** For video of Questing breezing at Greentree, please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3XP4_oz0mc&feature=youtu.be **
** For video of It's Tricky breezing at Greentree, please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJIA86h05zA&feature=youtu.be **
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Contact: NYRA Press Office
518-584-6200 x 4237
- Quick Wit in good humor following Hall of Fame victory; G1
- Godolphin's Questing, It's Tricky breeze at Greentree
- Pletcher may have his best 2-year-old crop yet
- Heaven Knows What, Sweet Cat head $100k Coronation Cup overnight stakes
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Dale Romans reported Saturday that Quick Wit emerged from his nose victory in Friday's off-the-turf edition of the Grade 3 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes in good order and could make his next start on turf in the Grade 1, $400,000 Jamaica Stakes on October 6 at Belmont Park.
"He came back good, looks good. I don't know what we'll do with him next," Romans said. "The
Originally carded as a Grade 2 race at 1 1/16 miles on the Inner Turf Course, the Hall of Fame was automatically downgraded after it was transferred to the main track at 1 1/8 miles, pending a final review by the American Graded Stakes Committee. While the complexion of the race changed after it was taken off the grass, Romans said he felt it was no less challenging.
"I thought it was equally as tough when it moved over," the trainer said. "Optimizer had run well [on dirt], and Daddy Nose Best, and that's why the race held together. [Quick Wit is] an emerging horse though. He's a horse that's getting better and going the right way. Maybe he can step up to another level."
Romans has a bevy of turf horses in the barn now and expects to run three sophomores in next weekend's Grade 1 Secretariat at Arlington Park – the streaking Silver Max, most recently victorious in the Grade 2 Virginia Derby, along with Cozzetti and Finnegan's Wake.
"It's good to see [Quick Wit] can handle the dirt," Romans said. "We are overrun with turf horses right now, so this horse may have to become a dirt horse whether he wants to or not. I have to wait and see what happens in the Secretariat. After this, I would probably take Max against older horses, try to win something big and point him towards the Breeders' Cup. He just started getting good. He always had some talent; he just never was as focused as he needed to be, but he put it all together this winter. Next weekend will divide them up a little bit."
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Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin sent two of Godolphin Racing's star fillies out for a spin over the Greentree Training Center's artificial surface this morning, with Grade 1 TVG Coaching Club American Oaks winner Questing breezing four furlongs in :47 2/5 seconds and multiple Grade 1 winner It's Tricky covering five furlongs in 1:00 1/5 in company with the unraced maiden filly Villanesca.
Questing, who has won her past two starts on the dirt for McLaughlin, will start in Saturday's Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama for 3-year-old fillies, while It's Tricky, winner of the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Handicap last time out, is headed either to the Grade 1, $500,000 Ballerina at seven furlongs on August 24 or the Grade 2, $600,000 Personal Ensign at 1 1/8 miles on August 26.
"Questing went very well and is on schedule for the
The 4-year-old It's Tricky has won graded stakes at both seven furlongs (Grade 2 Distaff on April 14) and 1 1/8 miles (2011's Coaching Club).
"Which way we go depends on how many are going, and who's going," said McLaughlin. "We know Royal Delta is going in the Personal Ensign, and we have a lot of respect for her. We might feel like that's our best distance, too. We're not sure about that. We're leaning towards the 1 1/8 miles on the 26th, but if the other race falls apart we can do that, and we don't have to adjust our schedule of training."
McLaughlin said that It's Tricky would work again next Saturday.
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Todd Pletcher has won eight H. Allen Jerkens
The powerhouse trainer has built a reputation for especially dominating the 2-year-old scene at the Spa. In 2010, he sent out a personal-best 18 juvenile winners, and last year he saddled 15. In 2003, among the juveniles that Pletcher sent out at Saratoga were Eclipse champion Ashado and subsequent graded-stakes winners Chapel Royal, Pollard's Vision, Marylebone, Honey Ryder, Limehouse, Purge, and Forest Grove.
However, this year could be Pletcher's top 2-year-old contingent yet.
Through 20 days of the 40-day meet, he has sent out 12 juvenile winners; an absolutely scorching pace.
