Zipse: Champions look the part in 5 Grade 1s at Saratoga

Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

It’s not often you see five Grade 1 races in a row, but would the action live up to the anticipation? Saturday at Saratoga the races delivered on the ambitious schedule with heart-pounding finishes and a grand finale that dropped the curtain on a spectacular afternoon of racing.

The smorgasbord at the Spa began with the reigning horse of the year Thorpedo Anna taking on a quartet of Grade 1 winners in the $500,000 Personal Ensign Stakes.

Click here for Saratoga entries and results.

While it’s only natural for fans to want their superstars to win by the length of the stretch – more on that later – there are times when great horses are asked to dig down deep and respond in a way that only champions can.

Sent out after the leaders after going wide around the first turn, there were no breathers for Thorpedo Anna on Saturday. With Brian Hernandez Jr. in the saddle, she pushed the pace in a race with plenty of early speed and quickly took over on the far turn.

The race was far from over, however, as Dorth Vader was rallying from behind. The two would hook up early in the lane and it looked like the graveyard of champions was primed to strike again.

Instead, Thorpedo Anna responded to the challenge and fought back. The two came down to the wire together with the champion earning her seventh career Grade 1 victory by the narrowest of margins.

The result perhaps offered a little payback for Thorpedo Anna’s narrow defeat to Fierceness in the Travers (G1) one year before. And for the unlucky runner-up, Dorth Vader announced herself a real threat in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 1 at Del Mar.

What’s more exciting than a head-bobbing finish, how about two of them?

In the Jerkens Memorial (G1), Patch Adams was far from the heavy choice that Thorpedo Anna was, but he was the favorite in a wide-open race of fast 3-year-old males on the strength of a pair of impressive wins in his last two starts.

Where those victories had been easy, his challenge in the Jerkens was not. Captain Cook, a talented long shot who recently had changed barns, ran the race of his life and gave the Brad Cox-trained Patch Adams everything that he wanted.

The Jerkens was a nail-biter to the wire. For the second straight Grade 1 race at Saratoga, the decision came down to a nose as the brave winner prevailed on the rail.

In victory Patch Adams continued his trajectory as the best 3-year-old sprinter in the land, while Captain Cook looks to have found new life as a sprinter without blinkers in the barn of Todd Pletcher.

The females were back at it next in the Ballerina Stakes (G1), and it turned into a family affair.

It was seven years ago when the nice Blame filly Marley’s Freedom shipped east from California for trainer Bob Baffert to earn her first Grade 1 victory with a strong showing in the Ballerina. Saturday she struck gold as a broodmare with exactly the same pattern.

Shipping to Saratoga for the first time as a 4-year-old as her dam had done in 2018, Hope Road proved best Saturday over her top rival Scylla with a decisive, two-length score. And just like Marley’s Freedom, the Ballerina became the first Grade 1 victory in a promising career for the Baffert-trained daughter of Quality Road.

Next came the Forego Stakes (G1), and mighty little New Jersey-bred gelding Book’em Danno.

Already the winner of a pair of sprint stakes at Saratoga this season, the 4-year-old son of Bucchero was the headliner of a field of 10 older male sprinters.

Trained by veteran Derek Ryan, he looked the part warming up before the race and thrust himself immediately into contention as a torrid early pace was set just in front of him.

Splitting horses at the head of the stretch like the seasoned pro that he is, Book’em Danno surged to the lead and held sway the late runs of Scotland and Crazy Mason to win by a measured one-length margin.

Winning the prestigious Grade 1 race set off a joyous celebration for his owners. A small group of friends and family, the Atlantic Six team never has had a horse like Book’em Danno before, and they are enjoying the ride as he has emerged as the top sprinter in the country.

Last but not least, it was the biggest race of the day, and the biggest horse of all.

Where Thorpedo Anna had kicked off the day’s biggest races in thrilling fashion, it was Sovereignty who quite literally stopped the show with a totally different but equally satisfying type of win.

The $1.25 million Travers Stakes on paper looked to be a one-horse show, and Sovereignty made that ring true with a powerhouse display.

Strong victories in the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, Fountain of Youth (G2) and Jim Dandy (G2) led the big son of Into Mischief to the top of his class for his Hall of Fame conditioner Bill Mott. He took things to a new level in the signature race of Saratoga.

Biding his time behind the speed of Magnitude and Bracket Buster, Sovereignty and rider Júnior Alvarado patiently waited for the real running to begin. When it did, the opposition fell by the wayside.

Bracket Buster turned out to be much the best of the rest, but the stretch run was all about one of the best sophomore colts we’ve seen in several years here in the United States.

Pouring it on down the lane in front of an adoring Saratoga audience, Sovereignty crossed the wire a full 10 lengths in front while stopping the clock at racehorse time of 2:00.84 for the classic distance of 1 1/4 miles.

The afternoon’s five Grade 1 races began with the horse of the year proving again why she is a champion, and it closed with the passing of the baton to the new horse of the year.

The second half of that statement may not be official for several months, but Sovereignty is well on his way. What a day it was, on a very special Saturday at the Spa.