How Good is The Great War?

If you didn’t happen to handicap the 96ROCK Stakes, or look at the oddsboard beforehand, you must have watched in shock as the winner romped home in the January 31 feature at Turfway Park just about as easily as a horse can win a race. It wasn’t so much the 7 ¼-length final margin that The Great War won by that evening, but it was the way he looked cantering down the stretch that really stood out. Truly a case of barely breaking a sweat, it appeared that he could have won by 20 if asked at all in the stretch of the 6 ½ furlong stakes race. Remaining on the Turfway trail to the 2015 Kentucky Derby, The Great War will be back to thrill the local fans once again when he breaks from the far outside in an eleven horse field for the $125,000 John Battaglia Memorial Stakes on Saturday evening.

Owned by Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Susan Magnier, and Joseph Allen, and trained by Wesley Ward, The Great War is a bit of a known quantity, as evidenced by his 1-10 odds in the 11-horse 96Rock field, but on the other hand, the son of War Front remains one of the bigger mystery horses on the Kentucky Derby trail.

After selling for a cool million at the Keeneland September Sale of 2013, the Kentucky-bred bay made his first seven starts of his career in England and Ireland, where he compiled a solid record of 3-for-7 in good company on the turf. Sent back to America, The Great War made his dirt debut in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita. He didn’t threaten for the win that afternoon, but all in all, his 4th-of-11 finish in America’s most important juvenile race was not all bad. Especially considering it was his first race in the U.S., on dirt, and going two-turns. The 96ROCK was his first race since the Breeders’ Cup.

At 8 ½ furlongs, Saturday’s Battaglia Memorial will give The Great War another chance to prove that he can excel around two-turns, and it will also feature some tougher competition, but a performance similar to his latest would once again likely have the rest of the field up a creek without a paddle.

Chief among his competition will be the Florida invader, Firespike. A two-time stakes winner, the son of Flower Alley made a strong late run to win the OBS Championship Stakes going away in his latest. The Mike Maker trainer won that one going 1 1/16 miles over a synthetic surface like he will see Saturday, but then again, there was no one in that field with the class or talent of The Great War. Before that, Firespike had accounted for a maiden race at Saratoga, and a state-bred stakes race at Gulfstream Park West, both on turf, in his previous six starts.

Another colt who could make some noise in the Battaglia is Task Force Glory, but the Ken & Sarah Ramsey runner has to date only won a maiden race in six lifetime starts.

So you can expect The Great War to be a prohibitive favorite again on Saturday, but what should we expect to see from him over the Polytrack of Turfway? Another eye-catching win at the Northern Kentucky oval would be fun to see, and it would further his mystique as a real horse to watch on the Kentucky Derby trail, but I’m afraid until we see him on dirt and against better horses, it will be very hard to gauge just how good The Great War really is.