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G1 Runhappy Travers favorite Essential Quality could provide Cox a chance to join elite company

by NYRA Press Office

• G1 Runhappy Travers favorite Essential Quality could provide Cox a chance to join elite company
• Dallas Stewart reminisces on the 2017 Personal Ensign
• Multi-millionaire Firenze Fire looking for smooth sailing in G1 Forego
• Mind Control eyeing third career G1 win at Saratoga in Saturday’s Forego
• Souper Sensational in super shape ahead of G2 Prioress
• Rookie Report: Pletcher primed for more first-out success in Saturday maiden events
• Saratoga Week 8 stakes probables

History abounds at Saratoga Race Course, especially when it comes to the Grade 1, $1.25 million Runhappy Travers. The country’s oldest stakes race for 3-year-olds will have its 152nd edition on Saturday in headlining a stacked card of seven graded stakes and six Grade 1 contests.

The Runhappy Travers – for sophomores contesting the classic distance of 1 1/4 miles, is slated as Race 12 on the packed 13-race card. First post is set for 11:35 a.m.

For the third consecutive year, FOX will air the Runhappy Travers as the centerpiece of a 90-minute telecast beginning at 5 p.m. The networks of FOX and FOX Sports will air 7 1/2 total hours of live racing and analysis on Runhappy Travers Day, with coverage scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. on FS1.

Trainer Brad Cox can join an elite group Saturday if his entrant, 4-5 morning-line favorite Essential Quality, can win the Runhappy Travers. Should Essential Quality earn a winner’s circle trip tomorrow, Cox would become just the eighth trainer overall to win the Grade 1 Whitney and Travers in the same year – and just the third to do so with two different horses after Knicks Go won the Whitney by 4 1/2 lengths on August 7.

The last trainer to pull off the double of the two most prestigious races of the Saratoga summer meet was Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, who saddled fellow Hall of Famer Easy Goer to the sweep in 1989. 

Prior to 1954, the Whitney was run at 1 1/4 miles as a weight-for-age event, and from 1957-69 it was restricted to 4-year-olds and up. Beginning in 1955 it was run at its current distance of 1 1/8 miles. Since 2020, when Improbable won, the Whitney has been restricted to 4-year-olds and up.

Other conditioners to notch both wins in the same year were MacKenzie Miller [Java Gold in 1987], John Veitch [Alydar in 1978], J. Elliott Burch [Key to the Mint, 1972] and Bert Mulholland [Eight Thirty, 1939].

Cox can join an even rarer group of trainers to win both races with two different horses. 

James G. Rowe, Jr. saddled St. Brideaux to the Whitney win in 1931 and Twenty Grand to a Travers score that summer, while John M. Gaver, Sr. conditioned Swing and Sway to Whitney glory and Shut Out to Travers success in 1942. 

Cox will be looking to accomplish a feat last reached 79 years ago when Essential Quality breaks from post 2 in the seven-horse field in Race 12 at 6:12 p.m. Eastern.

“When you can win Grade 1s at Saratoga, whether it’s the Whitney or Travers, it’s always huge to win any of them on the NYRA circuit, period,” Cox said. “To win the Travers and Whitney in the same year; we’ve already had a great meet to begin with, but if we can cap it off with this, it would be huge.

“It’s the biggest 3-year-old race outside of the Triple Crown races, so it would be right up there with winning the Belmont, for sure.”

Essential Quality has already made an indelible mark on Cox’s career, providing him his first American Classic victory with that 1 1/4-length score in the Belmont Stakes on June 5. The Godolphin homebred has won seven of his eight career starts with six graded stakes victories, including a 3-for-3 effort last year en route to winning the Eclipse Award as Champion 2-Year-Old following wins in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity and the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, both at Keeneland.

That run helped Cox earn his first Eclipse Award as Outstanding Trainer, and the Tapit colt continued his dominance to begin his sophomore campaign, winning the Grade 3 Southwest and the Grade 2 Blue Grass before running a competitive fourth in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby in his lone career defeat on May 1 at Churchill Downs.

