Saratoga

Jockey Club Gold (Grade 1)

WHERE he stands in the ranks of great horses will remain under dispute but with each passing week, it looks as if success in the Breeders’ Cup Classic is well within City Of Troy’s grasp.

What is certain after the two Grade 1s for the top older horses on both coasts last week, is that he will be facing a weak bunch of American older dirt horses as both races were won by outsiders.

At Saratoga, the Grade 1 $1,000,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup went to Brad Cox and Godolphin with Highland Falls, a four-year-old by Curlin, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic 2007.

The favourite Arthur’s Ride, who had won the Grade 1 Whitney in great style, bombed out, finishing a tired fifth.

As expected, that son of Tapit had moved to a lead from the outside post in the field of seven. But he was soon pressed by Highland Falls and the two went stride for stride down the backstretch, through six furlongs in a decent clip of 1m11.31secs. Turning in, it was obvious that Arthur’s Ride was in trouble and Highland Falls drew clear. Pyrenees stayed on to go second in the final yards but four lengths back.

Handle the distance

“I thought if one horse could handle the distance it was him,” said Prat, who notched a record 13th graded stakes win at the meet.

“We wanted to break running and then try to make it a good pace. I was proud of the effort today. We always thought he was a mile-and-a-quarter horse. We gave him a shot (Santa Anita Handicap, fourth) and he really didn’t get involved. He probably lacked the seasoning,” his trainer Brad Cox said.

“We were hoping he would be a Kentucky Derby horse but he was late developing. So, we had to give him time and he had to learn on the job to get here. But it paid off,” said Michael Banahan, Godolphin’s director of bloodstock was quoted on Blood-Horse. “We bred him to win races like this.”

The aim is obviously the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Banahan adding: “Del Mar may be different, but we’ll go there with a big bat and take a swing.”

Bill Mott had no excuse for his beaten favourite: “The other horse took it to us, dogged us the whole way and beat us. He put us away. The horse ran hard last time and now we have 60 days to regroup before the Breeders’ Cup. Hopefully he comes back well and we can train for it.”

It was a meet-record 17th stakes race win at Saratoga for Flavien Prat who also then won the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes on the last day.

Brown surprise

There was a surprise win in the Grade 2 Flower Bowl Stakes when the Chad Brown stable second-string Idea Generation, an Irish-bred daughter of Dubawi, made all the running under a good ride from Florent Geroux.

Expected to be the pacemaker for more fancied McKulick, both owned by Klaravich Stables, they took advantage of being allowed to dictate.

“I knew right away. When I looked at the board first time around and I saw (:26.08) and we were six or seven lengths ahead, you make a mental note,” winning rider Geroux said. “I gave her another push to the three-eighths pole and the race was pretty much over after that.”

The now seven-year-old War Like Goddess put up a good effort, coming with her late run but had too much to do and fell a length and a half short with McKulick two lengths further back.

War Like Goddess’s trainer Bill Mott said: “(She) ran great when she got out .... They think Chad is in there with a rabbit, which he was, but he’s done this before.”

The Grade 3 for three-year-old fillies saw Brightwork, last year’s Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes winner, get her first win on the board after she had been scratched from the August 3rd Grade 1 Test Stakes after falling in the paddock.

Two Sharp made the early running but when Brightwork held a half-length lead at the eighth pole, she had to fight all the way to the wire to defeat Two Sharp by a neck in 1m10.86secs for the six furlongs.

Chancer collect top two-year-old prize

SARATOGA ended with the first Grade 1 juvenile contests and the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes on Monday saw Chancer McPatrick becomes the first stakes winner for freshman sire McKinzie.

The race was not without incident as the winner had to overcome an early mishap.

“I hit the gate and lost my stirrups. It was pretty bad,” jockey Flavien Prat reported.

“I was basically trying to give him a good race and see if he would make a run. I got to the three-eighths pole and I found I had horse underneath me. I was like, ‘Wow, I’ll give him a chance.’ He showed that he’s very talented.”

Trained by Chad Brown for Flanagan Racing, he beat the favourite Ferocious after making up 10 lengths on the field from his early position.

Smoken Wild led to a 45.70 secs half-mile and still held the advantage half-way down the stretch until the winner made his run five wide and held off the running on Ferocious for a half-length win.

