Friday, August 07, 2009

SARATOGA RACE COURSE NOTES: Friday, August 7, 2009

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird took his first tour of Saratoga Race Course’s main track on Friday morning, jogging an easy mile under exercise rider Liandro Atempa. Trainer Tim Ice said the son of 2004 Belmont winner Birdstone would gallop 1½ miles Saturday morning as he prepares for his next start, the Grade 1, $1 million Shadwell Travers on Saturday, August 29.

“The rider said he looked around a little bit and that he was feeling good,” said Ice. “He was on his toes, and feeling high-spirited. We wanted him to get loosened up and get a feel for the track. Tomorrow, when he gallops, he’ll have blinkers on.”


Summer Bird, who will be making his seventh career start in the Shadwell Travers, finished second to Rachel Alexandra in his most recent race, the Haskell Invitational.

“I think his performance in the Haskell validated he’s a Grade 1 horse,” said Ice. “I didn’t think his Belmont win was a fluke. He’s bred to go a mile and a half, but he can go a mile and an eighth as well.”

Along with Summer Bird, Ice has brought with him a pair of unraced 2-year-olds, Explosive War and Catlettsburg, and 4-year-old Independence War, all belonging to Kalarikkal and Vilasini Jayaraman.

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Indian Blessing, the champion female sprinter of 2008, is set to breeze Saturday morning as she points towards a return to the races in the Grade 1, $300,000 Ballerina on Shadwell Travers Day.

The 4-year-old daughter of Indian Charlie has started just twice this year, finishing second in the Grade 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen on March 28 and fourth on June 14 in the Desert Stormer Handicap at Hollywood Park, the first time she had been worse than second in 14 starts.

“She’s been here a couple of weeks, and she’s doing great,” said John Terranova, whose wife, Tonja, supervises trainer Bob Baffert’s horses in New York. “She loves it up here.”

Indian Blessing, owned by Hal Earnhardt, is 2-for-2 at the Spa, having broken her maiden at first asking on August 20, 2007 by 5¼ lengths en route to her first Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old filly, and returning last year to run off to a seven-length score in the Grade 1 Test.

This week Baffert shipped in a pair of 2-year-olds, including maiden winner Tiny Woods. The son of Roman Ruler will be pointed toward the Grade 2, $150,000 Saratoga Special on August 18, said Terranova.

Baffert himself is set to arrive Monday. On Friday, he will be inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame.

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Not For Silver, who took Aqueduct’s Fred “Cappy” Capossela Stakes over the inner track in February, is being pointed to the Grade 1, $300,000 NetJets King’s Bishop on Shadwell Travers Day, Saturday, August 29.

“I haven’t decided when he’ll work,” said Michael Trombetta, who trains the son of Not for Love for Ted Julio.

Not For Silver also finished fifth to Capt. Candyman Can on April 4 in the Grade 3 Bay Shore at the Big A. Most recently he won the Grade 2 Carry Back Stakes on July 11 at Calder Race Course, rallying to post a 4 ½-length upset of favored You Lucky Mann.

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Marc Keller’s Grand Couturier and Bushwood Stable’s Better Talk Now, the 1-2 finishers in last year’s Grade 1, $500,000 Sword Dancer Invitational, will meet again in next Saturday’s 35th running of the 1½-mile turf race.

Grand Couturier, who also won the 2007 edition, is attempting to become the first horse to win three Sword Dancers. Last year he joined With Anticipation (2001-02), El Senor (1989-90) and Majesty’s Prince (1983-84) as the only two-time winners.

In addition to Grand Couturier and Better Talk Now, winner of the 2004 Sword Dancer, others who have accepted invitations include Americain, Brass Hat, Lauro, Musketier, Quijano, and Rising Moon. Strike a Deal remains questionable for the race.

Darley Stable’s Florentino and G. Watts Humphrey’s El Crespo, first and second in the Grade 2 Jefferson Cup at Churchill Downs on June 13, are expected to continue their rivalry in next Friday’s Grade 2, $150,000 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Stakes for 3-year-olds. Others expected to compete in the nine-furlong turf race include Al Khali, Courageous Cat, Lime Rickey, Midnight Mischief, No Inflation, Out at Night, and Sal the Barber. Herr Mozart, Pinckney Hill and Straight Story are questionable.

