Wilkes Looking Forward to Productive Weekend
Trainer Ian Wilkes is looking forward to a productive weekend at the Spa, when he will send out Marylou Whitney's Viva Majorca in the Grade 1, $350,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt on Saturday and hard-knocking turf sprinter Free as a Bird in Sunday's$100,000 Caress.
Since finishing fourth in the 1 1/8-mile Curlin and sixth in the Grade 1 Travers last year at Saratoga, Viva Majorca has reinvented himself as a sprinter in 2015. The son of Tiago won a six-furlong optional claimer by 3 ¾ lengths on April 30 at Churchill Downs, and most recently closed strongly to take the seven-furlong Kelly's Landing on June 27 at Churchill.
"He's doing well but the race is going to be tough," said Wilkes. "There's no pressure, Marylou and John [Hendrickson] are tremendous people, just great to train for. Six [furlongs] may be a little short for him. I think he's a better seven-furlong horse, but you don't have a lot of opportunities. We'd like to go to the Forego [Grade 1, $700,000, August 29] from here, and we'd like to see some of these horses not go, because they're tough."
Elizabeth Valando's Free as a Bird may appreciate returning to Saratoga, where last year she won the Caress and turned in a phenomenal effort to prevail in the Smart and Fancy. The daughter of Hard Spun was mired in traffic for much of the stretch run of the 5 ½-furlong Smart and Fancy, but finished with a flourish once clear to prevail by a neck and notch her fourth consecutive stakes win on the NYRA circuit.
Free as a Bird, a 6-year-old chestnut mare, is winless in her past two starts, but brings an imposing resume into the Caress having won nine of 19 turf starts.
"We're a year older, but I don't think she's lost a step," said Wilkes. "I freshened her up a little bit and she's been training well."
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Having overcome an assortment of ailments that sidelined her for more than a year, Ninety North Racing Stable's Thieves Guild is finally ready to make a belated stakes debut at Saratoga.
The 4-year-old bay daughter of multiple Grade 1 winner Medaglia d'Oro is being pointed to Sunday's $100,000 Caress, a 5 ½-furlong sprint for fillies and mares 4 and up on the inner turf course.
"We took our time and brought her back and it's all paid off well for her," trainer Jimmy Toner said. "We've always thought highly about her and she proved the way she came back that she's a quality filly."
Thieves Guild returned from a 14 ½-month layoff to win a six-furlong turf sprintJune 18 at Belmont Park. Blocked behind a wall of horses in mid-stretch, she found a seam under jockey Jose Lezcano and spurted away to a three-length allowance victory.
"She trained really well going into it, so I did expect her to run well. To say that [I knew] she would run as well as she did, that would be overstating it," Toner said. "I think the primary thing is to make sure we gave her enough time to get over that race. I think she's deep enough and quality enough to step up into stakes company. It was frustrating at times when you're trying to get them back and you can't get them back when you want but it's also gratifying when they do come back that way. "
Thieves Guild broke her maiden at Fair Grounds last February going 5 ½ furlongs, then was fourth in an entry level allowance at Keeneland eight weeks later. She did not race again until beating a field of eight as the favorite in June.
"We always thought she had a lot of potential, but she just had so many different issues that we had to deal with over the course of time and every time we brought her back something else would come up. It was just one of those things," Toner said. "One thing about [Ninety North's] Justin Nicholson; it's never a question of when. It's when they're ready. He's got the patient of a saint."
Among the horses Toner has at Saratoga are 2013 Chelsea Flower Stakes winner and multiple Grade 3-placed filly Recepta, scheduled to run in the $100,000 Fasig-Tipton De La Rose Aug. 8; unraced 2-year-old colt Manitoulin, out of the Toner-trained 1999 champion grass mare Soaring Softly; multiple graded stakes-placedMoment in Dixie and her unraced juvenile half-sister, Time and Motion.
"And one of these days, Wabbajack will be back," Toner said. "We're in good shape. We've got some action."
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Defending champion Weekend Hideaway will take on stakes winners Ostrolenka,Readthebyline and Moonlight Song in a field of eight New York-breds entered forThursday's $100,000 John Morrissey.
Also entered in the 6 ½-furlong main track sprint is multiple Grade 1 winner Palacefor trainer Linda Rice, who is also considering the Saturday's Grade 1, $350,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt at six furlongs for the 6-year-old son of City Zip.
Red and Black Stable's Weekend Hideaway, three-for-five lifetime at Saratoga, has one win from seven starts since last year's Morrissey, which he won by two lengths in gate-to-wire fashion. Defending Spa riding champion Javier Castellano has the mount from post 1 at topweight of 124 pounds.
Winner of the Mike Lee May 25 and the Sleepy Hollow last fall, both at Belmont Park, Ostrolenka is the lone 3-year-old in the field. Most recently, he led to the stretch before fading to fifth in the July 3 New York Derby at Finger Lakes.
Readthebyline cuts back from 1 1/16 miles in his first start since being claimed July 10 by trainer Marcus Vitali. Moonlight Song has not raced since being a front-running winner of the Hudson Stakes last October to cap his 7-year-old campaign.
Rounding out the field are John's Island, Smooth Bert and Noble Cornerstone.
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Gil Johnston's Syros hit all the high notes in his most recent start in Nashville, and he leads a powerful group from trainer Jack Fisher's stable for the $75,000 Jonathan Kiser Novice Stakes on Thursday.
Jump racing's emerging stars are spotlighted in the National Steeplechase Association's novice division, and Syros, with Jack Doyle up, will be looking to graduate into the championship division with a victory in the 2 1/16-mile Kiser.
The 7-year-old Dynaformer gelding set all the pace in the $75,000 Marcellus Frost Novice Stakes at the Iroquois Steeplechase on May 9 and kicked away to a 5 3/4-length victory. His prior victory was in a Saratoga allowance hurdle last August.
Paddy Young will be aboard Edith Dixon's homebred Schoodic for Fisher. An impressive winner of Saratoga's Michael G. Walsh Novice Stakes last August, the 5-year-old finished second in the Queen's Cup MPC 'Chase near Charlotte, N.C., on April 25 in his 2015 debut.
Fisher also trains the Queen's Cup winner, Selection Sunday, who is owned by Andre W. Brewster and Sheila Williams. The 6-year-old Harlan's Holiday gelding will be ridden by Sean McDermott in the Kiser.
Racing Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard, who is looking to keep alive his record of at least one Saratoga victory each year since 1969, will saddle Stone Farm's homebred Mandola, who finished second in the Marcellus Frost. Kieran Norris has a return call on the 5-year-old son of Bluegrass Cat.
Trainer Kate Dalton will send out Gary Barber's African Oil, who has marked himself as an emerging star with a maiden win at Iroquois and an allowance victory at Monmouth Park on June 19. The trainer's husband, veteran jockey Bernie Dalton, will ride the French-bred.
Also heading to the race, which honors the memory of the champion jockey who died in a non-racing accident in 2000, are Portrade, Cocodimama, Orchestra Leader, and Balance the Budget.
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Jim Furlong came out on top of a field of 173 entrants in Sunday's Low Roller handicapping tournament on Sunday at Saratoga Race Course.
For his efforts, Furlong took home $865 in prize money, in addition to the $116 in earnings he amassed over the course of the live-bankroll event.
Jillian Azzaro finished second with a bankroll of $83, bringing home $346 in prize money, and was followed closely by Gary Chevalier in third with a score of $82.80 and winnings of $259.50.
Joseph Giacone and Frank D'Angelo rounded out the top five on the leaderboard.
Source: NYRA Communications