Upstart and Samraat might represent Violette in Whitney

With Upstart already confirmed for the Grade 1, $1.25 million Whitney next weekend, trainer Rick Violette Jr. continues to mull the inclusion of multiple Grade 3 winner Samraat in Saturday's 1 1/8-mile Saratoga classic.

Owned and bred by Len Riggio's My Meadowview Farm in New York, Samraat earned a career-high 103 Beyer Speed Figure for his bold runner-up finish to Effinex in the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap on July 9 at Belmont Park. Violette said if the 5-year-old son of Noble Causeway skips the Whitney, he will be pointed instead to the Grade 1, $600,000 Woodward on September 3.

"We're still on the fence with Samraat," Violette said shortly after training hours closed Monday morning. "I'll talk to Mr. Riggio today, get his thoughts, and decide sometime tomorrow.

"I think it might be a little close from his Suburban. That was a pretty big effort, a career best, and it's only four weeks," he continued. "Sometimes horses tease you and act a little better than they really feel and they end up disappointing you. So we're just trying to be careful, he's been great to us and if you have to run one time less to get really good efforts out of them then that's what you're supposed to do."

Samraat is still looking for his first victory of 2016 after a pair of seconds in the Grade 3 Westchester and Suburban and a fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Brooklyn. As a 3-year-old, Samraat opened his career with five straight wins, including Grade 3 scores in the Withers and Gotham, before finishing fifth in the Kentucky Derby and sixth in the Belmont.

If Samraat runs in the Whitney, Violette said, he will likely be ridden by Jose Ortiz.

Violette reported that Upstart continues to train forwardly ahead of his Whitney bid and will again sport the blinkers he added prior to his third-place finish in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, which was won by expected Whitney heavyweight Frosted by an astounding 14 ¼ lengths.

"He's doing wonderfully. He's training great," said Violette. "We breezed him out of the gate with blinkers on and he was a rocket. He's been a little bit tardy leaving the gate and taking the last seat available rather than getting in a spot that would be most advantageous. Hopefully he breaks clean and Irad can put him wherever he thinks is best. It's going to be a small field but I think it's a deep bunch, and if Frosted runs back to his Met Mile, we're all running for second."

Source: NYRA Communications