Show Court wins Saratoga's steeplechase lid-lifter in Jonathan Kiser Novice

by Brian Bohl

Show Court won the summer meet's steeplechase opener, capturing the $75,000 Jonathan Kiser Novice in the first race of Wednesday's card at Saratoga Race Course.

The Irish-bred 8-year-old stayed off Surprising Soul's early pacesetting run through the first 1 ¾ miles. Jockey Michael Mitchell lightly coaxed Show Court in the seventh and penultimate jump. With the final three furlongs on flat ground, Mitchell edged him away near the quarter-pole, allowing Show Court to outkick Moscato to win by 1 ¾ lengths.

Show Court completed the 2 1/16-mile course in 3:48.72 for his second straight win and second career stakes win, adding to his victory the Carolina Cup Hurdle on April 1. Mitchell registered first his career stakes win at the Spa.

"He settled nicely and got a bit of cover and his jumping was brilliant," Mitchell said. There was a little bit of trouble coming around that last corner and we just had to go a bit wide, but it didn't matter by then. I committed and made my move and he got away nicely."

Show Court, owned by Mark Buyck, Jr., has won three of his last five races for trainer Arch Kingsley, Jr., going 3-1-0 in that span.

"He was a little sharper today coming off his last, which was a flat race," Kingsley said. "We do that with some of these steeplechase horses sometimes to get them more on their toes and to get ready to make a nice finishing kick. It certainly didn't hurt us any. The horse came over to us in March of 2016 and it took him a little while to get acclimated as you can see from his form but once he really got his American legs, he really hasn't done anything wrong."

Off at 6-1, Show Court paid $14.20 on a $2 win wager.

"He has that turn-of-foot where you can switch him off early and save him for that bit of speed at the end, so that helps when you're going on flat [ground] to the finish line," Mitchell said. "It's nice that it was a small field where he's not being overcrowded and has plenty of room to make adjustments into his fences. He's progressing well and going up in company, so that's good."

Kingsley credited Show Court's win to his jockey, the Englishman who won the 2015 Grand National Steeplechase.

"Michael Mitchell is very underrated in this country but he's been a champion in New Zealand and he's got world class skill," Kingsley said. "He handled the horse as well as any man alive could have, so I was very happy with his performance today."

Surprising Soul, Miguel Grau, Macnicholson and No Wunder completed the order of finish. New Member briefly left the course and was disqualified and unplaced.