Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Newspaperofrecord is no longer the only stakes-winning, unbeaten 2-year-old filly currently in trainer Chad Brown’s barn. After Sunday’s $100,000 Stewart Manor at Aqueduct, Brown has another in Regal Glory.
A daughter of Animal Kingdom, Regal Glory improved to 2 for 2 in taking the Stewart Manor. Unlike in her debut at Belmont Park on Oct. 6, when she ran away from her rivals by 5 1/2 lengths, she had to battle for this one, dueling down the lane with a stubborn Introduced and scoring by a nose in a photo finish that took the placing judges a few minutes to decipher.
It was a race neither filly deserved to lose. In outclassing their seven rivals, they finished 6 1/4 lengths clear of third-place Guacamole, the pacesetter.
Winning jockey Jose Ortiz said he knew Introduced would be difficult to beat, sensing that her jockey, Manny Franco, had her in high gear. “I’m just glad we got it at the end,” he said.
Regal Glory ($4) won despite spotting the field a length or two with a slow break, though she quickly recovered in the six-furlong race on the outer turf course. She advanced rapidly down the backstretch into contention, settling into third as Guacamole carved out splits of 22.33 seconds and 46.07 while pressed by Introduced.
Introduced took command entering the lane and maintained a narrow advantage over much of the stretch before Regal Glory surged over the final 70 yards, with the pair brushing in tight quarters. Regal Glory’s nose stopped the clock in 1:10.94 over a course Equibase chartcallers rated as “good.”
The $55,000 winner’s prize from the Stewart Manor elevated Regal Glory’s earnings to $96,250 for owner and breeder Paul Pompa Jr.
One race after the Steward Manor, a quick turnaround proved no issue for Highway Star in winning the $125,000 Staten Island Division of the New York Stallion Series, eight days after she ran eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
Engulfing her statebred rivals with a decisive rally leaving the turn, the millionaire Highway Star proved to be in another league. She pulled clear to a five-length advantage with an eighth of a mile remaining and was geared down late by Irad Ortiz Jr., hitting the wire four lengths in front. She completed seven furlongs on a fast track in 1:25.58, returning $3.10.
“I couldn’t see anything with my right eye from the three-eighths pole on,” Ortiz said, referring to his goggles, largely covered by kickback. “So, I had to turn around big time to look with my left eye to watch for the competition. Once I realized I was okay, I saved something.”
Rodrigo Ubillo trains Highway Star, a 5-year-old daughter of Girolamo, for Chester and Mary Broman, her owners and breeders.
The nine-race card Thursday at Aqueduct finishes strong with a pair of optional-claiming races that will make or break the late pick four.
The card concludes with a second-level optional-claiming sprint for New York-breds that figures to have a more-than-honest pace.
Stoney Bennett and Bavaro are both fast and off their best are capable of winning the six-furlong race. But something will have to give with them drawn side by side in posts 9 and 10.
Stoney Bennett failed to hold in his latest after opening a 3 1/2-length lead in midstretch. He was run down by deep-closing Benevolence, who blew by him to score by two lengths. Benevolence, who was in for the $40,000 claiming price in that race, returns under the allowance condition Thursday.
Benevolence will start from post 4 and should get a suitable pace setup for trainer Michael Tannuzzo.
Morning Breez hasn’t won in five starts since April for Carlos Martin but comes into this off a solid try against open first-level allowance company. He pressed the early pacesetter, took the lead, but then could not contain Life’s a Parlay, who is now 2 for 3 and has put together back-to-back wins.
With the pace figuring to be hot, Morning Breez may settle just off the leaders and get first run at them.
Cerretalto already has won at this level, and trainer James Bond drops him in for the claiming price. A bit more ratable then Morning Breez, he could land in the perfect early spot.
This will be the easiest field T Loves a Fight has faced in his three starts this year. Linda Rice offers him up for the claiming price here, and although the gelding is winless so far in 2018, he certainly has the back class to wake up at a price.
Sicilia Mike finished second at this level in his last start, but that is kind of what he likes to do. From 29 starts, Sicilia Mike has 2 wins and 12 seconds.