"I would say right now it's shaping up to be one of our strongest crops," said Pletcher, 45. "We felt like coming in over the course of the summer as we were bringing these horses along that we had a very good group and a very deep group. Until you start running them, you don't know for sure, but we have been very pleased with the way they are running. Hopefully that continues now that some of them are stepping up into stakes."
Perhaps the most impressive of Pletcher's 2-year-olds so far, Kauai Katie, will make her stakes debut in Sunday's Grade 2, $200,000
"It seems more and more challenging to keep them apart as there seems to be fewer 2-year-old stake opportunities," Pletcher said. "You just need to do what is best for each individual horse and their owners and sometimes that means running them together."
The process of purchasing and developing 2-year-olds is one of the aspects of the game that Pletcher enjoys the most.
"To me, 2-year-olds are the most exciting part of the game because you don't know for sure what you have until you bring them along," Pletcher said. "A lot of them we're familiar with from the sales as yearlings or the 2-year-old sales, and so you try to work hard at those venues to hopefully bring in the right ones. It is very rewarding when they turn out."
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When jockey Ramon Dominguez nearly fell off Saratoga Snacks as they led in the stretch of yesterday's eighth race, it was yet another anxious moment for the ridgling's trainer, Gary Sciacca.
With Saratoga Snacks racing on a clear lead with a furlong to travel, Dominguez dropped the left rein and lost his balance. Recurring Dream attempted to take advantage of his rival's lost momentum, but Saratoga Snacks and Dominguez were gathered themselves, straightened out, and went on to a 2 ¾-length victory in the 6 ½-furlong optional claiming race for New York-breds.
"You don't see that happen too much," said Sciacca. "[Dominguez] said [Saratoga Snacks] was drifting out a little bit, so he went to grab [the reins], and when he went to grab them, he missed. He lost his balance. He grabbed the right side and pulled him out. The horse coming up the inside came right to him, [Dominguez] straightened him out, and after he did that he won by 2 ¾ [lengths]. It was kind of scary at the eighth pole."
His owner, two-time Super Bowl-winning head coach Bill Parcells, was said to have taken it all in stride.
"Bill said, 'He was coming over to the grandstand to visit,'" reported Sciacca.
That wasn't the only drama Saratoga Snacks created this week.
"He got loose four days before the race and jumped on a pony," said Sciacca. "He's a good-feeling horse, and he jumped on a pony, knocked the pony down, and got loose. The day he was running we were walking him over to the track. He reared up and lost his front shoe. So we had to call [Joe]
Saratoga Snacks, a 3-year-old son of Tale of the Cat, is named for Sciacca.
"Bill wanted to name him after me," said Sciacca. "He wanted to call him 'Snacks,' but we couldn't get [that name]. So I said, 'Bill, you live in
Sciacca said he and Parcells will determine Saratoga Snacks' next start at a later date.
"A lot of stupid things do go wrong [in racing], but he came out [of the race] great," said Sciacca. "That was the main thing."
A yearling half-sister to Saratoga Snacks will be offered as Hip 276 tonight at Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga New York-Bred Preferred Yearlings sale.
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Favored on the morning line at 7-2 for Monday's $100,000 Coronation Cup is R. Larry Johnson's Heaven Knows What, easy winner of the Oakley Stakes at Colonial Downs last time out on July 27.
Trained by Michael Trombetta, she will leave from post position 9 in the 5 ½-furlong turf sprint for 3-year-old fillies under
Todd Pletcher will send out 9-2 third choice Sweet Cat for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. The daughter of Kitten's Joy broke her maiden last summer at Saratoga at the Coronation Cup distance and went on to finish second in the Grade 3, 1 1/6-mile Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland en route to a third-place showing in the one-mile Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
She finished fifth in her 2012 debut, a 1 1/16-mile turf optional claimer at Gulfstream Park, won a five-furlong turf optional claimer at the South Florida oval a month later, and most recently was second in the six-furlong Thirty Flags overnight stakes at Belmont Park.
"I still think she gets a mile no problem, but I think she excels at 5 ½," Pletcher said. "It's really her optimal distance."
Javier Castellano will ride from post 4.
Completing the field, from the rail out, are Pearl In The Sand, Sensible Lady, Alydarla, Quick Flip, Sharp Sally, and Kiss in the Forest. Ullapool was entered for the main track only.
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