Whitney begins countdown to retirement for Swiss Skydiver

The countdown to the end of Swiss Skydiver’s illustrious racing career almost surely begins Saturday, when she tackles males in the $1 million Whitney Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.

Owner Peter Callahan said he agreed to the current star-crossed 4-year-old campaign to honor the wishes of his three daughters, Christine, Carolyn and Patricia. Do not look for him to yield again.

“My daughters would probably love for me to say, ‘Let’s race again,’ but I don’t think they’re going to prevail this time,” said Callahan, 79.

After a sensational 3-year-old season that included a historic Preakness triumph and left Swiss Skydiver as the queen of her division, very little has gone as hoped and planned this year. The assorted misfortunes led Callahan to call this season “a testimony to cashing out, no doubt about it.”

The Whitney will mark only the third start for his prized filly in 2021 and her first since she was a fading third in the April 17 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park. She finished 6 1/2 lengths behind Letruska, who was a nose better than Monomoy Girl. Callahan believes the daughter of Daredevil, one of the great bargains in history as a $35,000 yearling, did not take to the Oaklawn Park surface. She had opened the season with her third Grade 1 triumph, an authoritative 2 3/4-length score in the March 13 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita.

Following the Apple Blossom, trainer Ken McPeek targeted another Grade 1, the June 5 Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park, only to have Swiss Skydiver spike a fever before that contest. That bit of bad luck got worse when a case of Equine Herpesvirus-1 in her Saratoga barn led to a quarantine and forced her to miss the July 25 Shuvee Stakes (G3).

“We were planning to run as a confidence-building, stamina-building exercise,” Callahan said of the Shuvee. “We got kayoed by the racing office owing to quarantine rules which had been laid down due to the equine herpes outbreak at Saratoga. I don’t know how many barns they have at Saratoga, but we were the only barn that was affected. It’s been very disappointing, very frustrating.”

The Whitney marks Swiss Skydiver’s third encounter with males. She placed second to Art Collector in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland last July but went on to emerge as the sixth filly to win the Preakness.

Since the Whitney had not been part of their long-term plan, Callahan acknowledged the possibility that Swiss Skydiver will not be fully prepared for her acid test against some of the nation’s top males. She drilled five furlongs in 1:01.21 seconds on Aug. 1 at Saratoga in her final tune-up.

“Yes, of course I’m worried. It is certainly a concern of ours,” the owner said. “She hasn’t raced in almost four months. We’ve had to vary her work pattern as the targets for racing changed.”

Although Swiss Skydiver attracted Irad Ortiz Jr., she is listed at the second-longest odds in the field of five at 6-1 in her bid to become the seventh filly to win the Whitney in its 94-year history and the first since Personal Ensign maintained her undefeated ways in 1988. Knicks Go (6-5) and Maxfield (8-5) are the top two choices.

No matter the outcome, Callahan emphasized that the Whitney can play a valuable role in preparing his prized filly for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Del Mar.

“All of this is a prelude to the Breeders’ Cup,” he said. “We have to get a good race into her and then get another one, presumably at the end of August or the beginning of September at Saratoga. That should put us in good shape for the Breeders’ Cup.”

McPeek, known for his bold, risk-taking nature, has said that a solid Whitney effort would lead to yet another go against males, in the Sept. 4 Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) at Saratoga.

Callahan overruled his trainer in opting to run in the 1 1/8-mile Breeders’ Cup Distaff last November, where she lost any shot by stumbling at the start, rather than the Classic. He sounds much more open to the $6 million Classic this year. Not only is the purse three times that of the Distaff, but he believes she is better suited to the mile and a quarter.

“It depends on how she does leading up to the Breeders’ Cup and how she trains and we’ll see,” Callahan said. “I wouldn’t rule it out. Don’t bet against it.”