Race 8, an open optional claimer at 6 1/2 furlongs, has a field of six, with Timber Ghost a likely favorite based on the 95 Beyer Speed Figure he earned winning his last start for Jimmy Jerkens. The 3-year-old son of Ghostzapper has now won a maiden race and an allowance in consecutive starts, but success comes at a price and he now has to step up in class and face a tougher group.
Nine-time winner Life in Shambles and six-time winner Pete’s Play Call battled it out to finish first and second, separated by a neck, at this level last time out. Life in Shambles is once again for sale for the $62,500 claiming tag.
Ajnadeen went wire to wire to win a first-level allowance most recently and could find himself on the lead alongside Timber Ghost, with Life in Shambles and Pete’s Play Call tracking them.
Still Krz adds more fuel to what should be a hot pace.
Attention: wine drinkers! That glass you’re swirling is a lot more important than you might think it is. For one, wineglasses must be clean and odor-free. They shouldn’t be stored upside down, as the stale air trapped in the bowl will transmit a stale aroma to the glass itself, and this affects the smell and flavor of the wine. A good wineglass will also have a stem for the consumer to hold—hands wrapped around the bowl of the glass will detrimentally warm the wine—and a bowl of clear, undecorated glass that tapers towards the top and which is sufficiently large so the liquid can be swirled without risk of spillage.
Speaking of wine swirling, many consumers assume the activity of swirling aerates the wine, but the more immediate consequence is to create a film of wine that adheres to the inside of the glass’ bowl. This will make the scent coming from the wine stronger. The film increases the surface area of the wine, permitting a greater rate of evaporation. One or two swirls is enough; practice with the base of the glass on a table.
So where does one purchase the right stuff? Riedel (rhymes with needle) is the best-known, specialist wine glass manufacturer, and it makes myriad differently shaped glasses, often designed to enhance specific grape varieties or wine styles. But few of us have space for multiple sets of wine glasses: better to choose six or eight glasses of one design and let them serve for both red and white wine. While the very best glasses are hand-blown and gossamer-thin, they’re much more fragile. The wiser choice might be a machine-made stem in a popular design. That way, a replacement can be easily found when one gets broken, and trust me, it will.
Did you know that most wineglass breaks occur while the glasses are being dried? The risk of this happening can be lessened if the glass is dried section by section: first the base, then the stem and finally the bowl. Holding the base in one hand and the rim of the bowl in the other can have disastrous consequences: Most people greatly underestimate the effect torque has in magnifying the rotational forces applied to the rim. Don’t be surprised if the glass snaps into your drying cloth. Solution: Buy stems that are dishwasher safe, and the problem goes away.
Wine Challenge:
Turn one of your wineglasses upside down and leave it on the shelf for three days. Then retrieve it and smell it. (Yuck.)
Can’t wait for next week’s wine column? Read a few of William Roach’s previous posts here and here.
Saratoga Springs has a little bit of everything, but if you’re looking for breakfast past 1pm or 2pm in the afternoon, there are choice few options. That is until this morning, Friday November 9, when The Mercantile Kitchen & Bar, a self-described Long Island-style diner, opened its doors where Cantina used to be at 430 Broadway. “The Merc,” as it’s also being called,is the only spot in Downtown Saratoga that currently offers all-day breakfast. (For those of you wondering out loud about Saratoga staples such as Compton’s and Country Corner Cafe, sure, you can get breakfast there during normal business hours, but those only run until early afternoon.) OK, so it’s not open 24 hours a day—9am-9pm (10pm on Fridays and Saturdays)—but The Merc still offers up that relaxed and friendly vibe of a normal greasy spoon, with a touch more class.
The restaurant had an exclusive soft opening last night at 7pm, and I was there, squeezing between dozens of others, to sample the menu firsthand (it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it). For breakfast, The Merc offers some authentic diner classics, such as biscuits and gravy, with thick sausage patties and delicious sage gravy (and two fried eggs on top); corned beef hash with roasted seasoned potatoes (also served with two eggs); pancake stacks doused (or neatly drizzled) in maple syrup; and, less traditional, No Huevos Rancheros, a vegan veggie scramble of black beans, quinoa, spinach and soy chorizo. And for lunch/dinner, served after 11:30am, there’s a similar blend of traditional and original dishes. For a classic diner meal, order The Merc’s Reuben sandwich with shaved corned beef, Gruyère cheese and spicy but creamy Russian spread; or get some house-made meatloaf sliders with garlic mashed potatoes; or, for the more adventurous, dig into the fried oyster po’ boy sliders. For dessert, try the key lime pie, served in a mason jar with burnt meringue and toasted coconut.
