Sayif, Get Serious Expected for Oceanport

Sayif and Get Serious, who finished at opposite ends of the Battlefield Stakes here last Saturday, are likely to meet again in the $200,000 Oceanport Stakes (G3) here on Haskell Day, July 31.

Sayif, a 5-year-old Irish-bred owned by Saleh Al-Homaizi and trained by Patrick Biancone, was a wire-to-wire winner of the Battlefield, getting the mile over a turf course labeled “good” in 1:34.40.

Get Serious, a 7-year-old trained by John Forbes and Pat McBurney for Jim Dinan and Phantom House Farm, never looked comfortable on the softened turf and finished sixth of six. He had won the Battlefield in front-running fashion in 2009, setting a course record of 1:32.70 over firm ground.

“If Sayif comes out of the race well, he’ll go in the Oceanport next,” said Biancone.

The trainer also saddled Nownownow for the Battlefield, but the 6-year-old never ran and finished fifth.

“I thought he would win,” Biancone said, “but he strained his ankle in the race. He will be out for a while.”

Get Serious will tackle the mile and a sixteenth Oceanport – a race he won last year by a neck over the Biancone-trained Violon Sacre – only if the going is firm.

“There was a lot of debate among us whether to start in the Battlefield,” McBurney said. “In the end, we decided to give him one more try over a soft course.

“The jockey (Pablo Fragoso) said after the race that Get Serious didn’t like the grass course at all,” McBurney said.

Last year, Get Serious had a dream season, winning five stakes in six starts over the firm Monmouth turf. His only loss came in the 11-furlong United Nations (G1), just a little too far for him.

This season has been the complete opposite. In three starts, he’s caught “good” turf twice and finished off the board, and ran once on the main track, another surface Get Serious does not appreciate.

“As good as everything fell into place last year, that’s how bad it going this year,” McBurney said. “He’s bigger and stronger this year, but nothing has gone right yet.”