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Awakened delivers rousing performance in G1 Jonathan Sheppard

by Mary Eddy

Riverdee Stable and Ten Strike Racing’s Awakened secured the first stakes triumph of his career with an off-the-pace score in Wednesday’s Grade 1, $150,000 Jonathan Sheppard, a 2 3/8-mile hurdle test for older horses, at Saratoga Race Course.

Trained by Hall of Famer Jack Fisher, Awakened improved from a game runner-up effort last out in the Jonathan Kiser Novice on August 2 at the Spa to provide Fisher with back-to-back triumphs in this event after saddling Snap Decision to victory last year.

“I was pretty confident, just because I knew he’d like the distance and I knew he’d like the ground being firm,” said Fisher. “I thought he was too far back and it would be tough to get through, but knowing here it opens up in the stretch so he could just wait. It is what it is. You take what you can get. It’s the first Grade 1 win for Riverdee Stables, which I train a lot of horses for.”

Awakened broke from third post position under Thomas Garner and settled on the inside well off the pace set by West Newton, who led comfortably through the first two turns under Stephen Mulqueen with Jimmy P tracking in second over the firm footing. Grade 1-winner Noah And The Ark raced in mid-pack early, but was rushed up into the backstretch for the first time to assume second position from Jimmy P while West Newtown maintained his advantage entering the stretch a second time.

The running order remained unchanged into the backstretch for a final time before L’Imperator moved up into contention, but bobbled on the penultimate fence and lost position to the advancing Noah And The Ark. West Newton gave way entering the final turn as Jimmy P took command along the inside with Noah And The Ark putting in a game challenge in the center of the course and 5-2 mutuel favorite McTigue splitting those two foes from off the pace.

Awakened made up ground with every stride entering the final straightaway under steady urging from Garner, taking command to the inside of Jimmy P passing the eighth pole. The top trio had drawn clear from the rest of the field with McTigue gaining on Jimmy P, but there was no denying Awakened, who crossed the wire one length the best in a final time of 4:32.51.

A resolute Jimmy P fended off McTigue by a neck with Merry Maker finishing fourth another seven lengths back. L’Imperator, Redicean, Caramelised, Noah And The Ark, West Newton and Theocrat completed the order of finish.

Garner said Awakened was professional in victory.

“Look, I was just a passenger the whole way, the horse did everything,” Garner said. “He traveled great, jumped great. I wasn't in the position that I wanted to be in, I wanted to be further forward. I got a lovely run down inside. I haven't panicked, last down the back, which is the last hurdle nowadays, he's winged it. I've been right there. I just had to wait a little bit to get into the straight, I let him open up.”

Awakened made his first 10 outings on the flat for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey and graduated going 1 1/4 miles in July 2021 at Ellis Park before moving to Fisher’s care. Since then, he won a starter allowance traveling two miles on the flat in September at Colonial Downs and broke his maiden over hurdles in his next start 19 days later at Shawan Downs.

Sean Clancy of Riverdee Stable won this event, then called the New York Turf Writers Cup, as a jockey in 1998 aboard track record-setter Hokan. Clancy said Awakened had the makings of a jump horse ever since he broke his maiden on the flat.

“We actually watched him win a mile and a quarter turf race at Ellis from the press box here and I said, ‘That’s a jumper, that’s a jumper.’ So, I had been following him, and then Shug called me and said, ‘You want to do something with Awakened?’ He needed a little time then and we gave him the rest of the year off,” Clancy recalled. “We bought him around August 2021 and we didn’t put a saddle on him. He wasn’t inside a stall from August 15 to January 15. He just had some bone bruising, nothing major. He lived out and he’s just been perfect ever since. He’s a trier and loves firm ground.”

Clancy added that weather will determine if Awakened will make the trip to Far Hills for the upcoming meeting on October 21 after he finished sixth in the Foxbrook Championship Hurdle over yielding footing at least year’s meet.

“I wouldn’t go to Far Hills on soft ground. His only bad race on his form was at Far Hills on soft ground,” said Clancy. “He’s still a novice, too. This was a Grade 1, but there was no Snap Decision, no The Mean Queen, and no Belfast Banter, so this was as much of a novice stake as anything. So, he still has his novice condition and I can still go that direction.”

Awakened, a half-brother to multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Imagining, is out of the multiple graded stakes-winning A.P. Indy mare Daydreaming, who is a full-sister to Grade 1-winner Girolamo and graded stakes-winner Accelerator. Bred in Kentucky by Phipps Stable, he banked $90,000 in victory and returned $14.40 for a $2 win wager. Awakened was a $725,000 RNA at the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

Live racing resumes Thursday at Saratoga Race Course with a 10-race card, featuring the Grade 2, $300,000 Mohegan Sun Ballston Spa in Race 9. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern.  

Saratoga Live will present live coverage and analysis of the Saratoga Race Course summer meet on the networks of FOX Sports. For the broadcast schedule and channel finder, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule/. 

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