By Tim Wilkin
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A final decision on whether or not 'TDN Rising Star' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) will run against the boys in the $1.25 million GI Travers Stakes will be made on Saturday.
That's the deadline trainer Kenny McPeek put on himself Sunday morning, the day after his 3-year-old filly dominated the GI Coaching Club American Oaks, winning by 4 1/2 lengths.
“We are going to take the week, get her back on the track Wednesday, and I will make a decision Saturday,” McPeek said, sitting in his office at the Oklahoma Annex Sunday morning. “We have to look at her every day and make sure she is going into it as well as she can because she will have to be.”
Thorpedo Anna has won six of seven career starts by a combined 36 1/4 lengths. A filly has not won the Midsummer Derby since 1915 when Lady Rotha did it. The last filly to try the Travers was Wonder Gadot (Medaglia d'Oro), who finished 10th in 2018.
McPeek could keep Thorpedo Anna against fillies and run her in the $600,000 GI Alabama Stakes Aug. 17. That race, like the Travers which is a week later, is 1 1/4 miles.
“She would get a five-pound weight break (Thorpedo Anna would carry 121 pounds in the Travers), would run for twice as much if we would run in the Alabama,” McPeek said. “I have to look at the speed figures, who the possibles are (for the Travers).”
McPeek said that Dornoch (Good Magic) who won the GI Haskell Stakes Saturday, would be the Travers favorite. But the idea does intrigue him of having Thorpedo Anna try the colts.
He said that since Thorpedo Anna crossed the finish line in the Coaching Club American Oaks, he has been asked about the Travers “about 80 times.”
“That's fine,” he said. “She would be talked about in terms of Genuine Risk and Ruffian and Winning Colors … Rachel (Alexandra) and Zenyatta,” he said. “That is rare air that we are flirting with. Maybe she needs a challenge; she really hasn't had one.”
Dornoch Back In Saratoga, Travers The Next Goal
Just before 11 a.m. Sunday, GI Haskell Stakes champion Dornoch (Good Magic) was back in Saratoga. He vanned back from the Jersey Shore and trainer Danny Gargan was right behind in his car.
Gargan was gushing the day after Dornoch beat 'TDN Rising Star' Mindframe (Constitution) to notch his second consecutive Grade I. He won the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga last month. He has three wins in five starts this year and is five for nine for his career.
And, right now, he is the best 3-year-old colt in the nation.
“I think he can win every time he runs,” Gargan said at the barn, “but I have always thought that. You know that.”
The next goal is the $1.25, GI Travers Stakes at Saratoga at the end of the month. Before that, Gargan said, Dornoch will be taking a side trip to GMP Farm in nearby Schuylerville where he will have Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber therapy, a procedure that delivers increased amount of oxygen to injured tissues.
“He has a skin disease,” Gargan said. “This is the best way to clear it up.”
Gargan said his runner will be at the farm until Thursday and then be back at his barn where he will be pointed to the Travers. Gargan said he anticipates Dornoch will have two works before the Midsummer Derby. The first will be 15 or 16 days from the race, the second seven or eight days.
“We aren't going to do anything crazy,” Gargan said. “We'll keep working him half miles in 48 and change. This is a special horse.”
Before Dornoch ever ran, Gargan made the bold statement that the horse would be the best he ever trained. Dornoch is backing his trainer up now.
In the Haskell, it looked as though Mindframe was going to blow right by Dornoch at the top of the stretch but it was not to be. Under Luis Saez, Dornoch dug in and refused to lose, winning by 1 1/4 lengths.
“It looked like Mindframe was going to win by five or six (lengths),” Gargan said. “He has a tendency to wait on his competition; he does that in workouts and that's why people think he gets outworked sometimes,” Gargan said. “When horses come to him, that's when he really starts running. If someone wants to run real fast, he will run real fast with them.”
Dornoch is owned by West Paces Racing LLC, R.A. Hill Stable, Belmar Racing and Breeding LLC, Two Eight Racing LLC and Pine Racing Stables.
The group will have some fun as they prepare to watch Dornoch go for his third straight Grade I and cement a championship.
“I think we have one of the best horses in the country right now,” Gargan said. “If he stays healthy, he is going to be tough in the Travers.”
Fierceness (City of Light), outside with Danny Wright, works 4 furlongs on the main track at Saratoga with stablemate Marche (Mitole) Sunday morning. Fierceness, pointing to the Jim Dandy Saturday for @PletcherRacing, went in 49.61 (63/135). @theTDN pic.twitter.com/U8e9PvUgXL
— Tim Wilkin (@tjwilkin) July 21, 2024
Pletcher Turns The Page; Getting Fierceness Ready For Jim Dandy
On Saturday, Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher watched Mindframe, the 4-5 favorite, finish second to Dornoch in the GI Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park.
Sunday, he was getting 'TDN Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light) ready for the $500,000 GII Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga on Saturday.
Just after 7 on Sunday morning, Fierceness and exercise rider Danny Wright worked four furlongs in :49.61 (61/135) on the main track. They worked in company with stablemate Marche (Mitole), who has one career start.
“He is a good breeze horse,” Pletcher said of Fierceness while standing outside his office at the Oklahoma training track. “He did what he always does. We were not looking to do a whole lot six days out, just keep him happy.”
Fierceness hasn't raced since finishing 15th as the favorite in the GI Kentucky Derby May 4. Before that, he had been brilliant in the GI Florida Derby, winning by 13 1/2 lengths.
Pletcher was not going to go down the road towards the GI Travers with Fierceness. He and owner Mike Repole have both said that the colt needs more time between races than most horses. The Travers is four weeks after the Jim Dandy. That might not be enough.
“I don't want to get ahead of myself right now,” Pletcher said. “We are trying to win the Jim Dandy and we will assess his performance in there and see how he comes out of it. I don't want to make any predictions to where he is going after that yet.”
Repole, still stinging from Mindframe's 1 1/4-length loss to Dornoch in the Haskell, isn't going to beat the drums for the Travers either. He wants to see what Fierceness does Saturday.
“You can only run the Travers at the end of August when you are a 3-year-old,” Repole said by phone Sunday. “Without even seeing the Jim Dandy, it's not even in my mind. Has he proven that he runs better with breaks? Yeah. We expect a huge race (Saturday), but we don't have to get it. We know this game.”
Mindframe, who Repole co-owns with Vinnie and Teresa Viola's St. Elias Stables LLC, has two wins and two seconds in his short career. His other runner-up performance came in the GI Belmont Stakes at Saratoga last month when he drifted in the lane, costing him in a race also won by Dornoch.
He did not drift as badly in the Haskell, but it was enough that Pletcher and Repole are thinking about maybe making an equipment change.
“We will consider it,” Pletcher said about the possibility of adding blinkers. “Look, the winner was good. We were second and I don't think our horse made any big mistakes. Irad (jockey Ortiz Jr.) felt that when he got to the front, (Mindframe) lost focus a little bit. We talked about it (equipment change) but I don't like to make decisions immediately after a race.”
Pletcher said that the Travers is still “in play” for Mindframe.
“We have not lost confidence in the horse,” he said. “We just need to improve that little bit.”
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