​Saratoga Race Course Notes 8.21.17

by NYRA Press Office

• Pletcher says Outplay's Travers status to be determined Tuesday
• Lookin At Lee wraps up major G1 Travers preparations, Gun Runner turns in bullet work for G1 Woodward
• Fayeq looking to make a name for himself in Travers
• McCraken tentatively slated for blowout Tuesday; Bird Song likely redirected to G2 Kelso
• Euro invaders Erupt, Ross settled in for Travers Day assignments
• Travers-bound Giuseppe the Great galloped, paddock schooled Monday
• Forever Unbridled 'fantastic' ahead of Songbird rematch in G1 Personal Ensign
• Travers contender Girvin returns to track following Saturday breeze
• No Dozing looks to wake up in G1 Jerkens

Trainer Todd Pletcher confirmed Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming and Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit will be entered to run in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers presented by NYRA Bets. Curlin winner Outplay's status will be determined on Tuesday, Pletcher said, adding that Outplay's potential jockey assignment is also a factor in the decision.

"We're definitely planning to run Always Dreaming and Tapwrit and we'll make a decision tomorrow on Outplay," Pletcher said from his barn Monday morning.

Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez has been the regular rider of Always Dreaming through his 3-year-old campaign and has ridden Outplay in his last two races. Jose Ortiz has been aboard Tapwrit in all five of the colt's starts this year.

Pletcher has saddled a pair of Travers winners; Flower Alley in 2005 and Stay Thirsty in 2011. Should he have three entrants in the 148th running, for three separate ownership groups, Pletcher said the possible logistical issues of serving different interests should not be a problem.

"It's really not that challenging. We're training all three horses whether they are running in the race or not," Pletcher said. "The owners are very understanding in these situations. Most of the owners I have also have horses with other trainers, so we've been in situations where I might be running a horse against one of theirs, so it's really not an issue for us. Sometimes it gets a little dicier when you try to maneuver maidens into different races than it is in the big events."

Pletcher said having multiple horses in a prestigious race can sometimes lessen the pressure.

"Sometimes when you only have one, you're hoping you get there, but sometimes it's a little safety net to have more than one," Pletcher said. "But we don't really look at it on those terms. We're just happy that we are fortunate to have three horses who are good enough to be considered for the race."

All three put in their final breezes before Travers Day on the Oklahoma training track Friday, with Always Dreaming working four furlongs in 49.60 seconds in company with Outplay and Tapwrit also putting in a half-mile in 50.24 seconds.

"My main concern was getting those final works in and with the weather being a little dicey, we wanted to get them in on a good surface and we were able to do that on Friday," Pletcher said. "They [came out] of it well and once we got to that point, you just hope everything continues to go smoothly with the gate schooling and paddock schooling and routine gallops."

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L and N Racing's Lookin At Lee had his final breeze for Saturday's Grade 1 Travers at approximately 6:00 a.m. Monday, negotiating a steady half-mile in 50.99 seconds over the Oklahoma training track with exercise rider Angel Garcia aboard.

The move was good for 54th of 75 at the distance. The Steve Asmussen-trained Grade 1 Kentucky Derby runner-up recorded the same drill in 51.59 one week ago and exits a third in the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby on August 5. 

"The work went well," Asmussen said. "I didn't get a time and it was pretty foggy, but he traveled well and Angel thought he went well. He came out of it good and we are very pleased with him." 

It was a big morning for the Asmussen stable, with stable star and three-time Grade 1 winner Gun Runner worked just prior to Lookin At Lee, shooting a bullet five furlongs in 1:00.40, the fastest of 11. Regular pilot Florent Geroux was in the saddle and will have the return call in the Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward on September 2.

"Gun Runner worked super," Asmussen said. "It was more of the same with him. He's on schedule for the Woodward." 

The Asmussen barn has gone 9-4-2-0 in the last week of racing.

