Promise Me Silver Set for Prioress
Robert Luttrell's well-traveled Promise Me Silver will look to change her racing luck in New York when she makes her Saratoga debut in the Prioress, according to her trainer Bret Calhoun. The gray Texas-bred filly, who will be making her 11thcareer start over her eighth different racetrack, had put her perfect racing record on the line in the Grade 1 Acorn at Belmont Park in June, ending her eight-race win streak with a 10th-place finish.
Calhoun took another shot in New York's graded stakes ranks, this time in the Grade 3 Victory Ride in July. Breaking from the inside post, Promise Me Silver lacked running room for much of the race and finished a lukewarm fifth.
Arriving at the Spa several weeks ago, Promise Me Silver has turned in a sharp pair of breezes on the local surface in advance of her Prioress bid, most recently working four furlongs in a bullet-earning 46.46 seconds on August 28.
"She's coming into the race very well. Her breezes have really been good here," said Calhoun. "She went fast but she did it the right way. Visually, it looked like a high gallop, so I was pretty pleased with it."
Eager to avoid the traffic Promise Me Silver faced in the Victory Ride, Calhoun hoped his filly wouldn't be compromised again with an inside post position in the Prioress but wasn't completely prepared to draw the outermost post 11.
"I definitely wanted to draw outside, and I got what I wished for. It's a little farther out than I would like," he admitted. "It's either the one or the 11, I guess. I'd much rather be outside."
After two failed attempts at stretching out earlier this year, Chester and Mary Broman homebred Bar of Gold comes back for a second straight sprint in the Prioress.
Bar of Gold opened her career with three sprint victories against fellow New York-breds before taking on open company in the one-mile, Grade 1 Acorn June 6, where she finished sixth.
Trainer John Kimmel then shipped her to Delaware Park for the Grade 3 Delaware Oaks July 11. In that race, the daughter of Grade 1 Travers winner Medaglia d'Oro and granddaughter of Grade 1 Belmont Stakes winner Lemon Drop Kid contested the lead before fading to fourth.
"She made this tremendous move and looked like she had the lead turning for home, and I was kind of expecting her to kick on," Kimmel said. "She just kind of flattened out. I don't know if it was her first two-turn experience, but I always felt she could handle two turns, or at least races longer than seven furlongs.
"I was really looking forward to it, because the way she breezes and gallops out I her breezes, it was like [distance] shouldn't be a problem. Taking that in association with her pedigree ... you would think distance was not going to limit her. Maybe we keep her at the sprint distance for this season and next year I'll try to stretch her out again."
Most recently, Bar of Gold sat in a stalking position before taking a 1 ½-length lead into the stretch, but was ultimately reeled in and passed late by Cavorting in the seven-furlong, Grade 1 Longines Test August 8. Bar of Gold stayed up for second, 1 ¾ lengths ahead of Grade 1 winner By the Moon.
"To me, she ran the kind of race I was looking for," Kimmel said. "She ran so well, and she does have the ability to sprint as she showed in the Test. I think if that race was [six furlongs], she looked to me like she was maybe three in front at the eighth pole."
Jose Lezcano returns to ride Bar of Gold for Kimmel, a two-time Test winner (1994, 1997) and 1997 co-leading trainer whose last graded stakes win at Saratoga came with Premium Tap in the 2006 Grade 1 Woodward.
"The one thing I really like about this filly is she's just got such a great mind. Some of these horses have a tendency to get nervous and wound up, but she has been such a class act," Kimmel said. "Even shipping around, she has been such a nice horse to be around. She doesn't seem to get upset by too much. I'm looking forward to her putting up an 'A' race here. Hopefully, it will be good enough and she can work out a trip that's good enough to be competitive."
Source: NYRA Communications