By Tim Wilkin
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.-A healthy field of 12 was entered Sunday for the 97th running of the $1-million GI Whitney Stakes, which will be run at Saratoga Race Course Saturday.
National Treasure (Quality Road), from Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, will be the favorite as he is ranked as the top older horse in the country in the weekly NTRA poll.
Evidently, he is not scaring anyone off.
Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher has a trio of horses entered in Bright Future (Curlin), Charge It (Tapit) and Crupi (Curlin). Add Post Time (Frosted), who was a distant second to National Treasure in the GI Metropolitan Handicap at the Spa last month, to the mix.
Trainer Phil Bauer decided Sunday that he would roll the dice with Warrior Johny (Cairo Prince).
Owned by Rigney Racing LLC, Warrior Johny earned his Whitney ticket on opening day at the meet when he won an allowance race by four lengths.
“[The Whitney] wasn't on the radar until he ran opening day,” Bauer said Sunday morning at his barn on the Oklahoma Training Track. “It was like, 'Holy cow!' The last three races he has had around two turns, each one got better. Up here, he ran a hole in the wind against a real good cast.”
Warrior Johny is a 5-year-old gelding and has four wins, three seconds and five thirds in 19 career starts. He has two wins in three career starts at Saratoga.
This will be just the second graded stakes race that Warrior Johny has run in. The first was last year when he was seventh, beaten 22 1/2 lengths by Bright Future in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup at the Spa.
“I'm still scratching my head about the Jockey Club Gold Cup,” Bauer said. “I went into that with a lot of confidence. I thought he would run really well.”
Warrior Johny has thrived at Saratoga, Bauer said. Even though he doesn't have the resume of some of the other Whitney runners, Warrior Johny's speed figures compare with several of his rivals.
“If he runs his last race back, then I think he can be right there,” Bauer said. “Yes, we [he and Richard Rigney] take shots, absolutely. Early in our careers, we took a lot of shots with the wrong kind of horses. We are taking chances now for realistic opportunities.”
The field for the Whitney, in post position order: 1-Post Time (Brittany Russell); 2-Disarm (Gun Runner, Steve Asmussen); 3- National Treasure; 4-Warrior Johny; 5-First Mission (Street Sense, Brad Cox); 6-Il Miracolo (Gun Runner, Antonio Sano); 7-Crupi; 8-Tumbarumba (Oscar Performance, Brian Lynch); 9-Bright Future; 10-Skippylongstocking (Exaggerator, Saffie Joseph Jr.); 11-Arthur's Ride (Tapit, Bill Mott); 12-Charge It.
Pletcher, Repole Not Committing Fierceness As A Travers Player
The day after Fierceness (City of Light) won the GII Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga, Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher said there would be no decision on whether or not the inconsistent colt would resurface in the GI DraftKings Travers Stakes on Aug. 24.
“Talking to [owner] Mike [Repole] a little bit last night, we don't want to make any decisions too soon,” Pletcher said outside his barn at the Oklahoma Training Track.
Fierceness, once considered the best 3-year-old colt in the land, was making his first start since a crushing 15th-place finish as the favorite in the GI Kentucky Derby on May 4. In the race before that, he was dominant, winning the GI Florida Derby by a record 13 1/2 lengths.
His Achilles heel, though, is spacing between races. Repole said earlier this year that he thought his horse needed eight weeks between starts. Do the math: the Jim Dandy and Travers are fourth weeks apart.
“Twenty-eight days is probably not ideal for him,” Pletcher said. “The initial impression is that he came out of the race well, he looked good this morning.”
Repole, who loves winning everywhere, but maybe a little bit more at the Spa, was also hedging on whether Fierceness should target the Travers.
“We might have to wait,” he said. “Last year, I would have told you, '100%.' There is no way with this horse that I can say that. He's a hard horse to figure. When he does something special, he can beat anybody. We will consider the Travers, absolutely. But we will consider to pass it, also.”
If Fierceness does not run in the Midsummer Derby, he could run next in the GI Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 21.
Lukas Plans To Try Again In Travers With Seize The Grey
Sure, there was a little disappointment that Seize the Grey (Arrogate) was never a factor in the GII Jim Dandy Stakes on Saturday.
But D. Wayne Lukas will never concede. Despite the fourth-place finish in the Jim Dandy, Lukas plans on bringing back his GI Preakness Stakes winner in the GI Travers Stakes on Aug. 24.
“We are not overreacting,” Lukas said while sitting in his office at this barn at the Oklahoma Training Track Sunday morning. “He is a quality horse and we did not see it [Saturday]. There is no part of him that showed up.”
Seize the Grey won the Preakness on the front end and, in his last start, the GI Belmont Stakes at Saratoga on June 8, was prominent early before fading and finishing seventh.
On Saturday, Seize the Grey, owned by MyRacehorse, and jockey Jaime Torres never got close to the leaders and finished 12 lengths behind winner Fierceness.
“He didn't get on the butt end of the speed horses, that is what Jaime and I talked about,” Lukas said. “When he wasn't there, I knew right then and there. I knew Jaime would try to do what he could, but he did not have the horse to do it. I don't blame Jaime, I blame the horse.”
There is another reason to target Seize the Grey to the Travers, that being the incentives MyRacehorse could receive thanks to the stud deal signed with Gainesway Farm. The base deal, according to MyRacehorse, is $3.5 million.
If Seize the Grey were to win the $1.25-million Travers, the bonus would be $3 million. If he were to win the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, add another $4 million.
Lukas, though says, the horse will go the Midsummer Derby only if he is doing well. Going into the Belmont, Lukas thought he had a big chance; in the Jim Dandy maybe even a bigger one.
“They give you a reality check once in a while,” Lukas said. “You think you are in La-La land and then, Boom!,” he said.
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