Angel of Empire connections look for momentum in Jim Dandy

Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Jason Loutsch, racing manager for Albaugh Family Stable, is not accustomed to receiving texts from trainer Brad Cox. He was pleasantly surprised when one clicked in during the early-morning hours of July 14 regarding Angel of Empire.

“Angel worked really well,” it read, referring to a five-furlong drill at Saratoga that was clocked in 1:00.90.

“Those are always good to wake up to,” Loutsch said.

Then came another text this past Saturday after the colt traveled five furlongs in 1:01.58 in company with Hit Show, the stablemate he dead-heated with for fourth in the Belmont Stakes.

“Angel worked super,” this one read.

Loutsch has been looking for good news ahead of Saturday’s Grade 2 $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga, the traditional prep for what looms as a pivotal Travers (G1) on Aug. 26 in the wide-open race for 3-year-old honors.

Angel of Empire has been relegated to an afterthought, but he was among the leaders of his class earlier this year after victories in the Risen Star Stakes (G2) at Fair Grounds and an emphatic 4 1/4-length score in the Arkansas Derby (G1).

With the scratch of Forte the morning of the Kentucky Derby because of a foot injury, Angel of Empire went off as the favorite in the opening leg of the Triple Crown. He did not run badly and was gaining ground in the final strides despite a seven-wide move under Flavien Prat. But Mage was the better 3-year-old that afternoon and Albaugh Family Stable settled for third, its best Derby finish for those who might be content with consolation prizes.

Angel of Empire added blinkers for the 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes, and Prat kept his mount closer to the slower pace. But the test of the champion did not go their way, either. Dead-heating with a stablemate for fourth felt like, well, another consolation prize.

Cox noted that both trips could have gone better. “A mile and a half, you don’t want to lose a lot of ground, and both of them did lose some ground,” he said.

The Eclipse Award-winning trainer went on about the Belmont performance of his evenly matched colts, “I didn’t love it, but I wasn’t disappointed, either. I thought they ran their races. Respectable runs.”

Respectable runs, of course, will not bring consideration for the Eclipse Award as North America’s leading 3-year-old male. And that is what Loutsch and his Iowa-based family operation are chasing.

“We’re under the radar as far as people talking about us,” Loutsch said. “People are talking about the horses that won the Triple Crown races.”

Interestingly, the presumed division leader is one who did not. That would be Jim Dandy-bound Forte, who impressed onlookers with a valiant rally that led to a second-place finish to Arcangelo in the Belmont despite a 10-week layoff.

The fair-minded Loutsch could not help but admire Forte and all that he overcame to handle the marathon so well. “What he did in the Belmont I thought was truly remarkable,” the racing manager said. “To come off a long layoff and run the mile and a half the way he did it, he’s still the champion. Until someone beats him, he’s the champion.”

Loutsch finds himself holding his breath about Angel of Empire as the campaign progresses. These horses are still maturing, after all. Some will blossom while others wilt.

“What scares me about this 3-year-old year is you just never know when the grind is going to hit you. You never know when that is going to happen,” he said. “Hopefully, he can continue, and it sounds like he is doing well. At the same time, it’s a grind. It’s a long campaign, and these horses have been hard at it for almost a year now.”

Top trainers know they cannot constantly keep their foot on the accelerator. The key is to do everything possible to lead to a peak performance when it matters most. Cox gets that. Prep races such as the Jim Dandy are prep races. The Travers, aka the mid-summer derby, is the main event.

Cox said of the Jim Dandy, “This is a step toward the Travers, right? We’re wanting to see good efforts that can give us momentum and give us a shot to pursue the Travers.”