Chelsea Durand Photo

Abel Tasman, Elate set for final tune-ups before matchup in G1 Personal Ensign

by NYRA Press Office

• Motion scores first win of the meet; opts for Sword Dancer as the best choice for Spring Quality
• City of Light on target for G1 Forego; Axelrod possible for G1 Travers
• Trigger Warning locked and loaded for Travers start
• Lukas: Travers contender Bravazo 'going in the right direction'
• Stakes-placed Awestruck to test her mettle in Sunday's Summer Colony

Abel Tasman and Elate, two of the top contenders in the Grade 1, $700,000 Personal Ensign on Travers Day, August 25, are scheduled for their final tune-ups on Sunday morning on opposite coasts.

Grade 1 Ogden Phipps winner Abel Tasman, trained by two-time Triple Crown winner Bob Baffert, will breeze at Del Mar and is scheduled to be shipped from California to the Spa on Wednesday.

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott’s Elate, winner of the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap, works here at Saratoga.

“She’s doing well and she’s right on schedule,’’ Baffert said Saturday of his 4-year-old Quality Road filly, who has a record of 7-4-0 in 13 starts for $2,412,385 in earnings. “If she runs the way she has in New York, we’ll be good.”

In addition to winning the Ogden Phipps at Belmont on June 9, the 3-year-old filly champion owned by China Horse Club International won last year’s Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga – by a head over Elate – and the Grade 1 Acorn at Belmont.

Elate, a 4-year-old filly by Medaglia d’Oro, looks to avenge the narrow CCA Oaks loss in the 1 1/8-mile Personal Ensign, a “Win and You’re In’’ qualifier for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

“She had a good solid work last week,’’ Mott said. “She’s been doing well. We’ll give her a little blowout and get her to the race.”

Owned by Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider, Elate has a record of 5-3-1 from 11 starts for earnings of $1,270,325.

“They were a head apart here last year, so this should be an interesting race,” said Mott.

Baffert won’t have a chance to make it three in a row in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Runhappy Travers, having won with West Coast last year and Arrogate in 2016, but it will be a big weekend nonetheless. The two-time Triple Crown winning trainer (American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify this year) will join NYRA’s Walk of Fame that honors owners, trainer and jockeys that have significantly impacted Saratoga’s history in a ceremony on Friday.

Other Personal Ensign probables are Farrell, Fuhriously Kissed, Valadorna and Wow Cat.

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Motion scores first win of the meet; opts for Sword Dancer as the best choice for Spring Quality

After going 0-for-27 for the 2018 Saratoga meet, trainer Graham Motion picked up his first win in Saturday’s first race and is hoping that will set the tone for the remainder of the summer.

Getting Motion off the duck was first-time gelding Arch of the Diver, who scored by 9 ½ lengths in a 1 1/8-mile maiden race in his first start since September 2016.

Next Saturday, Motion will saddle multiple graded stakes winner Spring Quality in the Grade 1, $1 million Sword Dancer on Travers Day, August 25. Originally bound for the Arlington Million on August 11, the Augustin Stable color-bearer became dehydrated on the journey to Chicago from the Fair Hill, Maryland training center and was scratched.

“I just didn’t feel comfortable with running him in the race,” said Motion. “Fortunately, there was a plane heading to Saratoga from Arlington which he got on, and since then he has looked like he’s returned to his usual self. Obviously, it wasn’t our initial plan, but we’re now focusing on the Sword Dancer.”

Spring Quality won the Grade 1 Manhattan on June 9 in his most recent start, coming from the back of the pack and going eight wide to post an 18-1 upset. He had his first breeze earlier this week for the Sword Dancer over the Oklahoma training track, with Motion pleased by his easy five-furlong move clocked in 1:07.21.

“We only wanted to stretch his legs,” said Motion. “He only went a half-mile and galloped out in five over the soft going. Thankfully everything appears to be in order and he’s acclimated and appears to have returned to his old self since being here so we’re optimistic heading into the race.”