The fillies’ Grade 1, the Spinaway Stakes on Sunday, was won by the Godolphin homebred Immersive, a filly by Nyquist trained by Brad Cox.

She finished strongest to win by a length and a quarter after Quietside had looked the winner after a strong run to go clear early in the straight.

Del Mar

Fanduel Racing Pacific Classic (Grade 1)

IF the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup provided an unexpected winner, the west coast Grade 1 on the Sunday trumped it.

Mixto, a four-year-old colt trained by Doug O’Neill, had taken five runs to break his maiden, and that win was his only success in 11 outings as he lined up from the outside stall for the Grade 1 $1,001,500, Fanduel Racing Pacific Classic at Del Mar.

But the son of Good Magic carried the famous colours of Calumet Farm and gave rider Kyle Frey his first Grade 1 win, in beating Full Serrano by half a length.

Favourite Dr. Venkman could only mange fourth with some of the attraction of the race removed when Bob Baffert scratched the filly Adare Manor the day before.

John Sadler’s Full Serrano, making only his second US start after winning a stakes race in his native Argentina, led early and attempted to steal the race but Mixto came by in the final furlong.

“He gave us a few hints of being a special horse but today he really validated the horse he is,” O’Neill was quoted. “He’s run in a lot of different places and he’s always been surrounding them and today it just unfolded perfectly and Kyle Frey just rode a perfect race.”

Notable achievement

The Irish-bred Gold Phoenix achieved a notable achievement when the six-year-old son of Belardo won the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap for the third year in a row.

Owned by Little Red Feather Racing, Sterling Stables, and Marsha Naify, and trained by Phil D’Amato, he was another winner on the day for rider Kyle Frey, in winning the mile and three-furlong turf contest by a neck from the British-bred Dicey Mo Chara who had made the running until Frey sent Gold Phoenix up the rail to head him on the line to win by a neck on the line.

“He’s such a cool horse,” the jockey said. “He just does what he does and he loves to fight. He knows what it’s all about.”Also at Del Mar, Muth, possibly Bob Baffert’s best three-year-old and a contender for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, made his comeback after being absent since winning the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby at the end of March (had eventual Kentucky Derby winner Mystick Dan in third), winning the non-graded Shared Belief Stakes in pleasing fashion.

Bellum takes home a million

Kentucky Downs

THE Andew Balding stable had a big pay-day at the unconventional US turf track at Kentucky Downs on Saturday (described by one post on X as a cross between Bellewstown and Chester), when Bellum Justum took home the $1,054,310 first prize for the Grade 3 Dk Horse Nashville Derby Invitational over a mile, two and a half furlongs.

Seventh behind City Of Troy in the Derby and most recently a neck second to Jan Brueghel in the Gordon Stakes at Goodwood, the Irish-bred son of Sea The Stars, owned by King Power Racing, came through in the straight to run out a two and a quarter length winner under Frankie Dettori.

The recent Grade 1 Saratoga Derby winner Carson’s Run got going too late and just got second by a nose from Rothchild. The Joseph O’Brien-trained Stromberg wasn’t able to find any extra in the final two furlongs and finished sixth under Dylan Browne McMonagle.

The winner was slowly away but made good progress through the field as Dettori said: “On the back straight, I was able to make good improvement to get a slot, because I knew he would stay very well. ... I knew he’d gallop out to the line because he stays a mile and a half.”

Keep coming

Quoted on Blood-Horse, Adrian Beaumont of the International Racing Bureau said: “It’s advantageous to be a Kentucky-bred, but the base payment is so fantastic, we’re going to keep coming. This was the first year that the International Racing Bureau was utilised to recruit horses to travel. Bellum Justum’s success will only encourage more owners and trainers to take the opportunity to travel.

“It was my first time here. The fact that we had success here is a huge thing. Word of mouth is the best thing to encourage people to come.”

On Sunday, the Michael O’Callaghan-trained Goodwood winner Black Forza and Dylan Browne McMonagle went off favourite for the non-graded National Thoroughbred League Juvenile Sprint Stakes contest with a prize fund of $1,000,000.

The US-bred son of Complexity missed the break and had to be driven into contention in the early stages and though well-placed into the long straight, he had no more to offer in the final furlongs and finished fourth to Chasing Liberty who got the race on the disqualification of first past the post Under The Radar after that horse had hindered him in moving to his right.