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After sending out the last of his workers over the Oklahoma turf course and without a horse entered on Monday's program, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin spent a few minutes back at the barn searching the Internet for the meaning of Fayeq, Shadwell Stable's improving 3-year-old that will make his stakes debut in Saturday's Grade 1 Travers.

It is a question McLaughlin has faced numerous times before with Shadwell horses such as Hall of Famer Invasor and other Grade 1 winners such as Lahudood, Jazil and Tamarkuz and, most recently, with multiple graded stakes winner Mohaymen.

Other than discovering Fayeq is an Arabic boys' name, McLaughlin's search was unsuccessful.

"It does come up with the real good ones. We hope that we need to find out more about it," McLaughlin said. "We just say Fay-ek."

Fayeq continued his Travers preparations galloping 1 3/8 miles over Saratoga's main track Monday under exercise rider Rob Massey. McLaughlin said the half-brother to Hall of Fame mare Rachel Alexandra will gallop each morning into the race.

"He's doing very well. He's ready to go," McLaughlin said. "It's a tough race, we know, but he's just real happy and he's training well, so we're happy about that."

Fayeq has won his last two starts, each under jockey Luis Saez, who will ride the Malibu Moon colt back in the Travers. Both his June 11 maiden victory and 3 ½-length allowance score July 26 at Saratoga going 1 1/8 miles came against older horses; Grade 3 winner West Coast is the only other of 12 projected Travers starters to have faced his elders, taking an optional claiming event in May at Santa Anita.

Unraced at 2, Fayeq debuted with a third-place effort behind Timeline and Giuseppe the Great in a seven-furlong maiden special weight March 4 at Gulfstream Park. Timeline went on to win a pair of Grade 3 races while Giuseppe the Great graduated in his next start and was second in the Grade 2 Woody Stephens and Grade 2 Jim Dandy and will make his Grade 1 debut in the Travers.

"He came in to us late. They took their time with him. We received him October 11 so that's why he wasn't anywhere early on," McLaughlin said. "Then we had a gate issue with him, but he's doing really well and he's come on a lot. It's a tough spot but we're here and we're going to try.

"His first race finished third and he was in the 13 hole. He's run against stakes horses, just not in stakes races," he added. "It's a big step up but he's doing very well and we like him. We're happy Luis Saez is riding him because he's already won on him twice."

McLaughlin isn't concerned with what post position Fayeq gets at Tuesday evening's draw in downtown Saratoga Springs. He broke from post 7 and 4 in each of his two victories, where he stalked the pace before pouncing at the top of the stretch to win by a combined 6 ¼ lengths.

"Post position doesn't really matter going a mile and a quarter. It's a long run into the first turn," he said. "The only probably bad post is if you're 12 or 13 or 14 and you have speed and there's other speed, and you get hung out. There shouldn't be any bad post for us. In this group we might be back a ways, mid-pack."

Alpha gave McLaughlin his lone Travers win in an historic dead heat with Golden Ticket in 2012. Saez will be riding in the Travers for the third time, winning with eventual 3-year-old champion Will Take Charge in 2013.

"It was different when we won it with Alpha. He had a lot more experience going into it," McLaughlin said. "It's a big step up so we'll see. It's a good race. There's a lot of nice horses in it."

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Whitham Thoroughbred's multiple graded stakes winner McCraken galloped 1 ½ miles over the Saratoga main track Monday morning, likely setting the 3-year-old Ghostzapper colt up for a final tune-up on Tuesday ahead of the Grade 1 Travers, said trainer Ian Wilkes.

Wilkes said he'll wait until morning to decide where and how to breeze McCraken, who put in his first work since his runner-up finish in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational last Wednesday over the Oklahoma training track, covering six furlongs in 1:16.23.

"I'll do something tomorrow morning at 6 o'clock [but] I want to see how he eats up tonight, look at him in the morning and decide," said Wilkes. "Obviously, it's something that depends on the horse and the timing of where you're at. He's just coming off the last race and the timing coming into this race, I don't need a lot, but I've got to do something. All you're doing is a light work, setting them up for that race."

