No Hiding Place tries for Tough Tale of the Cat

Michael Tabor's No Hiding Place has won four of his five career starts and is among the contenders entered in Friday's Tale of the Cat, but trainer Wesley Ward wasn't expecting the six-furlong race to come up quite as salty as it did.

No Hiding Place, whose only loss was a fifth-place finish in the Grade 3 Commonwealth at Keeneland earlier this year, drew post 8 in a field of 11 older sprinters that includes dual Grade 1 Carter Handicap winner Dads Caps, the Grade 1-placed Stallwalkin' Dude, and Marylou Whitney's stakes-winning pair of Gorgeous Bird and Viva Majorca.

"The race has kind of come up tough - a lot tougher than I thought it would," said Ward, who flew back to Kentucky this morning and will return later in the week. "There's a lot of speed. [No Hiding Place] doesn't have to be on the lead, which is a good thing. Still, it's a very contentious field, that's for sure. You wouldn't think a listed would be as tough as that one, but it's Saratoga right?"

Although Ward is responsible for one-third of the 27 nominees to Sunday's Grade 2, $200,000 Saratoga Special, none are likely to run.

"We just kind of nominated to take a look at it," he said. "But we're probably not going to have anything going."

Ward will send out the talented Silvertoni in Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 Adirondack. The Tapit filly won her first two starts, beating the boys in the $100,000 Kentucky Juvenile, before finishing unplaced in the Coventry Stakes over soft turf at Royal Ascot.

"She's a big filly and she just kind of sunk into the ground over there, but I do think she'll grass," noted Ward.

Source: NYRA Communications