Lukas Likes What He Sees from Jim Dandy-Bound Seize the Grey

Saratoga Springs, N.Y. — It is no surprise that Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas is confident that his GI Preakness Stakes winner Seize the Grey (Arrogate) is up to the challenge he will face Saturday at Saratoga Race Course in the GII Jim Dandy Stakes.

Never shy about touting his horses, Lukas, 88, said that the MyRacehorse colt is ready to take on beaten GI Kentucky Derby favorite Fierceness (City of Light) and beaten GI Belmont Stakes favorite Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) in the local prep for the GI Travers Stakes.

Fierceness, whose three career wins all came when he was on or very near the lead, will be making his first start since the Derby. Sierra Leone has been never worse than third in six starts. He was second by a nose in the Derby and third in the Belmont.

Seize the Grey has worked five times since finishing seventh in the Belmont, which was run June 8 at Saratoga Race Course. The most recent was a half-mile in :47.99 Tuesday. When he shipped in from Kentucky in early July, Seize the Grey has also had breezes of five furlongs and six furlongs.

“He's doing really well,” Lukas said. “I'm really pleased with where I have him. I have no excuses.”

Lukas considered running in the GI Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park July 20, but opted to keep Seize the Grey at his summer home and give him another week from the Belmont. In addition to Sierra Leone and the Repole Stable homebred Fierceness, the Jim Dandy drew GIII Ohio Derby winner Batten Down (Tapit) trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott. Seize the Grey drew Post 2 in the field of six.

“I feel very comfortable running in that with him,” Lukas said.

Seize the Grey will be Lukas's 19th starter in the Jim Dandy and his first since Sporting Chance was fifth in 2018. He has won the race twice–with Is It True in 1989 and Scorpion in 2001–and has been second four times. Since his first Saratoga start in 1984, Lukas has won 264 races at Saratoga, 74 of them in stakes.

When it looked like Seize the Grey might not have enough points to make it into the Derby field, Lukas ran him in the GII Pat Day Mile, which he won by 1 1/4 lengths at 9-1. Two weeks later at Pimlico Race Course, he surprised in the Preakness, leading from gate to wire, again at more than 9-1.

The Belmont was a different story. He had company up front with Dornoch (Good Magic), and could not sustain the pace in the stretch.

Lukas discounted fatigue was a factor in Seize the Grey's sixth start of 2024.

“I don't think it was that,” Lukas said. “I think he was a little flat in the Belmont.”

Lukas said he expects that Seize the Grey will be an improved horse for the Jim Dandy.

“Oh, better than the Belmont,” Lukas said. “I'm thinking he might even be better than the way he went into the Pat Day Mile.”