Saratoga: Two of a Kind seeks breakthrough win in Quick Call
Two of a Kind brings a six-race streak of on-the-board efforts in stakes events to Sunday’s Grade 3, $175,000 Quick Call at Saratoga as he looks for a breakthrough score at the graded level in a race that was moved off the turf.
Trained by Brian Lynch, the 3-year-old son of Overanalzye began his streak with a win in last year’s Tremont at Belmont Park before a shoulder injury forced a seven-month layoff. He returned as a sophomore with a trio of third-place efforts in Gulfstream Park’s Limehouse, Swale (G3), where he made the lone graded start of his career, and Hutcheson.
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Lynch decided in April to switch the bay colt to the turf, a move he said was done on a whim.
“It seems like he’s doing really well and we’re happy with him,” said Lynch.
“The turf has been a pleasant surprise. I’m a guy who will just try horses on the grass, and his form had been OK down in Florida, but I never felt like we weren’t getting out of him what we expected. So, we thought we’d give it a try and I think things have turned around.”
The decision left him cold on the board in the 5 1/2-furlong Palisades when making his grass debut over good footing in April at Keeneland. He exited the inside post at odds of 51-1 and was held near the rear of the 12-horse field down the backstretch before unleashing a strong turn of foot in the turn and running down all but Gaslight Dancer, whom he faces again Sunday.
“That was a great run down there,” said Lynch. “I think the further he’s getting into his 3-year-old year, he’s becoming a bigger and stronger horse. He’s getting a lot more confident and he’s starting to come around. It seems I can keep horses sound and around a lot longer if they show affinity for the turf, and right now what we’re doing seems to be working.”
Two of a Kind enters the 5 1/2-furlong Quick Call off a runner-up effort at the same distance in the William Walker on May 13 at Churchill Downs, where he defeated Gaslight Dancer and finished 1 1/2 lengths behind fellow Quick Call aspirant No Nay Hudson.
The race was moved off the turf after more rain at Saratoga, but Lynch said he has little concern for what kind of surface the Quick Call is contested over.
“He’s a horse that you wouldn’t hesitate to run on the dirt either, so either way we are up there to run,” said Lynch. “He ran well at Keeneland when there was a bit of cut in the ground, so no excuses.”
Two of a Kind is out of the stakes-placed Freud mare Freud’s Irish Miss, who herself is a half-sister to broodmares Private Eyes and Sweet Vale, the respective dams of graded-stakes-placed millionaire Immortal Eyes and multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Sterwins. Two of a Kind has banked $273,785 in total purse earnings through a record of 7: 2-2-3.
Six horses were scratched from the race: No. 1 No Nay Hudson, No. 3 Eye Witness, No. 4 Dr. Oseran, No. 6 Charging, No. 8 Son of a Birch, and No. 10 Gaslight Dancer.