Saratoga Race Course Notes 7.31.17

by NYRA Press Office

• G2 Remsen winner Mo Town could make his return next weekend
• Hennig barn looking to pick up steam at the Spa
• Girvin, McCraken likely for rematch in G1 Travers
• Tu Brutus to G1 Whitney, Turco Bravo looks to defend title in Birdstone
• $75,000 Mrs. Ogden Phipps hurdle stakes draws even field of eight

Grade 2 Remsen winner Mo Town exited his bullet breeze last week in good order and remains on target to make his return to the races as early as Saturday at Saratoga Race Course, said trainer Tony Dutrow Monday morning.

The 3-year-old son of Uncle Mo has been aiming for a seven-furlong allowance race in the condition book on Saturday's Whitney Day undercard for the colt's comeback race, his first following back-to-back off-the-board finishes, including a dull seventh-place effort in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial on April 8 at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Mo Town, owned in partnership by Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith and Dutrow's Team D, worked a sharp five furlongs over the Oklahoma track on Wednesday with jockey Javier Castellano aboard, covering the distance in 59.33 seconds, the fastest time of 18 at the distance.

As a juvenile, Mo Town won 2 of his 3 starts, including a 2 ½-length victory in the Remsen in November at Aqueduct to close out his season. He was given time off after the Wood Memorial and returned to Dutrow's barn at Belmont Park in late spring, recording his first work in nearly three months on June 28.

"He had a very good 2-year-old year, he was very promising, but his two races in the spring were disappointing, no excuses," said Dutrow. "He was given some time and he's training phenomenal. He's training as good as I could ever hope to see a horse train. We're hoping to run him Saturday."

Team D's Get Jets, a 4-year-old colt by Scat Daddy, breezed an easy five-eighths in 1:04 over the Oklahoma turf course Monday morning. 

Get Jets was initially under consideration for Saturday's $100,000 Fasig-Tipton Lure, but Dutrow said that he will wait instead for the $150,000 West Point for state-breds on New York Showcase Day, August 25. Both races are at 1 1/16 miles on the turf, a surface Get Jets has relished since making the switch from dirt last October.

In four starts on the grass, Get Jets hasn't finished worse than second in four starts, including a pair of optional-claiming wins and a game runner-up finish to world record holder Disco Partner in the Forbidden Apple on July 15 at Belmont.

"He's been running really good this year and, knock on wood, he's been staying good," said Dutrow. "We're really happy with him.

"I knew when I bought him he had a lot of turf in his pedigree, but he broke his maiden up here as a 2-year-old on the dirt and then he went back to Belmont and ran a couple of good races on the dirt," he added. "We went into his 3-year-old year hoping that he would make that step but he didn't. So, at the end of October, we knew it was time to try him on the turf. He took to it well that day and then we started him back with the intention of keeping him on turf and he's been good. He's taken some big steps every time. In his last race, he faced better horses than he's ever faced and he was in with them."

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With nine racing days of the Saratoga meet already in the rearview mirror, trainer Mark Hennig is looking to gear into action this week, starting with the return of graded stakes winner Summersault in the Grade 3, $100,000 Fasig-Tipton Waya on Saturday's Whitney Day undercard.

Hennig, with a second and third from just nine starters through the first week and a half of racing, was encouraged by the 5-year-old Rock Hard Ten mare's effort in the River Memories on July 9 at Belmont Park, overcoming traffic trouble in the middle of the stretch to hold on for a game second, finishing a half-length behind the favored Apple Betty.

"I thought she ran well," said Hennig. "She didn't get a lot of pace to run at, unfortunately, but she ran. She's always going to be a little bit of a victim to the pace, but she likes that distance. She's run well at those longer distances and she likes firm ground too, so hopefully it doesn't rain too much later this week."

Also on Saturday, Hennig will point recent allowance winner Cursor to the Grade 1, $500,000 Longines Test for 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs.

By Quality Road, Cursor is exiting a 2 ½-length win in a six-furlong allowance race on July 13. With a 2-2-1 record from seven starts, including a second-place finish to start her year in the Any Limit at Gulfstream Park, Cursor's worst finish came in her two-turn debut in a 1 1/16-mile optional claimer on June 1, where she finished a tired fifth, 12 ½ lengths behind next-out Grade 2 Mother Goose winner Unchained Melody, and was vanned off as a precaution after the race.

"Obviously, it's a big step up in class, but the race seems kind of suited to her style," Hennig said. "We kept trying to stretch her out, but we came to the conclusion she might be best as a come-from-behind closing sprinter. If you just draw a line through her long races, she's given very good efforts."

Hennig added that New York-breds Paz the Bourbon will enter for the NYSS Statue of Liberty on August 10 and Inalienable Rights, who won his debut on closing week at Belmont will point to the $200,000 Funny Cide on August 25's New York Showcase Day.

