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Algiers to take his talents stateside for G2 Woodward

by NYRA Press Ofiice

• Algiers to take his talents stateside for G2 Woodward
• Not So Close ready for rescheduled G3 Noble Damsel
• Law Professor set for return in G2 Woodward; Battle Bling targets Twixt title defense
• G3 Noble Damsel, $125K Ashley T. Cole redrawn for Friday

A strong run of form in Dubai this winter from Algiers has English based conditioners Ed and Simon Crisford thinking that the multiple group stakes winner is worthy of a try in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic in November at Santa Anita Park. But should he make the journey to California, he’ll first audition by way of New York when contesting Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Woodward going nine furlongs at Belmont at the Big A.

Owned by Rabbah Bloodstock, Algiers has not raced since finishing a game second in the Group 1 Dubai World Cup in March at Meydan Racecourse, finishing 2 3/4 lengths behind Japanese invader Ushba Tesoro. The 6-year-old Shamardal gelding captured two of the three rounds of the Group 2 Al Maktoum Challenge by open lengths. He took the one-mile Round 1 on January 6 by 6 1/2 lengths before stretching out to 1 3/16 miles for Round 2 on February 3, winning by six lengths.

“Obviously, he ran a super race in the Dubai World Cup but there’s nothing really for him here in England. We wanted to keep him on dirt because he seems so effective on it,” said Ed Crisford. “He had a hard campaign last winter. He started racing around this time last year and went all the way through to April, so we gave him a nice summer holiday and aimed him for the Breeders’ Cup. He needs a prep run for the Breeders’ Cup, so the Ack Ack at Churchill and the Woodward were what we were looking at. It’s a good prep. If you go well in the Woodward, you have options basically.”

Crisford noted that Algiers will have to prove his Dubai success can translate stateside.

“It is a fact finding mission. We want to see if he can handle the American dirt because it is different than Meydan. I do think the New York tracks are more similar to Meydan than some of the other tracks,” Crisford said. “We want to see what he can do against top American dirt horses. If he goes well, wins or runs very well, we can justify going to the Breeders’ Cup. If not, we’ll probably just take him back to Dubai. It all depends on what happens on the weekend.”

Algiers was initially campaigned by trainer Andre Fabre and transferred to the Crisfords following a three-year campaign in France, where he raced exclusively on grass and won three times. He made his main track debut in his first start for Crisford at Jebel Ali Racecourse last January, finishing second going 1 3/16 miles before capturing the Group 3 Jebel Ali Mile last February. He was then a distant eighth in the Group 2 Godolphin Mile last March in his lone off the board effort on dirt.

Following a summer freshening, Algiers was reintroduced to turf when capturing a 1 5/16-mile handicap event in October at York before finishing a distant sixth in the James Seymour going 10 furlongs three weeks later at Newmarket. He was then narrowly beaten in the Churchill over the all-weather surface at Lingfield to round out his 2022 campaign.

“We took him out to Dubai after he came to us from France, where he’d been running on turf. He started to go really well on the dirt, covering the ground super well,” Crisford said. “We ran him in a Group 3 at Jebel Ali and he won. So, we figured he took to the surface really well. We ran him on Dubai World Cup night and he ran OK. After that we brought him back to England, gelded him, gave him the summer off and got him on turf again.

“We ran him on the all-weather and he put up some good figures in that race,” Crisford continued. “When he went back to Meydan, he improved almost 10-15 pounds for running on that dirt, he was just a different animal. The year before training on the dirt, he really knew what he was doing. He’s such a natural. He’s got such a high cruising speed and he can quicken off the strong pace. That’s what you need for dirt and he’s a natural at it.”

While neither Crisford will make the trip to New York, Algiers, who is slated to arrive in New York today, will be overseen and saddled by traveling assistant Les Reynolds.

Bred in Ireland by Godolphin, Algiers is out of the Platini mare Antara – a group-stakes winner in Germany and England, who was also Group 1-placed in England, France and Italy. Algiers has banked $3,026,934 through a record of 21-7-6-2.

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Not So Close ready for rescheduled G3 Noble Damsel

Marylou Whitney Stables’ homebred Not So Close has been reentered by trainer Norm Casse in the Grade 3, $150,000 Noble Damsel, a one-mile inner turf test for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up at Belmont at the Big A that was rescheduled from yesterday to Friday after hazardous weather conditions forced the cancellation of Saturday’s card.