Undeterred, Essential Quality showed he could handle Belmont’s famed 12-furlong distance, overcoming Hot Rod Charlie’s blistering fractions to collar his rival and win the Belmont Stakes, earning a personal-best 109 Beyer Speed Figure. Getting his first taste of the Saratoga main track, Essential Quality registered a half-length victory in the 1 1/8-mile Grade 2 Jim Dandy on July 31 in preparation for the Runhappy Travers.

“I think he’s bigger, there’s more of him. He’s stronger than he was leading up to the Belmont,” Cox said about Essential Quality’s physical maturation. “It comes with age. He’s still a young horse and still developing. I’ve continued to see signs of progression and that’s why he’s 4-5.”

***

Dallas Stewart reminisces on the 2017 Personal Ensign

On the eve of the Grade 1 Personal Ensign Presented by Lia Infiniti, a race that honors one of the greatest racehorses of all time and the Hall of Famer who was undefeated in her 13-race career, Dallas Stewart remembered a mighty fine mare he had the honor and pleasure of training.

Forever Unbridled was the horse of a lifetime and she made the 2017 edition of the Personal Ensign a race that Stewart, and many others, will never forget.

Charles Fipke’s homebred daughter of Unbridled’s Song and 2006 Kentucky Oaks-winner Lemons Forever, also trained by Stewart, came into the Personal Ensign as the underdog to dual champion and 9-time Grade 1 winner Songbird. 

In the lead-up to the race Stewart said, “It’s a champion we’re racing against, but we’ve got a very nice filly of our own, so we’ll see what happens.”

Forever Unbridled got the racing world buzzing not only by upending the short-priced Songbird, but also by the way she did it. 

She lost her footing when the gate sprung open, banged into the gate, fell far behind the field, and then raced 8-wide while closing like the proverbial freight train under a hand ride by Joel Rosario to catch the front-running Songbird just before the wire and prevail by a neck. 

“It was a great race and what a great ride Rosario gave her. He kept her around the middle of the track and I was like ‘What is he doing?’ But he knew what he was doing. He didn’t get down there and look her [Songbird] in the eye. He just went by her at the last part. She was ready to run a big race,” Stewart recalled. 

The Personal Ensign is a “Win and You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, and in her next and final start of the year Forever Unbridled employed her usual tactic of coming from downtown to win the Distaff. At the same time, she enhanced her status as only the second mare to capture both the Personal Ensign and the Distaff in the same year and was the first since Beautiful Pleasure pulled off the double in 1999. 

Forever Unbridled went undefeated that year and was voted the 2017 champion Older Mare. In her career, the 4-time Grade 1 winner bankrolled $3,486,880 and her record was 18 8-3-4. Moreover, she won on eight different tracks: Saratoga, Belmont Park [2016 Grade 1 Beldame], Aqueduct [2015 Grade 2 Comely], Churchill Downs, Del Mar, Oaklawn Park, Sam Houston, and the Fair Grounds. 

“She was just a really good racehorse. She was full of herself all the time. No matter how hard you trained her you couldn’t get her to...That’s the way the good ones are. They just love it. I mean they love it,” said Stewart.

He also trained her one-year older full sister Unbridled Forever, the winner of the 2015 Grade 1 Ballerina at the Spa. Sadly, Unbridled Forever died March 15 from complications of injuries suffered while foaling a Medaglia d’Oro colt.

Fipke is fond of breeding his mares to that stallion and Forever Unbridled, who was retired in 2018 after her fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Dubai World Cup, has one offspring to date. By Medaglia d’Oro, he is now an unraced 2-year-old.

“I think he’s still in light training. I hope he’ll be coming into my barn,” Stewart said.

Stewart is looking forward to closing weekend at the Spa where he will be represented in a pair of Grade 1 stakes, the $300,000 Spinaway for juvenile fillies and the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup, which carries the bonus of being a “Win and You’re In” for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar in November through the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series.

