Welcome back, Babe.
Trainer Rick Dutrow, Jr., on the sidelines for more than 10 years after having his license suspended by New York State racing regulators, enjoyed by far his biggest win since returning in the spring courtesy of White Abarrio (Race Day), a jaw-dropping 6 1/4-length, stalk-and-pounce winner of Saturday's 'Win and You're In' GI Whitney S. at Saratoga.
Zandon (Upstart) completed the exacta while the heavily favored Cody's Wish (Curlin), looking for his first career win beyond one mile while drawn widest of all in post six, had to settle for a distant third after a flat-footed start.
Given a 10-1 chance here, White Abarrio sat a perfect trip in a close second behind longshot leader Giant Game (Giant's Causeway) through fractions of :24.41 and :48.27 as Cody's Wish caboosed the sextet. White Abarrio, a $40,000 OBS March breezer, put his head in front nearing the quarter pole as Cody's Wish attempted to wind up with a four-wide sweep from the back of the pack. White Abarrio set sail for home with a couple of taps on his right shoulder from leading rider Irad Ortiz, Jr. and ran up the score in the stretch to win for fun.
Previously campaigned by trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr., C Two Racing Stable and Antonio Pagnano's White Abarrio enjoyed his breakthrough victory in the 2022 GI Curlin Florida Derby prior to a 16th-place finish in the GI Kentucky Derby. He was also second in the GIII Ohio Derby late last June and a close third in the GI Cigar Mile H. in December. The handsome gray, eighth at a well-backed 6-1 in the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. Jan. 28, made one prior start for Dutrow, finishing a very good third with a 106 Beyer Speed Figure behind Cody's Wish and Zandon after stumbling at the start in the GI Hill 'N' Dale Metropolitan H. at Belmont Park June 10.
“Very, very happy for everybody involved,” said Dutrow, who was celebrating his 64th birthday Saturday. “The owners trusted me to train the horse and now we get to go further with him now. We can even think about the (GI) Breeders' Cup Classic. After we've been looking at him and trying to figure him out, he runs huge between two and three months. Today was two months, last time he ran was about three months. He ran big last time, even though he didn't get the money, we were extremely happy. We're sitting in a good spot. We're very happy.”
Originally ticketed for the seven-furlong GI Forego S. at the Spa Aug. 26, connections called an audible for the 1 1/8-mile Whitney.
“If they (Elite Power and Gunite) would have both run up the track (in last Saturday's GI A.G. Vanderbilt), then maybe we would have (gone to the Forego),” Dutrow said. “But those two horses ran their races. Even if we went to the Forego, we would not have been afraid to do that. We would have went in with confidence because we have a nice horse.”
Dutrow, trainer of 2008 dual Classic winner Big Brown (Boundary), saddled subsequent Horse of the Year Saint Liam (Saint Ballado) to a painful second as the favorite in the 2005 Whitney.
“We're headed towards the Breeders' Cup the right way and that's a thrill,” Dutrow said. “We don't want to run him again, we want to go straight to the race.”
Last term's GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Cody's Wish, meanwhile, had a six-race winning streak snapped in the Whitney.
“He jumped OK and the second jump, I don't know, the ground broke underneath and he felt very awkward from behind,” jockey Junior Alvarado said. “That might have taken a little out of me, but I don't think he ran his race today. It might have been the distance. When I hit the three-eighths pole, I was very worried. I had never got this feeling with him before and today I knew I was in trouble. I tried to keep him confident to keep him going, but right when he switched to the right [lead], he got flat on me. I had to ask him at the three-eighths and start riding and he started picking it up, but he wasn't quite as fast as I wanted.”
Pedigree Notes:
The Into Mischief over Tapit cross has been well documented, even on Saturday's Saratoga card with GI Test S. winner Pretty Mischievous, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the reverse might also excel. Tapit doesn't have any stakes winners out of an Into Mischief daughter, but the latter is just getting started as a broodmare sire with only 11 black-type winners to date. However, Tapit does have two graded winners, My Miss Lilly and Just Wicked, out of daughters of Into Mischief's sire, Harlan's Holiday, and another three graded winners by that one's grandsire, Storm Cat, so a Tapit son–Race Day, in the Whitney winner's case–should also work well with Into Mischief. Race Day previously stood at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky but was exported to Korea prior to the 2021 season. White Abarrio is his most accomplished runner as his sole graded winner to date, but he also has seven other black-type winners.
Unplaced Catching Diamonds, a $425,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase for Spendthrift, produced White Abarrio as her first foal. A half to MGSW-UAE and MSW-U.S. Cool Cowboy (Kodiak Kowboy) and to the dam of GSW Mutasaabeq (Into Mischief), the mare has an unraced 2-year-old colt named Diamond Lord (Lord Nelson), who fetched $155,000 from Lincoln Racing at last year's Keeneland September sale, and a yearling colt, also by Lord Nelson, who sold as a weanling at Keeneland November for $100,000 to Larry Hirsch. Her 2023 foal was a Yaupon filly born Apr. 15 and she was bred back to Constitution.
WHITE ABARRIO runs the race of his life in the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes with @iradortiz up for Richard Dutrow! #Saratoga pic.twitter.com/igHIjLZyKG
— NYRA (🎪) (@TheNYRA) August 5, 2023
Saturday, Saratoga
WHITNEY S.-GI, $1,000,000, Saratoga, 8-5, 4yo/up, 1 1/8m, 1:48.45, ft.
1–WHITE ABARRIO, 124, c, 4, by Race Day
1st Dam: Catching Diamonds, by Into Mischief
2nd Dam: Grand Breeze, by Grand Slam
3rd Dam: Breeze Lass, by It's Freezing
($7,500 Ylg '20 OBSWIN; $40,000 2yo '21 OBSMAR). O-C Two Racing Stable and Antonio Pagnano; B-Spendthrift Farm LLC (KY); T-Richard E. Dutrow, Jr.; J-Irad Ortiz, Jr. $550,000. Lifetime Record: 14-6-1-3, $1,826,350. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus* Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Zandon, 124, c, 4, Upstart–Memories Prevail, by Creative Cause. ($170,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP). O-Jeff Drown; B-Brereton C. Jones (KY); T-Chad C. Brown. $200,000.
3–Cody's Wish, 124, h, 5, Curlin–Dance Card, by Tapit. O/B-Godolphin (KY); T-William I. Mott. $120,000.
Margins: 6 1/4, 3 3/4, HD. Odds: 10.20, 4.60, 0.45.
Also Ran: Charge It, Giant Game, Last Samurai.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
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