Blofeld, Signature Cat Finish Fast at Saratoga

The fifth-race maiden special weight on Thursday only had five horses, but four of them came with vaunted reputations as being very fast in talk around the backstretch.

Trainer Eric Guillot, who won the Grade 1 Whitney earlier in the meet with Moreno, sent out a rocket in Signature Cat but Blofeld, from trainer Todd Pletcher, ran him down at the sixteenth pole to win by a length.

Signature Cat ran the opening quarter-mile of the five-furlong race in a torrid 22.11 seconds and the half in 45.44. Blofeld came home in 57.83 seconds.

Pletcher was very pleased with the effort, considering Blofeld's professionalism.

"He was a little green, but once he got straightened away, he finished up well," Pletcher said. "He's a horse that had trained very well, and we anticipated he would run well first time out, but you can't simulate race conditions in the morning. You can prepare them to the best of their ability, but there's no way to duplicate a race scenario. Well, I suppose there is, but we don't. So, I was proud of him putting it all together and get it done.

"Eric Guillot's horse was very fast, and I heard that the Scat Daddy colt [El Kabeir] had been training well, so you kind of anticipate or expect those types of races when you're at Saratoga."

Pletcher said the Grade 1 Hopeful on closing day of the meet probably comes up too soon for Blofeld, but the Grade 1 Champagne or Grade 2 Futurity at Belmont Park this fall are likely.

Guillot, meantime, was happy with Signature Cat but would have liked the victory.

"It's not his fault because everybody said their horse was the best one in that race," he said. "They were hyping Pletcher's horse like was the flying Pegasus. I had the best horse, if I didn't go 11 [seconds] and 11 [for the first quarter-mile], you know what I mean? He ran an 85 Beyer [Speed Figure], pretty good for a baby. He ran really good; best horse. He just went too fast early."