Ironicus Tries to Keep Climbing in Fourstardave
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A week after taking down one of the meet's biggest prizes, Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey will attempt to win one of the most important turf races of the meet - the Grade 2, $500,000 Fourstardave - with Ironicus on Saturday at Saratoga Race Course.
Last Saturday, McGaughey picked up his third Grade 1 Whitney victory with Honor Code, who put in a strong late run to nail Liam's Map a few jumps from the wire in the $1.25 million race.
Ironicus, owned by Stuart Janney, III, enters the one-mile Fourstardave off a facile 1 ¼-length score in an optional claimer on July 8 at Belmont Park. The son of Distorted Humor has shown marked improvement as a 4-year-old, netting three wins and a second-place finish from four starts.
Two starts ago, Ironicus proved he was ready to take on the division's elite with an eye-catching triumph in the Grade 2 Dixie at Pimlico Race Course. The gray colt sat well off a moderate pace and steamrolled the field in the stretch to win by 2 ¾ lengths, seemingly sprinting as he crossed the wire.
"That was his breakthrough. He put it all together and it all worked," McGaughey said of the Dixie. "He's always been a nice horse. It was just a matter of him getting it all together and learning. He ran a couple times [as a 3-year-old] then was off for a good while. We've always thought he had ability."
Ironcus' maturation has been so convincing that, if all goes as planned on Saturday, McGaughey believes he could have a Breeders' Cup horse on his hands.
"I hope [he's got more to show]. That's what I'm planning on," said McGaughey. "I think he's a very, very good horse, so we'll have just have to wait and see if he keeps climbing up the ladder where it all pans out.
"He would be suited to the Breeders' Cup Mile because of his running style," he added. "He'd be back because there would be a lot going on up front, so that's what I have in mind."
Ironicus will be ridden by Javier Castellano from post 3.
Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott will send out two runners, including defending champion Seek Again, who hasn't raced since finishing third in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on June 13 at Santa Anita Park.
Seek Again, a chestnut son of Speightstown, was ultra-impressive taking last year's edition of the Fourstardave. The Juddmonte Farms color-bearer was bottled up for most of the stretch before exploding late to prevail by a neck over Grand Arch.
Seek Again failed to hit the board in three subsequent tries, including a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Turf Classic at Churchill Downs in his 2015 debut, before closing mildly in the Shoemaker. He will break from post 5 with Julien Leparoux aboard.
Mott will also send out multiple graded stakes winner Vyjack, a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Tepin, who missed by a nose earlier in the meet in the Grade 1 Diana. Since joining the Mott barn two starts ago, Vyjack has finished second in the Grade 3 Poker and third in the Forbidden Apple at Belmont in his first two tries on turf.
Junior Alvarado has the mount aboard Vyjack, and the duo will depart from post 7.
The meet's leading trainer, Todd Pletcher, will also saddle a pair of runners: Jack Milton, a Grade 1 winner at a mile, and Mshawish, who is coming off a third-place finish in the Group 1 Dubai Turf.
Owned by Gary Barber, Jack Milton enters the Fourstardave off a ninth-place finish in the Grade 1 Knob Creek Manhattan on Belmont Stakes Day. Earlier this year, the 5-year-old son of War Front won the Grade 1 Maker's 46 Mile at Keeneland by 2 ¼ lengths before finishing second in the Turf Classic via disqualification.
Jack Milton drew post 8, and will be ridden by Triple Crown winning jockey Victor Espinoza.
A globetrotting son of Medaglia d'Oro, Mshawish flourished over the winter at Gulfstream Park, where he won three stakes in a row culminating with a narrow triumph in the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap. After his breakthrough victory, the dark bay 5-year-old made a return visit to Dubai, and improved upon his fourth-place finish from a year ago in the Dubai Turf despite finishing five lengths behind Solow.
Unraced since March 28, Mshawish will have the services of Hall of Famer John Velazquez from the rail.
Rounding out the field are last year's runner-up, Grand Arch; hard-knocking New York-bred, King Kreesa; Florida shipper Grand Tito; stretch-out sprinter Weekend Hideaway; and the D. Wayne Lukas-trained Skyring.
Source: NYRA Communications
Source: NYRA Communications
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