny’s Gold ran a 101 winning at Monmouth first time out in June) but she looks like a future star if she keeps running like she did Sunday.
😧 Majestic Johnson (interestingly enough a gelding) won the finale but you could make a very good case that Steerage should have. The Ray Handel trainee encountered much trouble on several different occasions after breaking a step slow in the NYB maiden $40000 race going 5.5 furlongs on the grass. Bruce Brown will be calling the shots in his next race as he claimed Steerage for Louis Lazzinnaro of Nove fame, though I’d expect a new pilot for him.
🧮 Interesting ROI listing of top 8 jocks after three weeks via NYRA morning line maker David Aragona
🤔 Speaking of jockeys, Jose Ortiz has split with longtime agent Jimmy Riccio and hired Steve Rushing who also represents his brother Irad.
💔 RIP to Vin Scully, an American original and iconic broadcaster. When he started his career the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn and Jackie Robinson was on the team. Citation had just won the Triple Crown. He called Hank Aaron’s 715th home run game. He called the Buckner World Series game between the Mets and Red Sox. He called the Joe Carter game 7 World Series walk off home run. He called the Kirk Gibson home run. He also called the Masters and was the lead announcer when Joe Montana found Dwight Clark for “The Catch”. Most of had never known a world where Vin Scully wasn’t broadcasting sports until he retired just a few years ago in 2016 after 67 years. He was 94.
Day 15 (25 more racing days to go)
No flat Stake on Wednesday at the Shine Again (R) didn’t fill. So we will just give a couple quick thoughts.
Race 1 - Perfect Tapatino - has had some success over the course, last year running second and third in allowance jumping events and this year is coming out of a 19 length blowout in his latest.
Race 3 - War Canoe - 9 year old rounding back into form on the drop. Demand the right price though.
That’s all we got for a slow Spa Wednesday and as the lengedary Harvey Pack would say “Bet with your head…not over it”.
If War Canoe were in the 3rd, as you stated, he would have had a better chance notwithstanding the improper distance and surface.
Charles these dispatches are wonderful. Where do you hang at the spa? I would love to say hello and thanks.