On Sunday, September 4 he’ll send out Chess Chief for the Estate of James Coleman, Jr. in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, which has been moved from its traditional fall date at Belmont Park. On the closing day of the meet Monday, in the seven-furlong Spinaway he’ll saddle Sequist, a 2-year-old filly he co-owns with West Point Thoroughbreds, Gervais Racing, Charles R. Pigg, and Andres Racing. 

The Grade 2-winning Chess Chief last ran fourth in the Bert Allen at Colonial Downs July 19

“We ran him on the turf in Virginia and that didn’t come out real well,” said the trainer. “He’s had a pretty good year. He won the New Orleans Handicap [G2, on March 3], he ran good in the Alysheba [G2, finished 3rd on April 30], the Stephen Foster [G2, finished 5th on June 26] was when Johnny [Velazquez] rode him and dropped his whip so that didn’t help, but he still finished really good,” said the trainer. “He’s doing really good since and training great.”

To prove that point, Stewart pointed to his most recent five-furlong breeze in 1:00.26 here on the dirt training track August 21.

“He’s a strong horse. He’s an Into Mischief. He’s doing well. He’s five now and we work hard to keep him rolling all the time,” Stewart said. “Hopefully, we can get a big win in him. It’s a great race and it’s a Grade 1 and a Win and You’re In for the Classic, as everybody knows, so we’ll see. Luis Saez is going to ride him and we’re happy about that.”

Sequist made the trip to Virginia with her stablemate and fared better. The daughter of 2015 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist made her sole start a success on July 20 in a five-furlong test.

“I was impressed with her. She had a rough trip. She stumbled out of the gate and a horse took her out a little bit and then she was wide, but she did win. She really finished great. I really liked her race. If you watch the replay, she was pretty impressive, especially for her first time out,” said her trainer.

Since returning to the stable of Stewart, who trained her maternal grandfather Flanders Field for the prestigious but now disbanded Overbrook Farm, Sequist has thrived. 

“She’s doing great. She’s had a couple of real good works and she’s got one more coming up on Sunday. It looks like she wants to run on. We’re looking forward to the Spinaway,” said Stewart, who gave the call to Junior Alvarado.

***

Multi-millionaire Firenze Fire looking for smooth sailing in G1 Forego

After enduring a troubled trip when fifth in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt last month, Mr. Amore Stable’s multi-millionaire Firenze Fire will have a strategic advantage when he seeks redemption in Saturday’s Grade 1, $600,000 Forego.

Firenze Fire will break from far outside post 7 in a Forego field that has drawn five Grade 1 winners, himself among them. Jose Ortiz, aboard in the July 31 Vanderbilt, gets the return call. They are listed at 6-1 on the morning line.

“Unfortunately, last time out he got cut off 40 yards out of the gate and that was the race. You can’t have anything go wrong in a sprint. We have the outside this time. He likes it on the outside, so it’s all systems go,” owner Ron Lombardi said.

“He usually breaks well and last time he didn’t get the best break. Now we’re on the outside so if he doesn’t break well we’re still in it,” he added. “Hopefully he will break on top and then it’s up to Jose to decide what he wants to do, just sit off the lead and make one run at the end or go on with him. He’s done it both ways, so we’ll see.”

The Forego for 3-year-olds and up sprinting seven furlongs will be the 36th lifetime start for Florida-bred Firenze Fire, who owns 14 wins including 13 stakes, nine of them graded, and $2,548,350 in purse earnings. He has continued to thrive at Saratoga following the Vanderbilt, prompting Lombardi to try the Forego instead of just waiting for the Grade 2, $250,000 Vosburgh Oct. 9 at Belmont Park – a ‘Win and You’re In’ qualifier for the Grade 1, $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint Nov. 6 at Del Mar.

“We were going to bypass it and just go right to the Vosburgh, but he’s been doing so great we said let’s give it a shot. We’ve still got six weeks after this race to get ready for that,” Lombardi said. “It came up a tough race, but it’s a great race. It’s almost a preliminary to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. It’s unbelievable. It’s a great, great race and I’m just glad to be part of it.”

