Art Collector points to BC Classic after big Woodward win
Art Collector, whose Woodward (G1) victory Saturday was his third straight win, will aim for the Breeders' Cup Classic.
"If you want to hit an eagle, you've got to shoot high in the sky, right?" owner Bruce Lunsford told Horse Racing Nation on Monday.
Lunsford gave much of the credit to jockey Luis Saez for the Bernardini colt's 1 1/2-length win over Maxfield.
"I don't think he was all out – Luis has got a handle on this horse," Lunsford said. "I hope we can figure out a way to keep him, but we'll do what we can do. But he's definitely done well with him. I don't think the last two races he's hit him twice. He's got a good, smooth flow – the horse does and so does Luis. So I was very pleased with the last two races. They're probably as good as anybody's ever ridden a horse for me."
Art Collector, trained by Bill Mott, also scored 1 1/2-length wins in both the Charles Town Classic (G2) and the listed Alydar Stakes with Saez aboard.
The three-race win streak is quite a turnaround for Art Collector, who was among the favorites for the 2020 Kentucky Derby before being scratched because of a foot problem. He then finished fourth in the Preakness and eighth in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile to close out the year.
He began his 2021 campaign in June, finishing sixth in the black-type Kelly's Landing. Lunsford then switched him from trainer Tom Drury to Mott's barn.
In deciding to pursue the Breeders' Cup Classic, Lunsford said, he and Mott had "already talked about it. He said it pretty well the other day – he's 4-for-4 going a mile-and-an-eighth. Why would you want to shorten him up? He doesn't look like distance is a barrier."
Lunsford had another big win over the weekend when British Royalty, at 24-1, upset the Breeders' Stakes at Woodbine, the third leg of the Canadian Triple Crown. Lunsford owns the gelding with Barbara Minshall, who also trains him.
"I've got to give Barbara a lot of credit for that," Lunsford said. "We claimed him back. She put him in a race against older horses going a mile and a quarter just to give him a race to see if the distance was a factor. And he ran pretty decently, I think he finished fifth or sixth or something. (He finished eighth in the Sept. 5 race.) But they were older horses. This was a 3-year-old race, it's the third leg of the Canadian Triple Crown. And I thought he overwhelmed the field actually, in the end, which surprised me and Barbara. That was great."
Lunsford is not sure what the next step is for the son of English Channel.
"I don't think you'll see him on less than a mile and a quarter. I think he handled the mile-and-a-half, he was still galloping out at the end, happy. He's grown a lot. I think that's why he had that little drop in his performance because he was going through a growth spurt. But now he's got it. … He's been training pretty well. And I thought the big, big imprimatur was when Patrick Husbands said he'd like to ride him. He's like Mike Smith, he kind of picks the ones he wants to ride."
Lunsford also is optimistic about Runway Magic, a 3-year-old gelding whom he owns with John Sikura.
A son of Runhappy, he won his first race of the year last month at Churchill Downs. It was his second start off a break after he finished last in the Sam F. Davis Stakes (G3) in February at Tampa Bay Downs.
"I think he's a comer. I think he's getting better and better."
And waiting in the wings is Legionnaire, a 2-year-old half-brother to Art Collector.
"He's a big horse, and he's coming along a little slower. But when he runs, he's good. We're going to try to run him the last weekend of Churchill Downs."