By Christina Bossinakis
In what turned out to be the battle of the TDN Rising Stars, it was Chancer McPatrick (McKInzie) who, despite a problematic start, came on late to outgun Ferocious (Flatter) in Saratoga's closing day marquee juvenile test, the GI Hopeful Stakes.
“When it's meant to be, it's meant to be,” said rider Flavien Prat, who was winning his seventh Grade I race of the meet. “The break was pretty bad and I never thought from there I could regroup. He did it and he showed that he's very talented.”
The victory gave Prat his 14th graded victory of the meet–also his third on Monday's card–and the fifth win of the afternoon for red-hot trainer Chad Brown, who ended the meet with six Grade I victories and 45 wins overall.
“It means the world. My team works so hard–the clients and horses we have to work with–it's just a magical meet,” said Brown of his 2024 Saratoga meet. “It's a meet for the ages, and I don't know how myself or anyone else could replicate this. It seems impossible. It all came together with a very strong, diverse group of horses. My team showed off their talents to be able to train any kind of horse–different ages, surfaces, distances. They showed when given the right horses to work with, they can certainly get them there. I'm proud of them and proud of the horses.”
Breaking like a shot, Smoken Wicked (Bobby's Wicked One) raced to the front as a slow-starting Chancer McPatrick dropped back to the back through an initial quarter mile in :22.76. Joined by Mentee (City of Light) up front, Smoken Wicked rushed through a half in :45.70 as 3-5 choice Ferocious, a $1.3 million OBS March purchase, surveyed the pace just over a length behind. With several lengths to make up on the leaders leaving the quarter pole, Chancer McPatrick was no less than seven paths wide turning for home, but seemed to have the greatest momentum straightening for home.
With Smoken Wicked fighting desperately up front and Mentee beginning his retreat, it was Chad Brown's duo of Incentive Play (Volatile), inching closer on the inside, and Chancer McPatrick mounting his own rally down the center of the track. Hooking Ferocious to his inside hip midway through the stretch, the Flanagan Racing colt swept to the front in the final sixteenth, crossing the wire a half-length ahead of the favorite. Stablemate Incentive Play was 1 3/4 lengths back in third, with Smoken Wicked a length back in fourth. It was a long way back to the rest of the field.
“I hit the gate, lost my stirrups. It was pretty bad. The first jump he went right into the starting gate,” explained Prat, who was also winning his 18th stakes race of the Saratoga season. “From there, I regrouped. I was obviously behind. I gave him a chance and when I tipped him out, he just made a great run like he did the first time.”
“The way he broke, Iost so much ground, I was basically trying to give him a good race and see if he would make a run,” he said. “I got to the three-eighths pole and I found I had horse underneath me–I was like, 'Wow, I'll have him a chance,' and he responded right away.”
Up in the stands, Brown shared Prat's concern mere moments after the break.
“I was concerned that he didn't get away from the gate as well as I hoped, and he was very far behind,” he admitted. “When I started to see how fast they were going, I did have some hope on the turn–he started to follow my other horse midway through the race. When he got closer to him, I felt better. But man, what a run and what a finish.”
Closing from way out of it in his career debut at Saratoga July 27, the $725,000 OBS April juvenile purchase ran an almost identical race to Monday's victory, appearing almost disinterested in the early going, racing well wide before igniting down the lane to win by a respectable if not flashy margin. However, what he lacked in sparkle that day, he more than up for in substance with the one-length victory, earning the TDN Rising Star distinction in the process.
Involved in horse ownership for about five years, Sean Flanagan also achieved a milestone of his own, winning his first race at the Grade I level.
“Chad was supremely confident and you can kind of tell when he knows,” he said. “When he knows, he knows. He came into the paddock and he was all pumped. He said, 'we're on a roll, you know. I think we're going to get this done.' Son of a gun, didn't he ever.”
As for Brown's third-place finisher, campaigned by Klaravich, he added, “Really brave. I know he dove inside. He won that way in his debut and it worked. I'm not so sure that was where you wanted to be today, and Joel [Rosario] indicated that in hindsight exiting the race.”
