Saratoga Race Course Notes 8.31.16

by NYRA Press Office

• Gyarmati looking to end meet on high note
• Contessa has 'Hopeful' feeling with Runaway Lute
• Practical Joke gearing up for G1 Hopeful
• Pletcher up in the air about G1 Hopeful
• Exaggerator remains on course following G1 Travers
• Ironicus to breeze Sunday before heading back to Belmont

With some bullets still left to fire at Saratoga, trainer Leah Gyarmati is looking to end the 40-day meet on a high note.

Gyarmati's one win at the meet thus far has come with Coasted, who is entered in tomorrow's $100,000 P. G. Johnson for 2-year-old fillies on the turf.

Treadway Racing Stable's Coasted is the 7-5 morning-line favorite in the 1 1/16-mile Mellon turf race. The daughter of Tizway enters the P. G. Johnson following a six-length win in her turf debut in a 1 1/16-mile maiden race August 7.

"That was very impressive, the way she was sitting right there on the pace, and drew off so easily," Gyarmati said Wednesday morning. "I was a little nervous when she was so close to a pretty honest pace, and wondered if she was going to have any kick.

"I expect her to run as she did when breaking her maiden," she added. "Nothing has changed with her; she is doing very well. She is a pretty easy filly to train, because she loves to train."

A familiar face from the Gyarmati stable, New York-bred Wonder Gal, will return to competition on Friday in Race 7, an allowance optional claimer for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs on the main track. Four-year-old Wonder Gal, a stakes winner and Grade 1-placed filly for Treadway Racing Stable, has not raced since finishing fifth in the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie at Laurel Park February 13.

"She had just a lot of little things go wrong with her and just needed some time, so we backed off of her a little bit, but she never left my barn," Gyarmati said. "To me, she looks better than she has ever looked. Hopefully, it will be a good starting spot for her. She is training awfully good. I didn't want to start her right off the bat knocking heads in a stakes, which I've done before with her, because there never was the right race to start back. This race should be good for her."

As a 2-year-old in Saratoga, Wonder Gal finished third in the Grade 2 Adirondack. As part of her 3-year-old season, the daughter of Tiz Wonderful was second in the Grade 1 Mother Goose and won the Empire Distaff Handicap over older fillies and mares.

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The waters will get deeper for 2-year-old New York-bred Runaway Lute, who will make his first start in open company in Monday's Grade 1, $350,000 Hopeful.

On Tuesday, the undefeated Runaway Lute fired a bullet work over the Oklahoma training track, covering five furlongs in 1:00.71, the fastest of nine moves at the distance. Exercise rider Nick Santagata, a former jockey, was aboard.

Runaway Lute is a son of Midnight Lute, the winner of the Grade 1 Forego in 2007 at Saratoga.

"Phenomenal work," trainer Gary Contessa said. "You could tell the minute the horse broke off that the horse kept getting stronger and stronger. He actually went the first eighth in :13, and came home in :47 and change. When he pulled up, he couldn't blow out a match."

Contessa said the seven-furlong Hopeful, which is expected to include, among others, Grade 3 Sanford winner Bitumen, and a dazzling maiden winner from earlier in the meet, Practical Joke, will tell the trainer a lot more about his horse's ability.

"I think the Hopeful is the acid taste for him," Contessa said. "He won his maiden by [12 lengths] against New York-breds; he won a New York-bred stakes, so it's safe to say he is one of the better New York-breds. But now we're going to find out if he is one of the better open company 2-year-olds. The beauty of this horse is he won his maiden wire-to-wire. He got left in the gate second time out, rated, made the lead at the top of stretch, and won by [8 3/4] lengths. He has two gears. He's versatile; he's got a super, super mind, and that is a lot of it at this age. But I do know I'm up against it."

Speaking of great minds, Contessa said his rare white 2-year-old Artic Storm Catis so accustomed to people visiting him at the barn, the gelding has become increasingly chill with all the attention.

The Jockey Club Registry has designated just roughly 170 thoroughbreds as being "white" in color. Interestingly, neither of Artic Storm Cat's parents, sire Bluegrass Cat and dam Princesspatseattle, are grays. In fact, Artic Storm Cat is not the only white horse in the family. Princesspatseattle gave birth to a half-brother by Honorable Dillion this year, who is also white.

Contessa said Artic Storm Cat, an unraced New York-bred gelding, is expected to make his career debut at the Belmont Park fall meet.

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Practical Joke, five-length winner of his debut on August 6, is set to make his stakes debut in the Grade 1 Hopeful.

The cleverly named colt - by Into Mischief out of the Distorted Humor mare Halo Humor - was purchased by Klaravich Stables for $240,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale. He earned an 83 Beyer Speed Figure for his maiden win, in which he ran six furlongs in 1:10.02, and Sunday breezed five furlongs in 1:01.66 in advance of the seven-furlong Hopeful.

"He's doing quite well and we're excited about that," trainer Chad Brown said. "He bounced out of his debut win in good order and had a couple of good works. I think he'll appreciate the added distance. There's always some concern running only one time and going into a Grade 1, it's always a tall order. However, we think he deserves a chance."

Brown, who headed into the final six days of the meet leading Todd Pletcher, 34-26, in the trainer standings, also will saddle Klaravich's Takeover Target on closing day in the Grade 2, $250,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap.