Firenze Fire won three of eight starts in 2020 and ended the year running third behind champion Whitmore in the Grade 1Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland. The 6-year-old Firenze Fire began this year winning the Grade 3 Runhappy and Grade 2 True North in the spring at Belmont Park before being beaten a head by Mind Control in the Grade 2 John A. Nerud July 4. Both Whitmore and Mind Control return in the Forego.

“He’s been amazing. I had a decision to make last year whether I was going to breed him or race him, and I decided to keep going with him because I love it and he delivers, and the fans love him. He does a great job and he always tries,” Lombardi said.

“I think he’s better than ever. If you look at his Beyer [Speed Figure] numbers, he’s been running really well. We’re just going to continue, and then I’ll have a decision to make at the end of this year. Obviously, the Breeders’ Cup will play a big part in that, but I’m in no rush to put him out to stud,” he added. “It’s just so much fun.”

***

Mind Control eyeing third career G1 win at Saratoga in Saturday’s Forego

Freshened off a return to the winner’s circle in the Grade 2 John A. Nerud July 4, Red Oak Stable and Madaket Stables’ Mind Control is primed for another big Saratoga effort in Saturday’s Grade 1, $600,000 Forego, which the connections hope will further solidify a future stud career.

The 5-year-old son of 2011 Travers-winner Stay Thirsty ran eighth in last year’s Forego amid an eight-race losing streak that stretched from the Grade 1 Carter last June at Aqueduct to the Grade 1 Churchill Downs May 1. Following that race, Mind Control joined the stable of newly inducted Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher.

“The horse is doing super. He looks fantastic, bright-eyed, happy, carrying great weight,” Red Oak Stable’s racing manager Rick Sacco said. “We’re looking forward to the Forego.”

One of five Grade 1 winners in the seven-horse Forego, Mind Control exits a gutsy head triumph over fellow Grade 1 hero and Forego entrant Firenze Fire in the Nerud, also contested at seven furlongs. He has worked four times since leaving Belmont Park for Saratoga last month.

“We gave him a little break after the Nerud. He breezed a slow half there just to get back into a groove,” Sacco said. “We shipped him up to Saratoga and he breezed an easy half again. We stepped it up a bit from there. He had a good breeze with [multiple Grade 3 winner] Dr Post where they went head up together. It was a stiff breeze, and it was something we needed to get into him before a race like this.”

The Forego will be the fourth start this year for Mind Control, who returned from 3 ½ months between races to run second behind Mischevious Alex in the Grade 1 Carter on April 3 prior to a fifth, beaten 3 ½ lengths, in the Churchill Downs where Lexitonian and Whitmore respectively ran second and third. Mischevious Alex, Lexitonian and Whitmore all return in the Forego.

“The second in the Carter was a good one off the bench. He wasn’t overly tight for that, but he loves Aqueduct, so it was a surface and track he loves. We got a lot out of that race going to Churchill Downs,” Sacco said. “The horse was training as good as a horse can train at Palm Meadows. We expected him to run big and he didn’t. He responded well [in the Nerud].”

Mind Control won seven races including the Grade 1 Hopeful in 2018 and Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens in 2019 at Saratoga for previous trainer Greg Sacco, Rick Sacco’s brother. Mind Control registered Grade 3 wins came in the 2019 Bay Shore and 2020 Toboggan and Tom Fool – all at Aqueduct – and he also ran third in last year’s Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt at Saratoga.

Rick Sacco said Mind Control drew plenty of interest from groups in town for Fasig-Tipton’s annual boutique yearling sale Aug. 9 and 10 as well as its New York-bred auction Aug. 15 and 16. For his career, Mind Control has a record of 8-3-4 with $1,259,229 in purse earnings from 21 starts.

“A lot of stud farms went to look at him,” he said. “He’s a beautiful horse. He’s not overly big and just the right size, but he’s been a sound horse and showed a lot of heart and grit. If we can win another Grade 1 against older horses at Saratoga, that would be three Grade 1 wins at Saratoga. That would really stamp him as a stallion.”