Motion added that plans for multiple graded stakes winner Ultra Brat, second to Sistercharlie in the Grade 1 Diana on opening weekend, remain up in the air.

“It’s unfortunate after coming so close to winning a Grade 1 to experience a setback, but she’s not 100 percent at the moment,” said Motion. “We’ll deliberate her future and decide where and what her next plans will be.”

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City of Light on target for G1 Forego; Axelrod possible for G1 Travers

Trainer Michael McCarthy will be traveling to Saratoga next week for the first time since going out on his own in 2014 when he brings multiple Grade 1 winner City of Light to town for the Grade 1, $600,000 Forego on Travers Day.

Most recently third as the beaten favorite in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita Park, City of Light owns victories in the Triple Bend and Malibu at the Forego distance as well as in the Grade 2, 1 1/8-mile Oaklawn Handicap.

The Quality Road colt, 4-3-1 from eight starts with earnings of $1,000,600, worked a bullet five furlongs at Del Mar on Friday, covering the distance in 1:00.

“Mr. [William] Warren has been wanting to send him east,” said McCarthy, who spent 11 years as an assistant to Todd Pletcher. “We had circled the Whitney after the Gold Cup, but we didn’t want to rush things.”

McCarthy said City of Light would arrive at Saratoga on Wednesday, possibly accompanied by stablemate Axelrod, the Grade 3 Indiana Derby winner who is under consideration for the Grade 1, $1.25 million Runhappy Travers.

“The owner will make the final decision on that in the next few days,” said McCarthy.

Axelrod, whose other graded stakes appearance was a second in the Grade 3 Affirmed at Santa Anita in June, worked five furlongs in 1:01.60, handily, on Friday.

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Trigger Warning locked and loaded for Travers start

Trigger Warning is slated to run in the Grade 1 Travers and is expected to arrive at Saratoga from his home base in Thistledown on Tuesday evening, trainer Mike Rone said by phone Saturday morning.

After winning his first stakes race in the Tom Ridge over six furlongs on May 21 at Presque Isle Downs, Trigger Warning was stretched out for the Grade 3 Ohio Derby on June 23. Going off at 86-1 odds, the Candy Ride colt finished third, just a length behind Lone Sailor and winner Core Beliefs in the 1 1/8-mile route. Returning in the Grade 3 Indiana Derby at 1 1/16 miles on July 14, Trigger Warning set the pace and finished second to Axelrod by a head.

Trigger Warning started his career as a sprinter, with his first three wins coming at distances ranging from 5 1/2-to-6 1/2 furlongs. Brinley Enterprises, headed by owner Jim Thompson, made the switch to Rone, marking Trigger Warning’s third trainer since his debut in August 2017. Once the switch was made, the Kentucky-bred started taking on more ambitious challenges.

“I’d say that’s where the most money is at, going around two turns,” Rone said. “He’s handled the training we put on him. He showed good signs in the mornings.”

Trigger Warning has been training at Thistledown, located in North Randall, Ohio, since arriving from Sunland Park in April. With four consecutive in-the-money finishes, he will now step up to his first Grade 1 in the 1 ¼-mile Mid-Summer Derby.

“I think he’s earned the opportunity, he keeps getting better as we go along this journey,” Rone said.

Rone said regular jockey Irwin Rosendo, who has been aboard for his last three starts, will make the trip to Saratoga. Rosendo has one career graded stakes win on his ledger, piloting Awesome Chic to victory in the 2008 Grade 3 Florida Oaks.

While Trigger Warning has been successful on the lead, Rone said he might prefer a trip where he stays just off the pacesetters before making a move.

“[We’ll] probably lay off it a little bit and try to make one run at it,” Rone said.

Rone, a former blacksmith who won his first race as a trainer 2006, will be saddling a horse at historic Saratoga Race Course for the first time.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Rone said.