With five days until the 'Mid-Summer Derby,' the planned breeze on Tuesday is comparable to McCracken's prerace routine before the Grade 3 Matt Winn, when he breezed five furlongs in 1:00.40 four days prior to his 2 ¼-length comeback win, and before the Haskell, where he finished second by a nose to Girvin following a half-mile work in 49.20 seconds five days earlier.

Following a half-mile breeze on Monday, Marylou Whitney Stable's Grade 2 Alysheba winner Bird Song is likely to pass over a start in Saturday's Grade 1, $600,000 Forego, opting instead to target the Grade 2, $300,000 Kelso Handicap on September 23 at Belmont Park, said Wilkes.

Wilkes has been experimenting with blinkers on the 4-year-old son of Unbridled's Song in the morning, following a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt at six furlongs on July 29, where he cut back dramatically in distance after an eighth-place finish in the 1 1/8-mile Grade 1 Stephen Foster.

Despite breezing four furlongs in 48.45 seconds on the Oklahoma track, the seventh-fastest of 75 horses, Wilkes said Bird Song didn't show the same keenness in Monday's move as he did the previous week, also with blinkers on.

"The horse worked alright, but I may wait for the Kelso," he said. "He was very relaxed today, switched off. I'm just not 100 percent sure where I am with the horse after that work to come into the Forego. It's just where I think I am with the horse and where I want to go with him. I think the Kelso might be a better race for him."

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The first two of three expected European invaders for Travers undercard stakes took to the track for the first time on Monday morning, nearly two days after entering quarantine. Niarchos Family's Francis-Henri Graffard-trained invader Erupt appears one of the expected favorites in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer on the strength of his victory last fall in the Grade 1 Canadian International at Woodbine over the Sword Dancer's 1 1/2-mile distance. 

Both Erupt and Ross jogged on the training track before being rerouted to new non-quarantine barns. While Tuesday plans are not set for Ross - stabled in Graham Motion's barn - French-trained Erupt is expected to do a light canter at 7:30 a.m., according to Aurelian Bellei, the on-site contact. 

Stall Domstadt's Ross is a German-trained son of Acclamation facing the tall task of taking on American dirt horses in the Grade 1 Forego on the same card. Still, the Peter Schiergen-conditioned 5-year-old horse has proven left-handed dirt form, having finished second by a neck in the Group 2 Godolphin Mile in March on the Dubai World Cup undercard. In said event, he out-finished highly regarded American sprinter-miler Sharp Azteca. 

The third and final European invader from as many countries is Irish-based Idaho, who will join Erupt in the Sword Dancer. The Coolmore conglomerate-owned, Aidan O'Brien-trained full brother to globetrotting turf superstar Highland Reel arrives Tuesday and is expected to be on the track Thursday morning after clearing quarantine.

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Grade 2 Jim Dandy runner-up Giuseppe the Great is in good shape after his breeze on Friday morning. The four-furlong work in 48.80 seconds over the Oklahoma training track was his last before his start in Saturday's Grade 1 Travers. Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito, who won the 2004 Travers with Birdstone, will saddle the son of Lookin At Lucky as his 29th Travers starter.

"We went over to the main track today just to go through the paddock, and gallop around. He looked good, he went there, we liked what he did, we were happy about that," Zio said.

"The whole thing now is to make sure he doesn't go over the edge. One day here [at the Oklahoma track], one day there, today he went to the main track, tomorrow we'll stay here, maybe go to the gate Wednesday, and school. It really was a great work, to do that, with all those big horses."

Giuseppe the Great, still in search of his first graded stakes victory through six career starts has been called a professional by Zito. The colt has a runner up finish in the Grade 2 Woody Stephens in addition to the Jim Dandy, and gives the 69-year-old Brooklyn- born trainer a solid competitor on Saturday. The Jim Dandy result and projected field for the Travers doesn't deter his confidence.