Hall of Famer John Velazquez will ride Mind Control from post position 4. They are rated second on the morning line behind Yaupon [5-2] at odds of 7-2.

***

Souper Sensational in super shape ahead of G2 Prioress

Live Oak Plantation’s Souper Sensational has achieved her two highest Beyer numbers in her last two starts and Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse said she will look to sustain that momentum in the Grade 2, $250,000 Prioress on September 4 in the final Saturday of the Saratoga meet.

The 74th running of the Prioress, for 3-year-old fillies, will be contested at six furlongs.

Souper Sensational earned a personal-best 95 figure for her 3 1/4-length score in the 6 1/2-furlong Grade 3 Victory Ride on July 10 over a Belmont main track rated good. Making her Saratoga debut on August 7, the daughter of Hall of Famer Curlin finished second to Bella Sofia in the seven-furlong Grade 1 Test on a fast track, earning a 93 number.

Souper Sensational, sporting a 3-2-1 record in eight career starts with earnings of $347,203, will return to the same track less than a month later. On Wednesday, the Kentucky bred returned to the work tab for the first time since her last race, posting a half-mile breeze in 47.88 seconds on the main track.

“She had a really good work last time and all systems are go,” Casse said.

Purchased for $725,000 at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga Select Yearling Sale, Souper Sensational has earned stakes black type multiple times, winning the Glorious Song in October at Woodbine and finishing third in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks in March.

Miss Alice Haynes’ Philly Eagles, a debut winner in June at Doncaster in England, has been transferred to Casse’s care and recorded three works this month at Saratoga in preparation for her North American debut in Thursday’s $120,000 P.G. Johnson for juvenile fillies going 1 1/16 miles on the turf. Ricardo Santana, Jr. is slated to ride. 

The Irish-bred Philly Eagles is a Havana filly out of Daliana. 

***

Rookie Report: Pletcher primed for more first-out success in Saturday maiden events

Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher has saddled five debuting juveniles to maiden special weight victories at Saratoga this year and will look to add to his total on Saturday’s Runhappy Travers undercard.

In the Saturday opener, a 1 1/16-mile event on the inner turf, Pletcher will send out Repole Stables and St. Elias Stable’s Royal Spirit, as well as second-time starter Sweeping Giant, a Donegal Racing-owned son of Curlin out of graded stakes-winner Isabella Sings. 

A son of leading sire Into Mischief, Royal Spirit was bought for $450,000 from the Claiborne Farm consignment at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Sale and is out of the Malibu Moon mare Don’tforgetaboutme, who is a half-sister to graded stakes winners Mo Tom and Red Ruby, as well as Grade 1-placed Beautician.

Royal Spirit was initially targeting a maiden special weight on July 31 but scratched when spiking a temperature. 

“He had a little temperature, so we had to scratch,” Pletcher said. “I think he’s trained well. It’s always difficult to win two turns first time out, but the horse is doing well.”

Sweeping Giant will make his second start after finishing second to Limited Liability on July 31. He broke sharply from the inside but took back and tracked a close fifth down the backstretch, angled five wide at the quarter pole and raced in tandem with Limited Liability to his outside in mid-stretch, but could not keep up with the winner. 

Royal Spirit will be ridden by Irad Ortiz, Jr. from post 1, while Joel Rosario returns aboard Sweeping Giant. 

Pletcher could capture the early Runhappy Travers Day double as he saddles a pair of first-time starters for Race 2 – a six-furlong maiden event over the main track in Repole Stables homebred Be Better, and WinStar Farm, CMNWLTH, and Siena Farm’s Steinbeck. 

Be Better, a son of Uncle Mo out of the Smart Strike mare Social Call, boasts a prestigious pedigree as her fourth dam, Likeable Style, is the grand dam of the late champion-producing stallion Scat Daddy. 

Be Better has trained consistently for Pletcher since arriving at his barn from Stonestreet Farm. He recently went five furlongs in 1:01.22 over the Oklahoma training track on August 21. 