Next Sunday’s feature is the West Point Handicap for New York-breds running nine furlongs on the turf. Along with defending champion Banrock, the West Point is expected to attract Extra Zip, Hangingbyathread, Kutais, My Man Lars, North Country, and Pennington. Good Prospect and Red Zipper remain questionable for the race.

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Both of Saturday’s Grade 1 races – the Test, for 3-year-old fillies and the Breeders’ Cup challenge series “Win and You’re In” Whitney – will be televised live as part of the newly launched “Saturdays at Saratoga” series on both MSG Plus and the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN).

MSG Plus and NYRA announced earlier this year that MSG Plus would broadcast live from the historic racetrack on five Saturdays in August and September, beginning Saturday, August 1. MSG Plus' “Saturdays at Saratoga” telecasts provide live coverage of eight championship-caliber stakes races, including the Jim Dandy, Whitney Handicap, Alabama and Woodward. NYRA analysts Jason Blewitt, Eric Donovan and Andy Serling provide commentary and MSG Plus and NYRA co-produce the telecasts.

Last week it was announced that MASN would air the MSG Plus series, expanding the distribution of the program to a seven-state region that extends from Harrisburg, Pa. to Charlotte, N.C., and reaches more than 5.5 million households.

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While Michael Dickinson saddling the first five horses across the line in the 1983 Cheltenham Gold Cup stands by many as one of racing’s finest training achievements, the all-Linda Rice superfecta in the $80,000 Mechanicville Stakes last August at Saratoga was pretty good in its own right.

Although it wasn’t planned, Rice has the chance to duplicate the feat Sunday when she sends out four runners in the $70,000 Finney Stakes, a 5½–furlong turf sprint for fillies and mares 3 years old and up.

Two of the starters are back from the Mechanicville — winner Ahvee’s Destiny, a 5-year-old chestnut mare owned by Everything’s Cricket Racing, and fourth-place finisher Karakorum Elektra, a 5-year-old bay mare owned by Karakorum Farm — a race in which Rice runners connected the dots for a $3,490 superfecta payoff for a $2 bet.

Rice also entered Mohegan Sky, a gray or roan 6-year-old mare owned by Larry Enterline, and Meriwether Jessica, a chestnut 4-year-old filly owned by Patsy Symons, after the allowance races she had picked out for them did not fill.

“I was disappointed the allowance races didn’t go last week,” Rice said. “I never intended to run the four in one race.”

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Godolphin Racing’s Seventh Street came out of her victory in the Grade 1 Go For Wand on August 2 a tired horse but has begun to perk up lately, said Rick Mettee, Godolphin’s North American Racing Manager and assistant to trainer Saeed bin Suroor.

Still, plans to cut her back from 1 1/8th miles to the seven furlongs of the Grade 1, $300,000 Ballerina on August 29 are in doubt. More likely is the Grade 1, $300,000 Ruffian at 1 1/16 miles on September 12 after the return to Belmont Park.

Down the line is the possibility of running the 4-year-old daughter of Street Cry in the seven-furlong Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint rather than the Grade 1 Ladies Classic.

“Do you want to run against Zenyatta?” Mettee said.

Mettee also said Regal Ransom, who has not raced since an eighth-place finish in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby, is in training at Saratoga and being pointed toward the fall meet at Belmont Park.

“He popped a curb (a ligament in the hock) a day before the Woody Stephens (June 6),” Mettee said. “It was nothing serious. He’s had two weeks back. You won’t see him here at Saratoga.”

A likely race for Regal Ransom, who won the $2 million UAE Derby on March 28, is the Grade 2, $150,000 Jerome, a one-turn mile on Oct. 11 at Belmont.

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A field of eight fillies and mares were entered for Monday’s $70,000 Signature Stallions Stakes at 1½ miles on the inner turf. Communique, winner of the Grade 3 Modesty Handicap at Arlington Park last year, and Winsome Ways, winner of two of her last three starts, share co-high weight of 120 pounds. Also entered are Jazz Jam, Zaskar, Queen of Hearts, Avie’s Talent, Borrowing Base and Nicksappealinglady. Dean Henry is entered Main Track Only.

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