Three of the Harlan's Holiday colt's five victories have come over less-than-firm footing, including his narrow victory in the Grade 2 Dixie in May at Pimlico. Most recently, Takeover Target finished fourth in the Grade 3 Poker over a firm course in June at Belmont.

"He always appreciates some give in the ground, but I'm not sure we'll get it with a dry forecast," Brown said. "But we'll run regardless."

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Todd Pletcher has entered two fillies in Saturday's Grade 1, $350,000 Spinaway Stakes - debut winner Cherry Lodge and G3 Schuylerville winner Sweet Loretta - but his plans for Monday's Grade 1 Hopeful.

"I honestly don't know what I'm doing there," said Pletcher, who has won three of the last 10 renewals of the Hopeful with Competitive Edge (2014), juvenile champion Shanghai Bobby (2012) and Circular Quay (2006). "When I lost Theoryit kind of screwed me up."

Theory, an impressive 5 1/2-length debut winner early at the meet, was regarded as the probable favorite for the seven-furlong Hopeful before being taken out of training and sent home to WinStar Farm in Kentucky.

"The real issue is we don't know why he's not quite right," said Pletcher. "That, to me, is always the most worrisome. He was just slightly off and I didn't think his last breeze [August 20] was as good as he normally breezes. So we were sort of looking for something, we couldn't see it, so we sent him back to WinStar. They're going to do some further diagnostics and that sort of thing. Hopefully we'll get him back in the fall, probably down in Florida, and go from there."

Fact Finding, a debut winner on Whitney Day and among his four other Hopeful nominees, was expected to run but will not be entered. Pletcher said his only other possibility for the race is Sonic Mule, who was moved up from fourth to third via disqualification in the Grade 3 Saratoga Special.

"Thinking about putting Sonic Mule in there, but not sure," said Pletcher. "Also keeping an eye on the Sapling over at Monmouth."

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Grade 1 Preakness and Haskell Invitation winner Exaggerator has been in good energy since his off-the-board finish in last Saturday's Grade 1 Travers last Saturday and remains on target for the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby and, ultimately, the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Classic. 

The 3-year-old Curlin colt returned to training with a routine gallop Tuesday and an easy jog Wednesday morning, said Julie Clark, Saratoga-based assistant trainer to Keith Desormeaux.

"[He was] bucking, playing, acting full of himself as he always does," she said.

Clark noted that Exaggerator scoped with dirt and mucus in his lungs after the race but did not develop a fever and is otherwise no worse for wear since exiting the "Mid-Summer Derby," where he failed to factor as the 5-2 favorite and was eventually eased to an 11th-place finish.

"We are certainly not trying to make excuses for him," she said. "There were some horses sick in the barn and we tried to keep him a little separate from them. Maybe he was fighting a little something off. We stayed on [his temperature after the race] and there's no obvious indication of something amiss.

"Keith feels like his best race, numbers-wise, was the Haskell," Clark added. "That was a big step up for him so maybe it was just the bounce factor. Or maybe he just doesn't have an affinity for these deeper, sandier tracks that he's not really used to."

The Travers was only the second off-the-board finish in eight starts this year for Exaggerator, the other coming in the Belmont Stakes on June 11 where he also finished 11th. His three victories in 2016 all came in Grade 1's - and all over a wet and sealed racetrack.

"There was already enough talk about him being a one-surface horse and now he's taken some major hits," said Clark of the colt's detractors. "But that's alright; he's good, and we'll carry on with him and prove people wrong next time."

Clark also reported that multiple graded stakes-placed Swipe has been retired from racing and entered in the Keeneland November breeding stock sale as a stallion prospect.

A $5,000 yearling selection by Desormeaux, Swipe logged a 1-5-2 record from 11 starts and earnings of $622,630 for owners Big Chief Racing, Fizzy Racing and Billy Shelton. Most notably, the Kentucky-bred Birdstone colt turned in four consecutive runner-up finishes to eventual juvenile champion and Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist in Grade 1 races as a 2-year-old, including the 2015 Breeders' Cup Juvenile.

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Ironicus is set to have another breeze on Sunday in advance of his next anticipated start, the Grade 1, $1 million Shadwell Turf Mile on October 8 at Keeneland, Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey said on Wednesday morning.

In his first work since finishing second to Flintshire in the Grade 1 Manhattan on June 11, after which he was rested to recover from a popped splint, Ironicus breezed three furlongs in 37.98 seconds on the Oklahoma training track on Monday.

"I thought it went very well and he came back good," said McGaughey of Monday's work.

With a 6-5-1 record in 13 career starts, including three graded stakes victories, Ironicus will be going in search of his first Grade 1 in the Shadwell Turf Mile, aBreeders' Cup "Win and You're In" race for the 2016 Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita.

"I have him penciled in there just because I know where it is; it's where I'd like to be able to get into," McGaughey said. "If there was something in New York, I would have run him there, but there isn't."

Ironicus is scheduled to ship to Belmont on Tuesday.

McGaughey added that Onus, fourth in the Grade 2 Ballston Spa,is a possibility for the Grade 3, $200,000 Noble Damsel on September 10 at Belmont Park. Owned by Stuart Janney, Onus won the Grade 3 Commonwealth Oaks last year and an allowance at Belmont in May to start her 4-year-old campaign.

All in Fun had been under consideration for the Grade 3, $200,000 Glens Falls on Saturday, but McGaughey said he will look to the Belmont Fall Meet for the 4-year-old Tapit chestnut filly.

"I'm having a hard time finding a spot for her, but I'll think of something eventually," he said.