Think Big on the rise in G1 Jaipur

Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Jaipur will feature the nation’s swiftest grass dashers over 5 1/2-furlongs on Saratoga Race Course’s Mellon turf, all competing for an automatic berth into the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on November 1, at Del Mar.

Named for George D. Widener, Jr.’s Champion 3-year-old of 1962 and winner of the Hopeful, Belmont Stakes and Travers, the Jaipur has been won by such standouts as subsequent top sires Mt. Livermore [1985] and Elusive Quality [1998], as well as modern luminaries Caravel [2023] and Cogburn [2024]. Caravel was a reigning Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner, while Cogburn would go on to be the beaten favorite in last year’s edition of the championship event. This year’s Jaipur renewal drew a field of 10, led by Godolphin’s in-form Think Big, arguably the current divisional leader.

A homebred son of Twirling Candy trained by 62-time graded stakes-winning conditioner Mike Stidham, Think Big commenced his career with four dirt tries, winning one and showing marked talent, but has turned into a force on the grass in the past six months, winning all four turf tries, all at this distance. Exiting a pair of Grade 2 wins in Kentucky over rain-softened ‘good’ ground - Churchill Downs’ Turf Sprint and Keeneland’s Shakertown - with stalk-and-pounce tactics under regular jockey Ben Curtis, the bay gelding now boasts a career mark of 5-0-1 from nine runs. Out of stakes-winning turf sprinter Always Thinking, a daughter of Travers winner Street Sense, he breaks from post 2 under Curtis.

“The turf was always in the back of our minds with him, but when they run well on the dirt, you are reluctant to switch surfaces,” said Stidham, who seeks his first Grade 1 victory in New York since Sutra's Frizette in 2006. “When he showed us he didn’t love certain dirt courses is when we decided to try him on the grass and we haven’t looked back since. In the last race at Churchill Downs, I was resigned to finish second when we were at the eighth-pole and had to make up so much ground, but he switched into gear and finished extremely well.”

Michael Banahan, Godolphin USA’s director of bloodstock, has been equally as impressed with the lightly-raced charge.

“He’s obviously progressed all winter long from winning an allowance at the Fair Grounds to winning his first graded stakes at Keeneland to the Turf Sprint at Churchill on Derby weekend,” Banahan said. “He looks like one of the leading turf sprinters at the moment in the U.S., so we’ll see how high he can climb that ladder. Mike is very happy with him, so we’re looking forward to seeing him run in a Grade 1 race.”
 
Mares have won two of the previous five editions of the Jaipur and said demographic will be represented by Calvin Nguyen and Joey Tran’s swift Ag Bullet, a winner of 6-from-13 who was third in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint against males in November. Also by Twirling Candy, the gray charge has finished third in both her top-level tries, including Del Mar’s one-mile Matriarch in December. She exits a frustrating seasonal bow in Churchill Downs’ Grade 3 Unbridled Sidney on May 2, a race in which she encountered ample traffic trouble, including a sharp mid-stretch steadying. Flavien Prat will ride from post 9.

“She came back in good order and obviously didn’t get the trip we wanted,” said trainer Richard Baltas. “She has been at Keeneland and worked very well since the race, including this morning [half-mile in 48.40], so we just thought we should take a shot here. She ran pretty good against the boys in the Breeders’ Cup, finishing third only beaten a neck. Flavien was the champion jockey last year and the owners wanted to give him a shot on the horse, so we’re going up to Saratoga to give it a whirl.”

Sonata Stable’s hard-knocking 7-year-old Arzak gives it another go, having finished a late-closing 3 1/2-length second to Cogburn last year. A dual Grade 2 winner who was sixth in the past two editions of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, the Mike Trombetta-trained son of Not This Time exits a 4 3/4-length seventh in Think Big’s Shakertown. An eight-time winner, including over course and distance in allowance company two years ago, he breaks from post 5 under Irad Ortiz Jr, who won the Jaipur in 2017 and 2018 with Disco Partner, as well as Cogburn last year.

“The Jaipur has been the plan for him since he ran at Keeneland,” Trombetta said. “We were disappointed in that performance, but we attribute it to the soft turf and the ridiculous amount of rain they had that week. Irad was pretty adamant that he just did not like the footing. He’s been a good horse and they don’t make a million dollars racing without being a good one. He’s a handful and he definitely has an affinity for the girls, so we have to try and keep his focus in the right place.”
 
Gary Barber’s Grade 1-placed My Boy Prince, trained by Hall of Famer Mark Casse, enters off a one-length victory in the local prep, the Listed $150,000 Elusive Quality over six furlongs at the Big A on May 3. The son of Cairo Prince has won 7-of-15 and appears to have appreciated the cutback in distance after contesting five races at one mile or beyond to end his sophomore season in 2024. He worked a half-mile on the Belmont training track in 49.60 on May 25. Jose Lezcano, aboard for the first time last month and a winner of the off-the-turf 2013 renewal on Souper Speedy, reunites from post 4.
 
“He worked easy,” Casse reported. “He's not much of a workhorse unless we put him in the gate. We worked him out of the gate prior to his last race in New York and he worked a bullet. He really came around when we gelded him in the wintertime and I saw a huge difference in him. He can do about anything. He's just a really nice horse. He does appear to be a very good turf sprinter, so we're excited about the Jaipur.”
 
Barber also co-owns Bold Journey [post 7, Eric Cancel] along with Pantofel Stable and Wachtel Stable. The 6-year-old half-brother to Grade 1 winner Americanrevolution has flexed marked surface versatility, including stakes victories over the Aqueduct dirt last winter, a solid third in The Saudi Cup’s Group 3 Riyadh Dirt Sprint and a recent runner-up effort in the Elusive Quality. The son of Hard Spun will seek to give Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott a record-extending sixth Jaipur win.
 
John Terranova-trained Grade 2 winner Our Shot, who races for his conditioner, Gatsas Stables and Steven Schoenfeld, finished a 3 1/2-length fourth behind Think Big at in the Shakertown. He boasts a solid 1-2-1 record from four Saratoga turf sprint tries, most recently a second to Big Invasion in September’s Listed Harvey Pack. Luis Saez, winner of the 2022 Jaipur on Casa Creed, rides from post 3.
 
Another with solid stakes credentials trying to close the gap on Think Big is Hammer Time Stable’s Dale Romans-trained five-time stakes winner Coppola [Umberto Rispoli, post 10], who was fifth in the Shakertown and sixth in the Turf Sprint behind said foe. Kept busy this campaign, he enters off a fourth in the Listed Jim McKay Turf Sprint on the May 17 Preakness Stakes undercard. The son of Into Mischief has finished fourth and 11th in the last two Jaipurs.
 
Charles Matses’ Edward Allard-trained Listed Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship winner Alogon [post 8, Jose Ortiz] enters off a third in the Elusive Quality, while Robert Cotran’s Joe Orseno-conditioned Extendo [post 1, 2007, 2008 and 2011 winner Javier Castellano] steps back up to stakes competition after a pair of confidence-building Gulfstream Park allowance victories. Next Level Stables’ Antonio Arriaga-trained last-out Aqueduct starter optional-claiming winner Vinsanity [post 6, Ricardo Santana, Jr.] completes the field.

The Jaipur is slated as Race 9 on Saturday's stacked 14-race Belmont Stakes Day card. First post is 10:45 a.m. Eastern
 
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