“The whole idea behind The Mercantile is to give Saratoga something that Saratoga needs, and that’s a modern diner,” says Chris Luriea, owner of The Mercantile Kitchen & Bar. “I grew up on Long Island eating at diners all my life, and since I was about 20, I’ve been telling people, ‘I’m gonna have my own place one day.’ [The Merc] just kind of fell into place, and I really feel like we’re going to give a lot to the city with this restaurant.” Like any authentic Long Island diner, there’s a great drink selection of cocktails, beer and wine as well. Take my word and try the Merc Punch (Jamaican rum and Cuban rum, strawberry, pomegranate, pineapple, lemon and cinnamon) or the Sky’s of Valor (lavender gin, raspberry liqueur, lemon and agave). The bar even stays open an extra hour after the kitchen closes each night.
Luriea has a number of years of experience in the food industry, working at Max London’s for nearly four years and rising to manager before heading over to Cantina to manage that restaurant’s (in)famous tequila bar (with nearly 100 different types of tequila). At Cantina, Luriea got to know the restaurant’s owner, Jeff Ames, as well as the talented Culinary Director, Frank Otte, who now serves as Culinary Director of both Cantina and The Merc. Before long, Luriea and Ames had partnered up and were looking for a place to do their own thing outside of Cantina, which, at the time, was still at its old location. “I actually moved away and traveled the country for about eight months,” says Luriea. “I moved back, and Jeff said, ‘Guess what? I bought the old Lillian’s [Restaurant] building. You want to do something with me where Cantina used to be?'” Luriea jumped at the opportunity. I for one am glad that he did, because it means more Merc cocktails—and all-day breakfast—in my life.
In the not-so-distant past, I was a full-time freelance writer, working steadily away in my home office in Troy for a New York City-based lifestyle website. In some ways, it was a dream job, because I had the opportunity to write all day about subjects that interested me: music, sports, TV, collecting. But in my quest to become as versatile a writer as possible, I tried to also delve into some areas outside of my writing comfort zone: Mixed Martial Arts, luxury automobiles, architecture. I also began writing a series of features on military veterans, a group I was almost entirely ignorant of. There was United States Air Force Officer Matt Butler, who created a lawn game that’s now sold in Walmart stores across the country. Army veteran Michael Trotter, Jr., who taught himself how to be a rock star in one of Saddam Hussein’s burned-out palaces. There was also Marine vet William McNulty, who founded Team Rubicon Global (you probably saw their commercials during the World Series); Marine vet Ryan Tate, who returned home, only to venture off to Africa to fight poachers; and Army vet Marc Raciti, who suffered so severely from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that he attempted suicide, but lived to write a book about the experience and help others cope with PTSD’s ill effects.
Now, I’m about as far from a military man as you can get—neither of my parents served, I’m not super athletic, I get queasy around guns and usually, I run away from danger. But on some deep level, somewhere near the pit of my stomach, I felt it was my duty (if there is such a thing for us civilian journalists) to tell vets’ stories. Because they’re often forgotten. That, and I believed my work would also help honor my late grandfather, Floyd Van Deusen Ladd, a lifelong Schenectadian, who served in the Marine Corp during World War II.
If you’ve been reading my stories on saratogaliving.com, you’ll know that, of late, I’ve been making a real effort to get in shape (see: this story or this one). A few months ago, I started researching personal trainers in the Troy area and came up empty. I didn’t want to be on the other end of some musclebound guy screaming at me about how weak and ugly I was, Full Metal Jacket-style. I wanted a workout plan where I felt like progress could be made with positive reinforcement. And then my wife discovered this rather unassuming place called Anatomie, a 4100-square-foot gym and yoga studio, which is nestled into the corner of a hip strip-mall-type situation between a sports bar and a pizza joint. My wife and I ended up attending a few yoga classes together on the weekend. (There’s nothing more humbling than showing how briefly you can hold a side-plank or downward dog position in front of your partner.) In the room next door to the yoga studio, I could often hear muffled sounds of bumping beats and shouted commands, and as I was leaving the yoga studio, I’d see people leaving, drenched in sweat but smiling and chatting. Those classes, it turned out, were the strength, conditioning and cycling ones.
