Pletcher tries to stay on top with Comfort in the Whitney

After winning back-to-back races Sunday, highlighted by Curalina's 9 1/4-length romp in the Grade 3, $200,000 Shuvee, Aron Wellman's Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners head into the third week at Saratoga Race Course with three victories from nine starters and tied for leading owner with Godolphin Stable and David Jacobson. They will try to keep that momentum going when trainer Todd Pletcher saddles Comfort in Saturday's Grade 1, $1.25 million Whitney Stakes.

 

"He's doing well, had a good work over the track [five furlongs in 1:01.23 Saturday]," said Pletcher, who has nine wins at the meet going into Wednesday's card and shares the top spot with Chad Brown. "It's an ambitious move, but we feel like he's an improving horse who's in good form."

 

Comfort's only loss from five starts on dirt came in last year's Grade 3 Lexington Stakes when a troubled fourth in his initial outing following a private purchase by Eclipse. He has won three in a row since then, capped by an impressive score in the State Dinner at Belmont Park on July 4. The Whitney will be his first Grade 1 assignment.

 

"It's a tough race but not a huge field, and we're taking a crack at it," said Pletcher, whose Cross Traffic won the 2013 Whitney in just his fifth career start. In last year's Whitney, Liam's Map was making his sixth lifetime start and graded-stakes debut when he led to the final yards before being run down by Honor Code. In the 2010 Whitney, Quality Road suffered a similar fate, coming up a head short to Blame after leading throughout.

 

"After last year's beat and Quality Road's beat...it's hard to get those back," said Pletcher. "Comfort is definitely an improving horse and sometimes those can be dangerous."

 

In addition to Mother Goose winner Off the Tracks, Pletcher also entered Kinsley Kisses in Saturday's Grade 1, $500,000 Test Stakes. Both 3-year-old fillies will be cutting back in distance to seven furlongs. Kinsley Kisses won her first two starts at seven furlongs, and has since finished third in the Beaumont, Black Eyed Susan and Delaware Oaks.

 

"Off the Tracks is coming off a big win and she's had success around one turn," said Pletcher. "Kinsley Kisses is a filly that ran well her first two starts sprinting and we felt like she was going to improve stretching out, and now after having stretched her out a few times we're thinking the cutback might be beneficial, and we're going to add some blinkers just to see if we can get her zeroed in a little bit. She's a filly that's always impressed us in the mornings as a kind of filly that would have won a graded stake by now."