“He resembles the Uncle Mo line and has been training forwardly,” Pletcher said. 

Steinbeck, a gray or roan Frosted colt, was purchased for $650,000 from the Hoby and Layne Knight consignment at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton March Sale. He breezed five furlongs in 1:03.62 over the Oklahoma training track on August 21. 

“He’s trained very well, very pleased with the way both of them have trained going into their debut,” Pletcher said. “They should be competitive.”

Be Better will leave from post 3 under Irad Ortiz, Jr. while Steinbeck will be piloted by meet leading rider Luis Saez from post 7. 

Saturday's second race will also mark the debut of Courtlandt Farms' Dr. Perry, a $690,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen.

By Into Mischief and out of the Unbridled's Song mare Not in Jest, Dr. Perry's second dam, Stop Traffic, produced 2013 Grade 1 Whitney-winner Cross Traffic.

Dr. Perry breezed a bullet half-mile from the gate in 47 flat on July 24 at Keeneland.

Ricardo Santana, Jr. has the call from post 2.

Jim Bakke and Gerald Isbister's Jack Christopher, a $135,000 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale purchase, will exit post 5 in his career debut under Jose Ortiz for trainer Chad Brown.

By Munnings and out of the Half Ours mare Rushin No Blushin, Jack Christopher is the 9-5 morning-line favorite and boasts a solid foundation, including a five-eighths breeze from the gate in 59.60 on August 7 on the Saratoga main. His second dam, Blushing Ogygian, produced multiple Grade 1-winner Street Boss.

Rounding out a talented group are Back to Normal [post 1, Tyler Gaffalione], Hoist the Gold [post 4, Manny Franco], and Illustrious [post 6, John Velazquez].

***

Saratoga Week 8 stakes probables

Thursday, September 2

$120K P. G. Johnson

Probable: Expand the Map (Chad Brown), Let’s Be Clear (Brad Cox), Mystic Eyes (Todd Pletcher), Philly Eagles (Mark Casse), Runaway Breeze (Kevin Rice), Sail By (Leah Gyarmati), Silvery Rill (Christophe Clement), Take the Backroads (Tom Amoss)

Friday, September 3

$120K Lucky Coin

Probable: Backtohisroots (John Terranova), Maven (Wesley Ward), Pulsate (Robert Ribaudo), Three Outlaws (Rob Atras)

Possible: Maxwell Esquire (Clement)

Saturday, September 4

G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup

Probable: Chess Chief (Dallas Stewart), Forewarned (Uriah St. Lewis), Forza Di Oro (Mott), Happy Saver (Pletcher), Max Player (Asmussen), Night Ops (Cox)

G1 Flower Bowl

Probable: American Bridge (Jean-Claude Rouget), La Signare (Brendan Walsh), Lovely Lucky (Tom Albertrani), My Sister Nat (C. Brown), War Like Goddess (Mott)

G2 Prioress

Probable: Amendment Nineteen (Cox), Cilla (Bentley Combs), Edie Meeny Miny Mo (Miguel Vera), Souper Sensational (Mark Casse), Summer Brew (Jorge Abreu)

Possible: Obligatory (Bill Mott), Ova Charged (Jose Camejo), Oxana (Timothy Hills)

G3 Saranac

Probable: Annex (Mott), Founder (C. Brown), He’spuregold (Kelly Breen), Like the King (Ward), Mohs (Patrick McBurney), Original (Terranova), Public Sector (C. Brown)

Sunday, September 5

G1 Spinaway

Probable: Benbang (Jonathan Thomas), Dream Lith (Robertino Diodoro), Echo Zulu (Asmussen), Microbiome (Amoss), Pretty Birdie (Norm Casse), Saucy Lady T (James Chapman), Sequist (Dallas Stewart), Sue Ellen Mishkin (Abreu)

Monday, September 6

G1 Hopeful

Probable: American Xperiment (Asmussen), Headline Report (Ward), Power Agenda (Pletcher), Wit (Pletcher)

Possible: Defend (Cathal Lynch)