“I'm still very high on that horse. He might have went down to a part of the track that might have been just a little bit deeper down there today.”
Gustavo Delgado Jr., assistant and son of trainer Gustavo Delgado, was pragmatic about Ferocious's game runner-up finish.
“He seemed to be a little bit distracted. When the winner passed him by, he got engaged in the race,” he said. “On the gallop out, he passed the winner again. They are learning what to do and he will get better with races. It's always a concern, especially when they come from a win like that first time, you can't expect that they now know everything–it's not like that. They're still learning every race and expectation is there for all of them–but it was still a huge race.
Despite his colt's bang-up effort, the race wasn't without its hiccups.
“He lost his left front shoe in the race,” he confirmed. “But on the gallop out you could tell the horse is there, the finesse is there, it's just experience.”
Of the narrowly beaten favorite–a sparkling 7 3/4-length winner in his Spa debut Aug. 3–the meet-leading Irad Ortiz Jr. added, “He didn't really give it to me [kicking in] until that horse [Chancer McPatrick] got close to me. When that horse get outside of me, he turned his engine on. He was fighting back and he ran a really good race. I had a good trip. I got run down by that one, but he was fighting back so I'm happy with him.”
According to Brown, the 1 1/16-mile GI Breeders' Futurity on Oct. 5 at Keeneland and the one-mile GI Champagne Stakes on the same day at Belmont at the Big A, both “Win and You're In” qualifiers for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile, are both among possibilities for his Hopeful runners.
“I don't know,” he said when asked what he anticipated would be their ultimate juvenile starts. “The Champagne and Breeders' Futurity are the two races that were really on my radar if they had run well, so I'll talk to both owners and see how they come out and what track I think fits who.”
Pedigree Notes:
Chancer McPatrick, the first TDN Rising Star for his freshman sire McKinzie, also became the sire's first career Grade I winner. The four-time Grade I-winning stallion stands for $30,000 at Gainesway in Lexington.
A daughter of GI Alcibiades Stakes winner Dream Empress (Berstein), 10-year-old Bernadreamy produced a colt by Liam's Map in 2023. With no reported foal this season, she was bred back to Elite Power.
2YO CHANCER McPATRICK, son of @Gainesway stallion McKinzie, earns Flavien Prat his 7th Grade 1 victory of the meet in the Hopeful Stakes for trainer Chad Brown! pic.twitter.com/wUNf8XFJCA
— NYRA (🎪) (@TheNYRA) September 2, 2024
Monday, Saratoga
HOPEFUL S.-GI, $300,000, Saratoga, 9-2, 2yo, 7f, 1:23.44, ft.
1–CHANCER MCPATRICK, 120, c, 2, by McKinzie
1st Dam: Bernadreamy, by Bernardini
2nd Dam: Dream Empress, by Bernstein
3rd Dam: Chinese Empress, by Nijinsky II
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN, 1ST GRADE I WIN. ($260,000 Ylg '23 FTKJUL; $725,000 2yo '24 OBSAPR). O-Flanagan Racing; B-Rigney Racing, LLC (KY); T-Chad C. Brown; J-Flavien Prat. $165,000. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $220,000. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Ferocious, 120, c, 2, Flatter–Napier, by Midnight Lute. 1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE, 1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. ($1,300,000 2yo '24 OBSMAR). O-JR Ranch, Marquee Bloodstock, High Step Racing and OGMA Investments, LLC; B-Gentry Stable LLC (KY); T-Gustavo Delgado. $60,000.
3–Incentive Pay, 120, c, 2, Volatile–Distinguishable, by
Distorted Humor. 1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE, 1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. ($315,000 Ylg '23 KEESEP). O-Klaravich Stables, Inc.; B-Kathryn Nikkel, Old Dominion & Turtle Creek Farms LLC (KY); T-Chad C. Brown. $36,000.
Margins: HF, 1 3/4, 1. Odds: 4.40, 0.65, 8.60.
Also Ran: Smoken Wicked, Innovator, Mentee, Studlydoright, Tough Catch, Mr. Mendelslew.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
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