By Tim Wilkin
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N. Y. – Saturday is going to be a big day for horses being pointed to the $1.24-million GI Travers Stakes.
Two key horses for the race–Dornoch (Good Magic) and Fierceness (City of Light)–had their final works switched from Friday to Saturday. They will join Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna), Sierra Leone (Gun Runner), Honor Marie (Honor Code) and Batten Down (Tapit), who are all scheduled to have their final Midsummer Derby moves on Saturday.
Saratoga did have some heavy rain on Thursday, but the track appeared ok on Friday morning. Danny Gargan, the trainer of GI Belmont Stakes and GI Haskell Stakes champ Dornoch, did not like what he saw.
“We got another day (Saturday) and the weather looks beautiful,” Gargan said outside his barn on the Saratoga backstretch Friday morning. “We just decided to wait another day.”
Dornoch, who could be made the morning-line Travers favorite when the field is drawn on Sunday, will work four furlongs in company, Gargan said.
“Maybe Ringy Dingy (Dialed In),” Gargan said. “She (3-year-old filly) has worked with him many, many times and she has outworked him several times. We are going to try and go :48, :49. He worked fast last week; we don't need another :47.”
Two Travers horses did get their final works in on Friday. Chad Brown had unbeaten Unmatched Wisdom (Cairo Prince) work five furlongs in 1:00.41 (3/6) on the main track. He won the Curlin Stakes at Saratoga on July 24 in his last start to run his record to three-for-three.
Brown, who also trains Sierra Leone, knows the Travers is a big ask for Unmatched Wisdom, but also is confident the colt has plenty of upside.
“He is a beautiful horse who has high expectations,” Brown said at his barn on the Oklahoma Training Track. “It is a huge step jumping up to a Grade I against really seasoned 3-year-olds that are at the top of the division. He has a real tall order there. But I love bringing an undefeated horse to a race like this. He certainly hasn't learned how to lose.”
Unmatched Wisdom broke his maiden by 6 1/4 lengths at Aqueduct on May 10 and then won an allowance, also at the Big A, by 5 3/4 lengths on June 24.
Then he took the Curlin, going gate-to-wire. Brown though, says he does not have to be on the lead.
“He won on the lead in the Curlin because there wasn't much speed in the race,” he said. “I think if he has a target, he is going to be much more effective and he should have one in this race. I do think he is sitting on a big race, and he is going to have to be because this is a big one.”
The other Travers horse to work on Friday was Corporate Power (Curlin) for Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey. The runner-up in the Curlin went four furlongs in :47.44 (1/45) on the Oklahoma Training Track.
A Cinderella Story for Carl Spackler and Chad Brown
Of course, the name jumps right out at you. Especially if you are a fan of the 1980 movie “Caddyshack.”
Carl Spackler was the hapless groundskeeper at Bushwood Country Club in the iconic flick and was played by Bill Murray.
And it is the name of a racehorse trained by Chad Brown and owned by e Five Racing Thoroughbreds. The 4-year-old Carl Spackler (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) has won three of four starts this year, the most recent being the GI Fourstardave Handicap last Sunday.
Carl Spackler heading to the winner's circle Sunday | Sarah Andrew
To paraphrase Caddyshack's Carl, it was certainly a Cinderella Story.
Carl's popularity swelled after that race, partly because of his name, mostly because of his ability. The Fourstardave was his first Grade I victory.
“He is a fan favorite because of his name and his big, white face,” Brown said outside his barn at the Oklahoma Training Track. “He's a neat horse and he's a neat story.”
His jockey, Tyler Gaffalione, is married to the former Cassidy Edwards, daughter of Bob and Kristine Edwards of e Five Racing.
Carl Spackler has won three of his four career starts at Saratoga Race Course, all of them in graded stakes races. He won the GII National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes last year and added the GIII Kelso earlier in the meet and then won the Fourstardave.
Overall, Carl Spackler has six wins in nine career starts.
For Brown, it was his first-ever win in the Fourstardave. He grew up in nearby Mechanicville and remembers sitting out in the picnic area with his parents and betting on the legendary Fourstardave, who won at least one race at Saratoga every year from 1987-1994.
“Growing up and betting on Fourstardave with my parents was a real cool experience,” Brown said. “One of the sure bets of the meet was that that horse would win. They weren't big (bets), I was just a kid. I probably should not have been betting, but they were winners.”
Casse, The Last Trainer To Run A Filly in Travers, Weighs In On Thorpedo Anna
In 2018, a filly named Wonder Gadot (Medaglia d'Oro) captured the imagination of the GI Travers Stakes when she ran in the Midsummer Derby.
Mark Casse with Wonder Gadot | Sarah Andrew
Before the race, there were buttons made, depicting the filly as Wonder Woman, ala Gal Gadot, the actress who played the Amazon superheroine. Wonder Gadot could not back up the hype as she finished 10th–and last–in that Travers, which was won by Catholic Boy (More Than Ready). Wonder Gadot went off at odds of 11-1, the sixth choice in the wagering.
Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) will be the first filly since then to try to conquer the boys in the Travers when she takes a spot in the starting gate next Saturday.
“She is pretty impressive,” Casse said of Thorpedo Anna, who has won six of seven career starts by a combined 36 1/4 lengths.
Casse's mind wandered back to that day in 2018 when Wonder Gadot took her shot against colts.
“She didn't run very well,” Casse said. “We have had great luck with running fillies against colts, but we did not have great luck with that one. Got Stormy beat colts twice, Tepin did it all the time. Of course, those were on grass.”
Wonder Gadot had beaten the boys twice in Canada, taking the prestigious Queen's Plate by 4 3/4 lengths and the Prince of Wales Stakes by 5 3/4 lengths. That gave Casse the confidence to try the Travers.
It didn't work out.
“You can't make horses do things they can't do,” Casse said. “The biggest thing about training horses is keeping them happy and knowing how to keep them happy. Good horses win when everything goes their way; great horses win when they don't.”
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