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Lukas: Travers contender Bravazo ‘going in the right direction’

Calumet Farm’s Bravazo is “on target” for next Saturday’s Grade 1 Travers and will turn in his final serious move for the 1 ¼-mile race on Sunday morning, Hall of Fame trainer Wayne Lukas reported. It will be his fifth breeze at the Spa, where he has been training since early July.

“I think he's gotten stronger, I really do,” Lukas said of Bravazo, runner-up to likely Travers favorite Good Magic in the Grade 1 Haskell on July 30 at Monmouth Park. “I think he’s going in the right direction. He's gotten stronger and he's really focused. I think he's going to run his best race, I really do. Whether it's good enough, I don’t know, but I think he's going to run his best race.”

Bravazo, a strong second in the Preakness, shares the distinction as being the only other horse to start in all three Classics beside Justify in his Triple Crown sweep.

The Awesome Again colt began this year with a neck victory against conditional claimers at Oaklawn Park before winning the Grade 2 Risen Star at Fair Grounds by a nose on February 17. The colt, who will make his 13th career start in the Travers, has been a workhorse for Lukas.

“He's a strong, competitive horse,” he said. “He enjoys training, but you can't do what I've done with him with many of them. He's thriving on it. I think we’re competitive in there [Travers]. Nobody is talking our horse at all which I like, but that’s when we're the most dangerous.”

Lukas said he believes the Travers will present a different race scenario than the Haskell.

“In the Haskell we were running against one horse [Good Magic],” said the Hall of Famer. “In this race we're running against a bunch of them, seven or eight of them. If we had to run the Haskell over, we’d change something. We wouldn't have let him scoot off the turn like he did with a three-length lead and try to chase him down. That won't work, but that's the Haskell. Forget that. We're back now where we're taking on seven or eight other pretty good horses so we've got to play the cards that were dealt. Coming off the top of the stretch I don't know who the hell is going to be there.”

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Stakes-placed Awestruck to test her mettle in Sunday’s Summer Colony

G. Watts Humphrey, Jr.’s Awestruck will try her luck at 1 1/8 miles as the morning-line favorite in a field of five in Sunday’s $100,000 Summer Colony, restricted to fillies and mares who have not won a graded stakes in 2018.

The gray 4-year-old by Tapit owns wins at 6 ½ furlongs to one mile, including a 6 ¼-length victory in a one-mile optional claimer in May. Awestruck finished a hard-fought second last time out in the 1 1/16-mile Mari Hulman George on July 14 at Indiana Grand, where she set a comfortable pace and hooked up in the stretch with the favored Pinch Hit, who shook clear late to win by three-quarters of a length.

With Awestruck also nominated to the seven-furlong Grade 1, $500,000 Ballerina on Saturday, trainer Rusty Arnold said the connections wanted to give the filly another chance to test her aptitude at two-turn distances.

“She’s a filly we’ve really liked,” said Arnold. “There’s a question of whether she wants to go a mile and an eighth or not. We thought she had her last stakes won but she didn’t quite finish it off. She ran hard. Maybe she just couldn’t beat that filly and maybe she can get the distance. We just want to find out.

“It was a tough decision what to do. I was either going to have to run a little farther or go seven eighths in a Grade 1,” he added. “We opted for a smaller field and a little easier of a race to see if we can get her a stakes win. This is a good opportunity to see if she can get the mile and an eighth. If she can’t, we’ll know that we can drop her back a little bit and have her ready for the fall.”

Installed as the 7-5 morning-line favorite in the Summer Colony, Awestruck will be joined by Moonlit Garden (9-5 on the morning line), second last time out in the Lady’s Secret on June 30 at Monmouth Park; Group 3 UAE Oaks winner Nomorerichblondes (4-1), making her North American debut; Serena’s Song runner-up A Place to Shine (5-1); and Forever Liesl (6-1), who came back from a fourth-place finish in the Lady’s Secret to win an optional claimer by two lengths on August 2.