Royal Posse Consistent since being Claimed

Since being claimed for $20,000 last spring by trainer Rudy Rodriguez with Saratoga in mind, Royal Posse has been nothing but consistent. The 5-year-old gelding has finished first or second in 10 consecutive starts for his new connections with four wins and $451,400 in purse earnings.

Sunday's 1 1/8-mile Alydar marks a return to Saratoga for Royal Posse at both a track and a distance he relishes. He has three wins and a second in five tries at Saratoga, and is five-for-eight lifetime at nine furlongs, with one second.

"He's a pretty consistent horse. He doesn't owe us anything. He shows up every time and he's never run a bad race for us. We can't complain," Rodriguez said. "He's doing very good. The race is not easy, but we know he loves the mile and an eighth and he loves Saratoga, so we'll see what he can do there."

Royal Posse had a half-mile work in 49.53 seconds Thursday over the main track as a final tune-up for the Alydar, where he will break from post 1 of eight under Irad Ortiz, Jr. at 121 pounds. This year the New York-bred won the Mr. Sinatra Stakes and was second in the Jazil against open company, and was second in three state-bred stakes, most recently in the 1 1/16-mile Saginaw July 8 at Belmont Park.

"He breezed very, very good yesterday. He's happy and it looks like he came back good out of the work," Rodriguez said. "It's a salty race but this is the race where we have to point and then another race at the end of the meet. Hopefully that works for him."

Rodriguez has another New York-bred, Uno Emayo, entered in Monday's$100,000 New York Stallion Series Cab Calloway Stakes, which would mark the 3-year-old gelding's second straight start on grass. He has won two in a row, both in Maryland, the last a starter optional claimer July 2 at Laurel Park.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez said 6-year-old multiple graded stakes winner Dads Caps will make his next start in the $100,000 Tale of the Cat for 3-year-olds and up at six furlongs August 12. Dads Caps is winless in seven starts since taking the Grade 1 Carter Handicap last April at Aqueduct.

Dads Caps also breezed on Thursday, going five furlongs in 1:00.29 over the Oklahoma training track, the fastest of 16 horses.

"He's won some stakes for us over the years and he's been pretty good to us so we'll hope for the best. He's training very good. He went very, very good the other day and came back nice, and he looks good," Rodriguez said. "He's an honest horse. Hopefully we can finish the year with him and maybe the owner will decide to retire him. We'll take it day-by-day."

Rodriguez has had a relatively slow start to the meet with one win from just 15 starters through the first 12 days. Last year he tied for fourth with 15 victories after finishing in a fifth-place tie with 11 wins in 2014.

"Everything's good. We just need to win some races. Hopefully we start heating up," he said. "The horses look good and they're training good but this meet is very, very tough."