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Grade 1 Haskell Invitational winner Girvin shipped in to Barn 77 on Saratoga's Oklahoma backstretch Monday morning after his victory by a nose over McCraken on Sunday afternoon at Monmouth Park. If all goes well in the next few weeks, the son of Tale of Ekati will make his next start in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers on August 26, said trainer Joe Sharp.

"More than likely, we'll run here," Sharp said. "That is the way we are leaning, but we will also look at the Smarty Jones [at Parx, September 4] and the Pennsylvania Derby [September 23]. We always keep our options open."

"He gives it his all every time, and he did that yesterday," he added. "He never wins by a lot. He likes to engage other horses, he likes to be in a dogfight. [It] makes it fun to be around him. He is a very honest horse, he tries very, very hard. He continues to go above and beyond our expectations."

The Louisiana Derby winner finished 13th in the Kentucky Derby before finishing as the runner-up to Irap in the Ohio Derby. The Travers would be Girvin's eighth career start.

A Haskell rematch could be in the works in the Travers as Ian Wilkes, trainer of runner-up McCraken, who also returned to the Spa on Monday, has expressed his team's intentions to point to the Mid-Summer Derby as well.

"Yeah, I am planning on it, the Travers," Wilkes said. "As long as he trains well, because I'm not just going to run him just to run him. A final decision will be made in a few days after we get him back to the track."

The son of Ghostzapper finished eighth in the Kentucky Derby, but returned to win the Grade 3 Matt Winn Stakes at Churchill Downs in his previous start before the Haskell.

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Winning Move Stable, Green, Saltor Thoroughbred Stables and Pine Stables Chilean-bred Tu Brutus will be entered to run in Saturday's Grade 1, $1.2 million Whitney, said trainer Gary Contessa. Off of a disappointing third place finish in the Grade 2 Brooklyn, the son of Scat Daddy was found to have a guttural pouch infection. Contessa had been weighing options as to where to enter, and settled on taking on tough competition.

"Tu Brutus is going to run in the Whitney," Contessa said. "I wanted to take a look in the Birdstone, but we're going to go for the Whitney. Gun Runner is a good horse, don't get me wrong, but there's a time when I thought Tu Brutus is as good as Arrogate, and if I truly believe in this horse he deserves a shot in the Whitney.

"It's Keen Ice, Gun Runner, War Story, who I think we should've beat in the Brooklyn, and I think for a Grade 1, for that kind of money at Saratoga, this race is a light race with the exception of Gun Runner, and I think it's a good time to try a Grade 1 with this horse, and I know he doesn't mind running the mile and an eighth," he said.

Stablemate and fellow Chilean-bred Turco Bravo will make his 60th career start as he attempts to defend his title in Thursday's $100,000 Birdstone at 1 3/4 miles. The 8-year-old gelding enters off a fifth-place finish against open claimers on Sunday July 23 at Saratoga after being away since May, where he tired to 10th at 1 ½ miles on turf. The son of Irish sire Caesarion gamely beat five others in last year's Birdstone. Contessa is hoping for a turnaround, and names Javier Castellano to ride.

"Turco Bravo won the Birdstone last year," said Contessa. "He's trained as good or better than he did last year, but the light hasn't come on yet, he just hasn't delivered for me. It's like I'm hoping that he's reunited with Castellano, maybe it will bring back that spark for him. Maybe he's hit the wall at age 8, and he's never going to be last year's Turco Bravo, but I'll be damned if he doesn't look or train as good as he did last year, so maybe he wakes up in this race, that's his game, a mile and three quarters, so we're going take our best shot."

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Stakes winners Sarah Joyce and For Goodness Sake head a level field of eight older horses set to contest the $75,000 Mrs. Ogden Phipps steeplechase stakes to open Thursday's 10-race program.

The Fields Stable's Sarah Joyce, trained by Elizabeth Voss, won back-to-back races this spring including the Margaret Currey Henley Hurdle May 13 at Percy Warner in Nashville by 3 ¼ lengths.

A 5-year-old mare bred in Ireland, Sarah Joyce faded to fourth as the favorite after setting the pace in the 2 ¼-mile Iris Ann Coggins Memorial, beaten 6 ½ lengths by Amy Taylor Rowe's For Goodness Sake.

For Goodness Sake is one of six horses coming off a flat race prep, running third in a 1 ½-mile allowance July 8 at Parx. The 5-year-old mare will carry 155 pounds, sharing topweight with Sarah Joyce.

Also running on the flat in their previous starts are Wigwam Baby, two-for-six lifetime over jumps for Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard; Amnicalola, a neck winner of an entry-level allowance June 30 at Laurel Park who will be ridden by Maryland-based Forest Boyce, a flat jockey making her steeplechase debut;Swoop, runner up in the Coggins Memorial for Voss; Fall Colors and Amazing Anthem, a maiden winner over jumps May 20 at Malvern.

Rounding out the field is Lady Yeats, third in the 2016 Springdale Stakes last fall at Camden.