By Tim Wilkin
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.–Trainer Jeremiah Englehart has some time to figure out what to do next with GIII Sanford Stakes winner Mo Plex (Complexity).
The 2-year-old colt came out of his one-length Sanford win last Saturday in good shape, Englehart said Thursday outside his barn at the Oklahoma Annex.
Now he has to decide when we'll see Mo Plex again. The options are the six-furlong, $200,000 Funny Cide for New York-breds on Aug. 25 or the seven-furlong, $300,000 GI Hopeful on Sept. 2, closing day.
“I am definitely not ruling out coming back in the New York-bred race,” Englehart said. “You don't know who is going to break their maiden from now until then. The Funny Cide could be an option if I want to give him a little easier test.”
Running in the Hopeful might be more appealing to owners Rick Higgins and Howard Read, who are from Albany and Saratoga Springs.
Mo Plex won his debut easily–by 10 lengths–at Aqueduct on June 20. He had to work a little harder in the Sanford.
“The first race didn't take a whole lot out of him,” Englehart said. “He got a little worked up [in the Sanford] in the paddock and [jockey] Irad [Ortiz, Jr.] had to ask him from start to finish. You worry about how much the race takes out of him.”
Englehart had another impressive juvenile debut when Bellacose (Audible) romped to a 10 3/4-length win vs. New York-breds on Wednesday.
Last year, Englehart won four races at the 40-day meet.
“Every win in Saratoga is special,” he said. “You never know when the next one is going to come. People have said to me that I must have thought [Bellacose] was going to be good. I didn't think she could really do that, but she is competitive enough where I could see her doing it. It's always good when you get your first 2-year-olds to run like that.”
White Abarrio pictured at Saratoga last month | Sarah Andrew
White Abarrio Back Home, But No Races Are On Horizon
White Abarrio (Race Day) has been reunited with trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. But it doesn't appear as though there are any races on the schedule for the 2023 GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner. At least not in the near future.
“We're thankful to have him back,” Joseph said outside his barn on the Saratoga backstretch. “Hopefully, we'll get him back to his top form.”
White Abarrio is not currently in Joseph's barn, but he's not far away. The trainer said the grey or roan 5-year-old is at GMP Farm in nearby Schuylerville for some time off.
“He will probably be there for two or three weeks for some down time,” Joseph said. “We just want to let him be a horse for a few weeks.”
Joseph said White Abarrio will start some light training at GMP Farm before coming back to his barn in about five weeks.
After that, the plan is to have White Abarrio breeze and then get him back to the races.
“Our goal is to work backwards from the [GI] Pegasus [at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 25],” Joseph said. “There is no set plan yet, because you can't have a set plan until you get back on the work chart.”
White Abarrio had run 11 times while under Joseph's watch until co-owner Mark Cornett moved the horse to trainer Rick Dutrow in May of 2023. That came about because Joseph was barred from racing at Churchill Downs after two of his horses died suddenly at the track within two days.
The New York Racing Association also barred Joseph, who was pointing White Abarrio to the 2023 GI Metropolitan Handicap. Cornett had to make a change if White Abarrio was going to run in the Metropolitan.
“With the situation I was in, what are you going to do, stop the horse's career because of me?,” Joseph said. “The owners had to make a decision to go forward and it turned out to be the right decision because he won two Grade Is.”
Under Dutrow, White Abarrio was third in the Met Mile and won the GI Whitney and GI Breeders' Cup Classic last year. In two starts this year, White Abarrio was 10th in the G1 Saudi Cup and fifth in the Metropolitan Handicap.
The day after the Metropolitan, Cornett moved the horse back to Joseph.
“He has run two below-par races,” Joseph said. “Obviously, he is much better than that.”
In 11 starts for Joseph, White Abarrio had four wins, a second and a third. The biggest wins were the 2022 GIII Holy Bull and GI Florida Derby.
Casa Creed | Sarah Andrew
Mott, Einsidler Will Always Have Fond Memories Of Casa Creed
Earlier this month, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott and co-owner Lee Einsidler sent stable warrior Casa Creed (Jimmy Creed) into retirement. The 8-year-old horse certainly earned it.
During his 36-race career, Casa Creed had nine wins, five seconds and six thirds. Four of his eight stakes races were Grade I events. His career earnings were $2,691,308.
He won the GI Jaipur Stakes twice as well as the GI Fourstardave Handicap twice.
His second score in the Fourstardave came last year at the hearty age of seven.
“A big part of life is making great memories,” Einsidler, who owned the horse with partner Mike Francesa, said recently at the Spa. “And Casa Creed is at the top of my list.”
The last race was the GIII Poker Stakes at Saratoga on June 8 during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival. Casa Creed finished third and, soon after had a problem with a hind ankle.
That's when the decision came to end the racing career.
“He's sound, pasture sound,” Mott said. “He's not sound enough to come out here and work and run another race. He just had had enough.”
Einsidler bought Casa Creed for $105,000 at the 2017 Keeneland Association September Yearling sale. He broke his maiden on dirt but spent the majority of his career on the grass.
Casa Creed also won the GII National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Stakes in 2019 when he was three and last year's GIII Kelso Stakes. Both of those races were at Saratoga.
“He has given us more enjoyment than anyone should deserve,” Mott said. “He lasted a long time. Really, for most people, he's a once-in-a-lifetime horse.”
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