This Side Up: Style And Substance To Light Up Cigar

Strictly, it's the very reverse of what he's doing—which is actually to revert from two turns to one. In a sense, however, the return of Zandon (Upstart) to Aqueduct on Saturday will bring things full circle.

For it was on the equivalent card last year that he began what has turned into a pretty frustrating sequence of races where, for one reason or another, he arguably hasn't quite realized his full potential. When you consider that these include the GI Kentucky Derby itself, that shows how much raw ability he has. Just as well, then, that some of us find Thoroughbreds a sufficient enigma to feel little need to bet on them, too. Because by this stage he's beginning to feel like one of those horses you follow over a cliff.

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On his last visit to Aqueduct, for the GII Remsen S., we were obliged with a culprit; practically a pantomime villain. To be thwarted by just a nose, despite the antics of Irad Ortiz Jr. on Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo), suggested that Zandon had all the attitude necessary to make the most of his talent.

Despite the lamentable abbreviation of his career, the winner that day would return to New York to beat the subsequent GI Preakness S. winner in the GII Wood Memorial S. and then take the city's own Classic. Yet Zandon has meanwhile teased his admirers with just that one day when everything came together, in the GI Blue Grass S.

What felt especially vexing in the Derby was that he should, in principle, have been ideally suited by the notorious pace meltdown that summoned Rich Strike (Keen Ice) to our startled attention. As it was, he cruised into contention on the turn only to falter almost perceptibly, though still classy enough to take third. And he has since only elaborated an impression that his closing style will always require a pretty specific scenario actually to restore him to the winner's circle.

In fairness, even as things stand Zandon unmistakably belongs among the elite of the crop, having never once sought sanctuary from the white heat of competition. In the circumstances, however, the return to a single turn for the first time since his debut looks a pretty pointed call, just a week after the option of the GI Clark H.

I always feel that a one-turn mile is not just a very specific metier, but one especially instructive of that elusive grail: equilibrium between speed and stamina. A two-turn mile is more about “turn” than “mile”, diverting energy to the switching of leads and redistribution of weight. One turn, in contrast, must be accomplished more or less on one breath, and duly showcases the kind of pulmonary capacity that makes the GI Met Mile such a trusted signpost to stallion potential. If you think back to the way an inveterate closer like Honor Code (A.P. Indy) responded to the demands of that race, perhaps the Cigar will similarly set up for Zandon to release his “slingshot” in time.

But oh dear, what's this? Who should be waiting for him, in this first meeting with older horses, but the ultimate counterfoil to his rather finicky profile? Can even Zandon's biggest fans find it in their hearts to hope that Mind Control (Stay Thirsty) is beaten on the final start of such an exemplary career?

Connections will apparently announce Mind Control's stud destination over the coming days. King For A Day (Uncle Mo), his dam's half-brother, has been warmly received in New York but make no mistake, Mind Control offers the kind of genetic teak that should be welcome anywhere, the Bluegrass included. People will quibble over his damsire, but they don't have an issue with another forgettable son of Storm Cat, Yankee Gentleman, behind American Pharoah; and how marvelous, if Bernardini's growing distaff legacy could be complemented by a viable male line through Mind Control's sire Stay Thirsty.

One way or another, the package has worked to splendid effect in Mind Control—a 10-time stakes scorer who could take his earnings past $2 million in this, the 29th start of his career. Here's a GI Hopeful S. winner who has held his form through FIVE seasons, keeping one generation honest after another. No easy pickings when you drop in class with this guy around, as Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow) could attest after their Grade III encounter at Monmouth this summer; or Silver State (Hard Spun), equally, in a Listed race at Parx last year.

Mind Control | Sarah Andrew

The bad news for Zandon is that Mind Control has demonstrated a particular affinity for this environment. In five career starts at a mile, he has four wins and a second; while his overall Aqueduct record reads 4-2-1. Having twice won Grade Is at Saratoga over seven furlongs, he sets a formidable standard for the glossy sophomore experimenting with a new trip.

But you know what, the differences between the pair—greyhound versus bulldog, Spitfire versus Lancaster—only makes me appreciate them both more. It's the way these Thoroughbreds hold the mirror up to life, after all, that make them so captivating. In persevering stubbornly with Zandon, I suppose I'm showing a weakness for the kind of flair that meets the challenges of life in a fashion that itself gives extra color and value to existence. But Mind Control, equally, reminds me that I wouldn't just want charisma from the guy next to me in the trenches.

So let's just hope that these contrasts, in this race, operate as the sticks and stones to spark up a fire against the advancing winter; and that Zandon can lay down some kind of marker for his elevation, with maturity, through a handicap division depleted by numerous retirements.

Between them, Zandon and Mo Donegal have at least renewed the luster of the Remsen. This time round, that race will be monitored with anguished attention by the three farms standing the neck-and-neck protagonists for the freshman sires' championship. After Bolt d'Oro seized the initiative last weekend, both Good Magic and Justify field candidates to fight back here.

You have to go back 27 years to Thunder Gulch to find the last Remsen winner to add the Derby, albeit Go For Gin had done the double only the previous year. But in an era when trainers are so reluctant to give Triple Crown horses an old-fashioned grounding, a ninth furlong before Christmas surely comes at a premium.

Whether in the way they are campaigned, or the way they are bred, Classic racehorses need a foundation. It's wrong to think of “blue collar” virtues as somehow alien to the true “blueblood”. We don't just need the flamboyance of Zandon, nor only the mettle of Mind Control. Much as with the one-turn mile that draws them together, we need the best of both worlds.

Hopefully Zandon's story still has a long way to go. In the meantime, how timely that Red Oak Stable gives a debut, at Tampa Bay not 10 minutes before the Cigar Mile, to Mind Control's little sister by Candy Ride (Arg). If she is made of the same stuff as Mind Control, then she'll have exactly what the rest of us should all be seeking. As Clint Eastwood's Preacher put it, at the end of another memorable showdown in Pale Rider: “Nothing like a nice piece of hickory.”