Is Archwarrior the best 2YO of 2012?
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On Thursday in Saratoga’s
third race Todd Pletcher has entered a bay two year-old colt named Archwarrior. This son of Arch is by far
the most ballyhooed and hyped juvenile of the meeting. That is really saying something when
you think about the amazing babies who have already won this summer for
Pletcher.
The Stonestreet filly Kauai Katie recorded the highest BSF of
100 for any two year-old this year, male or female, in her maiden victory. She
followed that up with a convincing win in the Adirondack (G2).
Shanghai Bobby has won his
first two races convincingly. His maiden victory came at Aqueduct in April, and
then he won the Track Barron stake at Belmont in June. At Belmont Shanghai Bobby earned a BSF of 93,
which is the fourth best of the year.
Pletcher believes that his
most impressive juvenile to win thus far has been Dreaming of Julia, who is another Stonestreet filly. She broke her
maiden at Saratoga on August 6th, going six and a half furlongs. This
AP Indy filly recently dazzled the clockers with a morning breeze of five
furlongs in :59.59 seconds with a gallop out of six furlongs in 1:12.94. Regular
rider John Velazquez was in the saddle for that work.
Archwarrior is entered in
the third race at Saratoga as part of an entry that is listed at 4-5 in the
morning line. The other half of
the Alto Racing LLC entry is Tizracer,
a son of Tiznow who sold for $450,000 as a yearling at Keeneland’s September
sale.
Archwarrior went through the
March Ocala Breeders’ Sale for two year-olds in training as Hip 212. He was
clocked in :10.2 for his one furlong breeze, which convinced Alto Racing LLC to
spend $375,000 for this colt by Arch.
video from Ocala Breeders’ Sales
Company
The dam of Archwarrior is
Winner’s Edge and she is a daughter of Seeking the Gold born in 1992. Winner’s
Edge raced 24 times with 4 wins, 5 seconds, and 1 third for earnings of
$145,450. She did finish second in the Affectionately Handicap (G3). Archwarrior is the most highly regarded
progeny of an older mare that has produced 11 foals since 1999. Her best runner
to date was a 2007 stakes placed son of Deputy Minister named Capac.
Archwarrior has been
preparing for the races with very regularly spaced workouts since June 26th.
His works have been consistently impressive with three of them earning bullets
including a :58.2 breeze from the gate on the main track at Saratoga.
The draw for race three on
Thursday put Archwarrior in the fifth post position and stablemate Tizracer in
the eight hole. The field drew two other coupled entries, one from Klaravich
Stables and another from Bruce Levine. It remains to be seen which horse from
Pletcher will run or whether they will both go.
@AndySerling, of NYRA
recently tweeted, “Not since Empire Maker, has an unraced 2YO generated as much
hype as Archwarrior. Here’s hoping he’s that good.”
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