By Mike Kane
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In The Derby Bar and Grill, nearly 3,000 miles northwest of Saratoga Race Course, breeder-owner John Gunther thoroughly enjoyed Without Caution's (Without Parole {GB}) solid victory Saturday in the first race on the program.
It was still morning, 9:38 a.m. in Surrey, British Columbia, where Gunther watched the $100,000 2-year-old maiden special weight race, when the colt left the gate under Jose Lezcano. Exactly 1:43.88 later, Without Caution reached the wire first to win his debut by 1 3/4 lengths and become his freshman sire's (by Frankel {GB}) first U.S. winner and sixth overall.
“I would say it made my day, big time,” Gunther said in a phone interview.
Gunther joked that it was a bit early to toast the victory in the 1 1/16-mile race on the inner turf course with champagne.
There was reason to celebrate, though. Without Caution turned in a solid performance for trainer Cherie DeVaux, securing her fourth victory at the meet. Gunther has had a stake in three of them. Starting from the inside after the scratch of Insubordination (Ire) (Bungle IntheJungle {GB}), Without Caution was content to sit a length or two off the pace of :23.98, 48.08 and 1:13.25 near the rail. With traffic in front, Lezcano was able to move him toward the outside coming off the turn and he responded with a strong burst to easily move past Helicity (The Factor) and Nudge (Uncle Mo).
Horseplayers regarded Without Caution as DeVaux's other horse. They made Profound (Twirling Candy) the 2-1 favorite in the field of nine, while Without Caution was 13-1 and returned $28.40. Profound got away slowly from the gate, never was near contention and ended up eighth.
DeVaux said it can be hard to get a read on a field of 2-year-olds, most of whom are first-time starters. She said that Profound has been a flashier workhorse on the dirt than Without Caution.
“But he's the horse that's had the look physically,” she said. “He's really trained like he's got a lot of ability. I wasn't really sure how he was going to handle all of this because he was a little immature, but he handled it all.”
DeVaux said that she doesn't mind entering more than one horse from her stable in a race.
“I was going to run Profound earlier at Ellis (Park), but he had a minor issue, so we shipped him up here, which is a good Plan B that we have this,” she said. “They have another 2-year-old race next week that I have one I'm entering for. It's a good series of races. They're starting to come more regularly, these type of races, so we're just trying to take advantage. You can't be afraid to run them against each other because you might have more confidence or think one might be a little bit there before the other one. But, like you see out here, one of them just might not fire for you because they've never run before.”
Three time zones away near his home in Vancouver, while Gunther was puzzled by the odds on the screen, he was expecting a good performance from his homebred. Without Caution had been offered at the 2023 Keeneland September sale, but Gunther and his daughter ultimately retained ownership.
“They thought a lot of him going into the race,” Gunther said. “At the farm, the fellow that was breaking them really liked him. He was training well. He worked well and he looked good on post parade.”
The Gunthers bred and raced Without Parole (Frankel {GB}), who stands at Newsells Park Stud. Without Caution is out of the Street Cry mare Mama Tembu, a half-sister to Stage Magic, the dam of Triple Crown winner Justify (Scat Daddy).
“We shipped the mare over to England to Without Parole,” Gunther said. “Then we flew the mare back in utero and ended up with a nice Without Parole being a U.S.-bred. He has turned out to be really good looking, was training well up to his debut. We were pretty excited about it. It's certainly nice to see Without Parole get another winner in the U.S.”
1st-Saratoga, $100,000, Msw, 7-20, 2yo, 1 1/16mT, 1:43.88, fm, 1 3/4 lengths.
WITHOUT CAUTION (c, 2, Without Parole {GB}–Mama Tembu, by Street Cry {Ire})
Sales History: $95,000 Ylg '23 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $55,000. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
O/B-John D. Gunther (KY); T-Cherie DeVaux.
#2 Without Caution is a debut winner in the opener at Saratoga at 13/1 for trainer @reredevaux with Jose Lezcano in the saddle! 🍀 @dpcracing1 pic.twitter.com/dnGbYTe7p2
— TwinSpires Racing 🏇 (@TwinSpires) July 20, 2024
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