“I kind of prefer it and it’s a little bit better that we got the extra week,” said Casse. “It’s not necessarily the spacing between races, but logistically, she had just come down [to Kentucky] from Saratoga, and for us to send her right back to New York didn’t seem ideal. This works out a little bit better.”

The 4-year-old daughter of Empire Maker enters from an optional claiming win on August 17 at Saratoga Race Course where she made her second outing over the turf after making her first six starts on dirt. Sent to post as the longest shot in the five-horse field, Not So Close led each step of the way in the one-mile contest to fend off the late bid of Chili Flag by three-quarter lengths. The effort garnered a career-best 90 Beyer Speed Figure, and the third-place finisher, Sister Lou Ann, exited to win the One Dreamer on September 7 at Kentucky Downs.

Casse said switching to the grass has allowed Not So Close to move closer to the potential she has shown in her morning exercise.

“I feel like once we switched her to the grass, she seems like she became a better racehorse,” said Casse. “She’s a horse that we’ve been high on from Day One. I don’t really believe in morning glories. A lot of people would say, ‘Oh, this horse is a morning glory,’ but I think if they act like they’re good in the morning, you just need to figure out what they’re good at in the afternoon. We played around with her a little bit and decided if she was going to become a more useful horse, maybe grass was the avenue that she needed to go down.”

Not So Close graduated by 14 lengths at third asking in an off-the-turf maiden special weight last July at Ellis Park and scored her first victory against winners two starts later by eight lengths in a March optional claimer at Fair Grounds Race Course. While each of the dark bay’s wins have come in gate-to-wire fashion, Casse said she does not necessarily need the lead to be effective.

“She’s grown up a lot mentally and in her earlier races, she would run off with the rider and get a big head start so that other horses couldn’t catch up to her, but as the races got tougher with better horses, that didn’t work as well,” said Casse. “Now since we took the blinkers off and started her on the grass, she seems to settle more in the earlier parts of the races. I’m a big proponent of if you have speed, you use it, but if anybody ever wanted to go off in front of us, she could sit right off of them no problem.”

Jose Lezcano has been tasked with the ride from post 5.

Casse also provided an update on Marylou Whitney Stables’ Empire Island, who was scratched from the Grade 3 Pocahontas on September 16 at Churchill Downs. The daughter of Classic Empire, who broke her maiden impressively in her August 6 debut at the Spa, will not race again this year and will be pointed to a return early next year.

“She has a minor injury that’s going to stop her from running the rest of the year, but she’ll be back in early January and hopefully we can start a campaign for her that sets her up for some big races in the spring,” said Casse. “I’m very excited for her and we’ve had a lot of nice horses for Marylou. She stands out as possibly being the best one. Thankfully, she just has some minor hiccups and if she winds up being able to run the way she works, she’s going to be a very talented horse.”

A third-generation homebred for Marylou Whitney Stables, Empire Island’s second dam is Bird Town, the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks and Grade 1 Acorn winner in 2003.

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Law Professor set for return in G2 Woodward; Battle Bling targets Twixt title defense

Twin Creeks Racing Stable’s graded stakes-winner Law Professor, last seen finishing a distant sixth in the Grade 3 Pimlico Special on May 19, will return in Saturday’s nine-furlong Grade 2 Woodward at Belmont at the Big A.

Trained by Rob Atras, the 5-year-old Constitution gelding received a freshening after racing seven times at five different tracks from September through May, including open-lengths victories at Aqueduct in the Queens County in January and Excelsior in April. 

“He went home to Twin Creeks Farm for 30 days and got a real good freshening and came back looking really good,” trainer Rob Atras said. “He put some weight on, which he needed. He'd been in training for a while and shipping around a lot, so I think he needed it.”

The versatile Law Professor, who won the restricted Tapit last September at Kentucky Downs, made the grade in an off-the-turf edition of the 2021 Santa Anita Mathis Mile when in the care of conditioner Michael McCarthy.

Law Professor was a game second in last year’s Woodward, battling with multiple Grade 1-winner Life Is Good the length of the lane and falling just 1 1/4-lengths short. He is slated to face a strong field on his return, including Grade 1-winner Zandon, dual graded stakes-winner Charge It and Group 1 Dubai World Cup runner-up Algiers.

