Island Town makes Saratoga Debut in Alydar

After winning three times in six races, including a pair of Grade 3 stakes in 2015, Six Column Stables LLC and Randall Bloch's Island Town will make his Saratoga debut in Sunday's $100,000 Alydar.

The gelded 4-year-old son of Hard Spun, trained by Ian Wilkes, had his sophomore season ended by injury after finishing eighth behind Frosted in the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby last September.

Prior to that, Island Town had won three of four starts, sandwiching victories in the Grade 3 Smarty Jones at Parx and the Grade 3 Matt Winn at Churchill Downs around a fifth-place finish in the Grade 2 Indiana Derby over a sloppy track at Indiana Downs.

"He's a nice horse. He's really done well in races like the Matt Winn and Smarty Jones, where he ran really good. That's when I thought he was developing into a really nice horse, and he came out of that last race with a little issue," Wilkes said. "He just needed a minor surgery and he's a gelding, so we just took our time."

Island Town returned to run third, beaten 2 ¼ lengths in the seven-furlong Kelly's Landing July 2 at Churchill. The winner, Alsvid, is another multiple graded stakes winner that went on to run third in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby.

"It's hard to get an allowance for him because he's out of conditions, so it was a good place to start," Wilkes said. "It was just an overnight stake but it came up tough. He's going into this one good."

Island Town drew post 3 under jockey Javier Castellano at co-highweight of 123 pounds.

"You don't want to put him in too deep, but it's come up pretty salty, this race," Wilkes said. "It's a pretty nice race. Well, is Saratoga ever easy?"

Wilkes said that 3-year-old Unbridled's Song colt Bird Song, a homebred for Saratoga socialite Marylou Whitney, came out of a half-mile breeze Thursday in good order and would be pointed to the Grade 1, $500,000 Ketel One King's Bishop on August 27.

"I'll nominate him to the King's Bishop and we'll have a look at that. He's a 3-year-old and he's a very talented horse," Wilkes said. "He's done nothing wrong so we might give him a shot. The main thing is how he trains coming up to it."

Bird Song went four furlongs over the main track in 48.74 seconds, his first work since taking a six-furlong Spa allowance by 1 ¾ lengths July 24 for his second consecutive win. Unraced at 2, he didn't debut until April 29 at Keeneland.

"He worked good. It was just a little maintenance work," Wilkes said. "He's a nice horse. To come out of a maiden and then go to an allowance at Saratoga, you're stepping up in condition and stepping up in class and to still be able to win, that's a good sign."