"I think it's terrific," Zito said. "I'm happy we hung in there. I'm happy Chad is running that horse [Cloud Computing]. It legitimizes our horse a little bit. It makes him look legitimate, and that those are the horses to beat again. It's funny that nobody talks about Good Samaritan. He was impressive."

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One of the more intriguing races on Saturday's star-studded card is the Grade 1 $700,000 Personal Ensign for fillies and mares going 1 1/8 miles on the main track. A Breeders' Cup Challenge Series 'Win and You're In' event, it features a clash between Fox Hill Farm's Jerry Hollendorfer-trained multiple champion Songbirdand Charles Fipke's Dallas Stewart-trained multiple Grade 1 winner Forever Unbridled. 

The two phenomenal runners have met once prior, when second and third, respectively in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Distaff last fall. 

Saturday's race poses an interesting scenario, as the Personal Ensign may be indeed a personal affair, with only a handful of expected runners. Forever Unbridled, a confirmed closer, may be at a disadvantage compared to speedy Songbird. 

"It's going to be a good race. It'll be a tough race - there's only one horse that has ever beaten Songbird and that's Beholder - but it's going to be a great race, nonetheless," Stewart said. "It's horse racing, so we don't know what's going to happen. Hopefully we just have a good trip and can fight it out down the stretch. She's been training great in Kentucky and working well. She looks fantastic and I don't see anything negative at all. She's won over six different racetracks, so I'm not worried."

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Brad Grady's Girvin jogged a lap on the Oklahoma training track at about 6:00 a.m. Monday, two days after his final breeze for the Grade 1 Travers. Winner of the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational winner last time out, he must prove he can handle the 10-furlong trip of the race in his second attempt. He was off the board after a troubled trip in the Kentucky Derby over the same distance in May. 

"The distance is always an unknown because his trip in the Derby wasn't a fair testament," trainer Joe Sharp said. "Based on his running style and how he finishes and has been training, I think he can handle it. He'll definitely be running from the quarter-pole home and always tries. He's a horse who really wants to win." 

Girvin will be teaming up again with Robby Albarado, who rode for the first time in the Haskell and employed a deep-closing tactic on the millionaire son of Tale of Ekati. In races prior, the nearly black colt displayed more tactical speed.

"I don't really give instructions and I don't think Robby anticipated being that far back either, but Robby knows the horse and he obviously rode him perfectly that day," Sharp said. "He doesn't have to be that far back and I wouldn't be surprised if he is closer this time, but Robby will ride his race. He's a versatile jockey who does his homework." 

Posts will be drawn for the 148th Travers on Tuesday evening. With a large field expected, tactics will obviously be key. 

"I don't think the post is too important with Girvin," Sharp said. "He has the ability to be wherever you need him to be and he's a smart horse. Obviously, we don't want to be stuck all the way on the outside, but also I think he could handle that. He's a horse who gives you confidence."

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Last summer, Lael Stables' No Dozing gave trainer Arnaud Delacour Kentucky Derby dreams with an auspicious beginning to his career. Now, after coming to terms with an early sophomore season that did not go as planned for No Dozing, Delacour has reassessed while maintaining Grade 1 goals for the good-looking son of Union Rags. 

"He's doing great and training very well," Delacour said. "We are going to run him in the [Grade 1, $500,000 H. Allen] Jerkens on Saturday. His last two breezes have been very good at Saratoga and he just worked a half-mile [in 48.79 seconds on Sunday, August 20].

"The cutback to seven-eighths in the Jerkens is probably his game and I think he showed he's more of a one-turn horse in the Pat Day Mile and last time at Laurel," he added. "I was disappointed that he wasn't a two-turn horse on the Derby Trail, but I'm glad he has shown that he is still a quality horse."

Fourth in the Grade 1 Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland and second in the Grade 2 Remsen at Aqueduct at two, the Roy and Gretchen Jackson homebred has raced exclusively in stakes company in 2017, including a victory last out in the seven-furlong Concern Stakes at Laurel Park and three graded stakes placings.