“If we were shipping to face those kind, we probably wouldn’t do it off the bench,” Atras said. “But we get to run at Aqueduct which he seems to like and we've been able to put quite a bit of good training into him. I'm hopeful he'll run a good race.”

Law Professor returned to Atras’ barn in July and has since breezed seven times over the Belmont dirt training track, including a half-mile effort in 48.52 last Sunday. He was scheduled to breeze this morning but wet conditions have pushed the work back one day.

“I galloped him this morning. He's doing everything we need - I was just looking for a light half. We'll probably do it tomorrow now,” Atras said.

Manny Franco, aboard for both stakes scores here, will retain the mount in the Woodward.

Atras noted that Twin Creeks Racing Stables’ Kentucky homebred Harrodsburg is set to resume training after being sidelined with an injury following a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Dwyer on July 1 at Belmont Park.

The sophomore Constitution gelding graduated impressively in his March debut at Aqueduct and earned a career-best 99 Beyer Speed Figure for a close runner-up effort against older allowance company in May over Big Sandy.

“He came out of the race with a knee injury which required surgery,” Atras said. “I was devastated as I thought he had a real bright future. He has a tremendous amount of ability that horse.”

Atras said that Harrodsburg is likely to resume light training in the next few weeks.

Michael Dubb and Gandharvi’s graded stakes-winner Battle Bling was last seen finishing sixth in the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap on July 8 at Delaware Park.

The 5-year-old Vancouver mare captured the nine-furlong Grade 3 Turnback the Alarm Handicap here in November to cap a three-race win streak that featured scores in a $100,000 handicap at Colonial and the Twixt at Laurel Park.

Atras had entered Battle Bling for the main-track only in Saturday’s Grade 3 Noble Damsel, but will now point her to a title defense in the Twixt on Saturday at Laurel with the Grade 2, $250,000 Beldame on October 8 here as a back-up plan.

“We couldn't find a spot for her - the race she won at Colonial last year, they didn't bring back this year. We didn't have a lot of options and we looked a few ‘3X's’ and they didn't go, so we entered for Laurel today for the Twixt,” Atras said. “I nominated her for the Beldame, but that race can come up a bit salty. It is getting close to the Breeders' Cup, so maybe some of the tougher ones might skip it. But right now, the plan is the Twixt.”

Battle Bling has banked $674,317 through a record of 25-6-9-2. She is out of the E Dubai mare Soleil Rouge, who is a half-sister to multiple stakes-winner Bound and stakes-winners Lune Rouge and Road to Mandalay.

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G3 Noble Damsel, $125K Ashley T. Cole redrawn for Friday

With Saturday’s program at Belmont at the Big A canceled due to hazardous weather, the Grade 3, $150,000 Noble Damsel and the $125,000 Ashley T. Cole have been redrawn as Races 10 and 5, respectively, on Friday, with much of the original fields returning for the rescheduled contests.

The Noble Damsel, a one-mile inner turf test for 3-year-old fillies and mares, saw the same field reenter, with the lone defection being Runaway Rumour, who won Friday’s John Hettinger for trainer Linda Rice. Additionally, trainer Graham Motion has entered Staghawk Stables’ stakes-placed Miss Carol Ann [post 3, John Velazquez], a last-out second in the Violet on September 2 at Monmouth Park.

The field for the Noble Damsel will be Fluffy Socks [post 1, Irad Ortiz, Jr.], Gina Romantica [post 2, Flavien Prat], Gerrymander [post 4, Jose Ortiz], Not So Close [post 5, Jose Lezcano], Malavath [post 6, Joel Rosario] and Sunset Louise [post 7, Kendrick Carmouche]. Venti Valentine and Movie Moxy, two of five original main-track only entrants, have been reentered under the same condition.

The Ashley T. Cole, a nine-furlong inner turf route for New York-bred 3-years-olds and up, also saw just one main-body defection as multiple graded stakes-winner Somelikeithotbrown was not reentered by trainer Mike Maker.

The field for the Ashely T. Cole is Kingdom on Paws [post 1, Jose Gomez], Spirit of St Louis [post 2, Manny Franco], Born Dancer [post 3, Kendrick Carmouche], City Man [post 4, Joel Rosario], Barrage [post 5, Dylan Davis] and Jerry the Nipper [post 6, Jose Ortiz]. Un Ojo has reentered again for the main track-only, with Bankit entering for the first time for the main track only.

Friday’s 11-race card will feature a first post of 1:05 p.m. Eastern.