TurfPublicists: SARATOGA RACE COURSE NOTES: Thursday, July 22, 2010

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Contact: NYRA Press Office

(518) 584-6200, ext. 4237

SARATOGA RACE COURSE NOTES

My Princess Jess on target for Diana; Dry Martini return imminent
Undefeated Friend Or Foe preps Saturday for Jim Dandy; Khancord Kid to Lake George
Whatsthescript makes Spa debut in Fourstardave; Grand Rapport to Hall of Fame Stakes; Eightyfiveinafifty out until late 2010
Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes tops Saturday Card at Ascot (UK)

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Lael Stables' My Princess Jess, beaten less than a length by Proviso when third in the Grade 1 Just a Game on June 5, is targeting the Grade 1 Diana on Saturday, July 21, a race in which she finished fifth last year. The 5-year-old mare, 5-3-4 from 17 lifetime starts, will be seeking her first victory since taking the Grade 3 Beaugay at Belmont Park last May.

"She is doing very well," said trainer Barclay Tagg of My Princess Jess, who worked five furlongs in a bullet 1:01 over the Belmont Park turf before shipping north. "She'll work again here before the race, hopefully this weekend."

Tagg added that the popular Dry Martini, now 7, will hopefully make his third career appearance at Saratoga on August 4 in a 1 1/18^th mile optional claimer. The gray gelding, fifth in the 2007 and 2009 editions of the Whitney, has not run since finishing second to Quality Road in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park on February 6.

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Chester and Mary Broman's undefeated Friend Or Foe will work Saturday morning in his final major breeze before the Grade 2, $500,000 Jim Dandy on Saturday, July 31.

The son of Friends Lake, who scored his third straight win when he defeated General Maximus and Ibboyee in the Mike Lee for New York-breds on June 20, will be making his first start around two turns in the 1 1/8^th mile Jim Dandy, the traditional prep for the Grade 1, $1 million Travers on Saturday, August 28.

"He's been doing everything very well," said trainer John Kimmel. "Nice, healthy, sound, eating well, looking good, all positive. He's always had a lot of talent – he's a great-moving horse. He's 17 hands tall, and the horse has just been doing everything right. He's a pleasure to be around.

"He's a little light on experience, but all the little things that I look to evaluate a horse's potential to do it, I see in this horse," added Kimmel. "He gallops out well and he's got speed, but he's not a run-off kind of a horse. He'd be very easy to place where you'd want to place him. I'm kind of excited about it."

On Wednesday, Kimmel will saddle the Bromans' Khancord Kid in the Grade 2 Lake George, a 1 1/16^th mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies. The daughter of Lemon Drop Kid became a graded stakes winner this spring when she took the Grade 3 Herecomesthebride on the turf at Gulfstream Park on March 6, after which she finished fifth in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan over Pimlico's main track.

Most recently she was fourth in the Grade 2 Sands Point at Belmont on May 31.

"She had a beautiful work at Belmont on July 13 [5 furlongs in :59 4/5], the fastest of 41," said Kimmel. "Although she didn't run that badly at Pimlico, she is returning to the surface she's been most successful at."

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Trainer Gary Contessa has had some interesting horses in his barn throughout his career, and one of his new favorites in Tommy Town Thoroughbreds' Whatsthescript, who will be making his Saratoga debut in the Grade 2 Fourstardave on Sunday, August 1.

Third in the Battlefield Stakes at Monmouth in his first start for Contessa, the Irish-bred 6-year-old son of Royal Applause has earned nearly $1 million in his career, mostly in California. Eighth in the Breeders' Cup Mile in his final start of 2009, the multiple stakes winner was subsequently sent to stud, where he was bred to 30 mares, and returned to the racetrack this spring.

"The owners wanted him to race on dirt and sent him to the East coast," said Contessa. "I know it is a difficult task to return a horse to racing after he's stood at stud, but he's been 100 percent racehorse since I got him. He's the consummate professional and he's quickly become one of my favorite horses."

Contessa personally accompanies Whatsthescript to the track in the mornings to train, a journey which can take up to an hour, round-trip.

"He stops and eats grass every other step," said Contessa. "But with his career, I think he's earned it."

Contessa plans to send Grand Rapport, a recent allowance winner at Monmouth Park, to the Grade 3 Hall of Fame on August 13, while fellow sophomore Eightyfiveinafifty has been forced to bypass the Saratoga meeting.

"[Eightyfiveinafifty] had a bad case of pneumonia and has been in the hospital," said Contessa. "I hope to have him back by the winter."

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GBI Racing's stand-out race of the week, and one of the highlights of the year, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Saturday, July 24 at Ascot Racecourse, has attracted a high-class field of eight at the six-day declaration stage – including the mightily impressive Investec (English) Derby winner Workforce.

The Group 1 midsummer showpiece, run over a mile and a half (2400 metres), has a £1million prize fund and is due off at 11.25 am (EDT).

The Sir Michael Stoute-trained Workforce takes on a star-studded supporting cast including Royal Ascot hero and stablemate Harbinger (ridden by French ace Olivier Peslier), Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby winner Cape Blanco, Investec Derby runner-up At First Sight, as well as Dubai Sheema Classic heroine Dar Re Mi, Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Vase winner Daryakana and the ultra-consistent Youmzain.

Daryakana will bid to become the first female winner of the race since Time Charter in 1983. She was unbeaten in five starts as a 3-year-old and although she has failed to strike in two starts since the turn of the year, her trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre feels she is now in peak condition.

The other feature race on Saturday is the £100,000 Group 2 Sky Bet Stakes (10.05am) at York, in which Godolphin look to have a strong hand. The Dubai operation has triumphed in two of the first four renewals of the Sky Bet York Stakes courtesy of Stage Gift (2007) and last year's winner Kirklees, and their total of five entries includes Cavalryman, who took third in last season's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, and Antara, successful in a Group Three at Epsom Downs in June.

Racing fans can watch and wager on the best of British racing including Ascot, York, Chester, and Sandown, from the comfortable confines of Bunbury's Pub. There is no cover charge or admission for seating in Bunbury's Pub for the UK portion of the day, with first race post time most days 8:45 a.m. Light refreshments, tea and coffee, as well as libations, are available for purchase.

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