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Dakota Gold seeks back-to-back stakes scores in $135K Lure

by Christian Abdo

Reeves Thoroughbred Racing’s Dakota Gold is primed for Saturday’s $135,000 Fasig-Tipton Lure, a 1 1/16-mile inner turf test restricted to older horses that have not won a graded race in 2023, at Saratoga Race Course.

Trained by Danny Gargan, Dakota Gold was a last-out winner of the $125,000 Hudson Valley on July 3 at Belmont Park, unleashing a late rally down the center of the track to beat fellow older New York-breds by three lengths under returning rider Irad Ortiz, Jr.

The victory going a mile over the Widener turf registered a career best 96 Beyer Speed Figure and was redemptive after a close third in the 1 1/16-miles Kingston on May 29 at Belmont. That effort equaled the number he received in his other effort this year when fourth in the Grade 3 Canadian Turf going 1 1/16 miles on March 4 at Gulfstream Park. All three of Dakota Gold’s 2023 starts garnered numbers that exceeded the ones he posted earlier in his career.

“In the past, when he was young, he’d play around in races. We are hoping that he focuses. If he’d ever focus and really try, and give it 110 percent, we think he’d be as good as anybody,” Gargan said. “Obviously, that comes with time, he’s only four and not raced a ton. We just hope he keeps going forward. His last race was pretty impressive, and I think he should’ve won the race before that, but he got shuffled back.”

Dakota Gold boasts an 11-5-1-2 lifetime record with $680,950 in career earnings. Three of his five wins have come at one-mile, and he is yet to find the winner’s circle at the Lure distance in five tries.

“I think he’s a little bit better at a mile, but this is what we are offered right now,” Gargan explained. “I do think he’s a little better at a mile than a mile and a sixteenth, but he’s training really good and doing good, so we want to step him up and see how he runs.”

Since his last race, the 4-year-old Freud chestnut has breezed twice over Saratoga’s Oklahoma turf training track, where he had worked weekly throughout the spring. He most recently posted a half-mile effort in 50.58 seconds on July 28.

“He came here May 1st and we keep him up here. He really likes it. He loves working on the turf course here,” said Gargan. “He loves being up here, him and I. It’s a good place for a horse to stay sound, the tracks are great.”

Dakota Gold flashed his affinity for Saratoga on debut in September 2021, winning by 4 1/2 lengths in a 5 1/2-furlong off-the-turf maiden tilt. He came back just three weeks later to win the $500,000 Nownownow at Monmouth ahead of a fifth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf as the post-time favorite.

Dakota Gold, bred in New York by Sequel Thoroughbreds and Ron Bowden, was an $83,000 purchase at the Fasig Tipton New York Saratoga Fall Sale in 2019.

Irad Ortiz, Jr. retains the mount from post 3.

DATTT Farm’s Kentucky homebred Smokin’ T, trained by Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, ran second last out in the 1 1/16-mile Cliff Hanger on May 27 at Monmouth Park, defeated just three-quarter lengths by Big Everest, who entered on a three-race win streak. Sent to post as the odds-on favorite, Smokin’ T tracked in a good position just behind Big Everest, but couldn’t get by his pacesetting foe in the stretch. 

“His races are good - in the Cliff Hanger, there was no pace and he couldn't catch the horse in front. He runs good, when he runs,” said McGaughey.

Prior to the Cliff Hanger, Smokin’ T won an allowance race going one mile over the turf in May at Churchill Downs. It was his first triumph of the year after thirds at Gulfstream Park in a March allowance won by multiple Grade 1-winner Up to the Mark, and a $100,000 handicap in January won by multiple graded stakes-placed Wolfie’s Dynaghost.

The War Front bay worked twice on Belmont Park’s turf after his May 27 effort, then shipped to Saratoga where he has worked four furlongs on the turf twice more. He most recently covered a half-mile in a swift 47.55 seconds on July 28. McGaughey said his horse is well-prepared for the spot. 

“I sent him to Fair Hill for a little bit. He came back up here and had a couple works on the turf and I think he's the kind that will fit in there,” McGaughey said.

Smokin’ T is of the Ghostzapper mare Wine Princess, who won the 2013 Grade 2 Falls City Handicap at Churchill Downs and the 2012 Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks.

Hall of Famer John Velazquez the call from post 2.

Klaravich Stables’ graded stakes placed Portfolio Company [post 1, Joel Rosario] enters on the heels of a sharp optional claiming score on July 4 at Belmont. Trained by four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown, the 4-year-old gelding holds a record of 12-4-3-1, with each of his efforts coming at a mile or more on the turf.

The son of Kitten’s Joy has won 2-of-4 starts this year, both at the allowance level in May and July at Belmont Park. Returning rider Joel Rosario was in the irons for both victories, the most recent of which garnered a 95 Beyer. Rosario also rode Portfolio Company last summer at the Spa, finding the winner’s circle in a one-mile inner turf allowance in August.

Portfolio Company broke his maiden at first asking over the Spa turf in July 2021. He came back during the closing days of the meet and finished a game second in the Grade 3 With Anticipation, propelling him to the Grade 2 Pilgrim at Belmont where he missed by a head. The $125,000 Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearlings Sale purchase is in search of his first stakes conquest.

Mrs. T Stack’s Chazzesmee, trained by James “Fozzy” Stack, will make his American debut on Saturday. The 5-year-old gelding has made all nine of his starts in Ireland and found the winner’s circle at seventh asking in January going one-mile over the all-weather surface at Dundalk. The Excelebration bay came back and won his following outing at Naas in March going seven furlongs on turf.

Chazzesmee’s strong 2023 campaign continued with a second, defeated one length, in the Dubai Duty Free Derby Festival Handicap on July 2 at Curragh.

Oisin Murphy will look to engineer a winning ride from post 6.

Team Hanley’s Doctor Davis [post 8, Feargal Lynch] looks to continue his two-race win streak for trainer Arnaud Delacour. The 4-year-old Tourist gelding romped to a four-length victory in a 1 1/16-mile turf allowance on June 17 at Laurel Park, earning a career best 90 Beyer Speed Figure. The win followed a three-quarter length victory in a May allowance at the same distance over the Pimlico grass.

Rounding out the field are Brookdale Racing’s graded stakes-winner Tiz the Bomb [post 7, Julien Leparoux] for trainer Kenny McPeek; Three Diamonds Farm’s multiple stakes-winner Ocean Atlantique [post 4, Luis Saez] for conditioner Mike Maker; Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners’ multiple graded stakes-winner Speaking Scout [post 5, Flavien Prat] for trainer Graham Motion; and Winning Move Stable’s 7-year-old multiple stakes-placed Mid Day Image [post 9, Jose Ortiz.] for trainer David Jacobson. 

The Lure, carded as Race 7, is one of five stakes slated for Saturday’s lucrative 12-race card, which is led by the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney in Race 10, along with the Grade 1, $600,000 Saratoga Derby Invitational in Race 9, the Grade 1, $500,000 Test in Race 8, and the Grade 3, $300,000 Troy in Race 6. First post is 12:35 p.m. Eastern. 

The FOX Sports family of networks will present expansive coverage and analysis of Whitney Day beginning with Saratoga Live on FS2 at 12:30 p.m. Coverage then picks up on FOX SARATOGA SATURDAY which will air from 3-6:00 p.m. on FOX. Saratoga Live will complete the live coverage of Whitney Day on FS2 from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule. 

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