Anatomie Co-owners, Patrick Boyle (left) and Eileen Fitzgibbons. (Elario Photography)
These days, I wake up at 5:15am three or four days a week (trying to up that!), throw on my gym clothes and drive to Anatomie, where, for 45-minute increments, I get my ass handed to me by the gym’s friendly staffers. Tuesdays and Fridays are especially rough, thanks to Co-owner Patrick Boyle, who, along with his wife and fellow owner, Eileen Fitzgibbons, runs the business and serves as its lead trainer.
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Boyle, 36, grew up in Schodack and graduated from Columbia High School in East Greenbush in 2000. After graduation, he took a year off to figure out what he was going to do with his life, and when a buddy joined the Army National Guard and returned from bootcamp “pencil thin”—not in an unhealthy way—he thought, well, maybe this might just be for me. He’d always been sort of a jock. For the uninitiated, there are a trio of ways to join the United States Army. You can simply enlist and be put on active duty, where you’ll likely be sent abroad to serve or fight. It’s a full-time job. Then there’s a pair of part-time versions—the Army Reserves, which falls under the purview of the federal government, in which you can get sent off to war fairly regularly, depending on what’s brewing in the world at the time, but don’t have to do full-time service; and the Army National Guard, which is dually controlled by the federal and state governments, and offers its soldiers the ability to serve both in state and abroad. For the latter, the requirements include one weekend per month of training, as well as a two-week period each year. (However, if you’re called to active duty, it’s a whole new ballgame; your service runs as long as the Army needs you.) As it were, Boyle linked up with his buddy in the National Guard for a little pre-Army primer: His friend had been activated in the days following 9/11 and was sent down to Fort Hamilton in Bayside, Brooklyn, to help out around the city. Boyle, then still a civilian, stayed on the base and was in awe of the situation. “I went down there for a weekend, and I was like, ‘Man, this is pretty cool,'” says Boyle. Just this group of soldiers, all with the same unified purpose of helping their country in a time of intense need. “Back then, patriotism was at an all-time high,” says Boyle, and everything just fell into place. So he enlisted in late January 2002, just four months after 9/11, shipping off to bootcamp a week later in Fort Knox, KY. He’d eventually end up back in the Capital Region, running drills out of Hoosick Falls for a spell, and that summer, he and a friend volunteered to do a 100-day turn patrolling NYC’s Grand Central Station. (I remember that presence being there still in 2003, when I first arrived in the city—guys in military fatigues, donning bulletproof vests, with machine guns, walking amongst the crowds of hurried travelers and businesspeople trying to catch their train home. It made the post-9/11 situation down there so much more real.)
As part of the Army National Guard, Patrick Boyle served in Iraq for 18 months. (Patrick Boyle)
Two years after his first foray in the National Guard, Boyle found himself deploying to Iraq in May 2004, as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom III, a military offensive that had been raging since March 2003. (Altogether, it would last nearly nine years.) While you might expect it to be a culture shock for a part-time soldier to land in the desert as a full-timer, Boyle says he was well trained for the transition. “[The Army] did a great job acclimating the part-time soldiers to the active duty life,” says Boyle. “They covered every angle: weapons training, how to find mines in sand fields, how to clear rooms with a squad of four, how to check people for weapons [and understand] the rules and regulations.” Boyle served for a total of 18 months. Of course, he saw some things over there that he’s had trouble forgetting, and as he puts it, when I ask if he’s suffered at all from PTSD, “I didn’t feel like myself when I first came home.” At the time, he tells me, the Army really didn’t have the type of program in place that it does now for returning soldiers (and it’s still far from perfect). When he got home, he went through a few weeks of debriefing, pushing papers and doing medical tests—”all physical stuff, but they never did anything mental,” Boyle says. “Here I am, used to carrying a weapon around 24 hours a day for 12 months total, day in and day out, and now I have nothing. I could do anything I wanted to; I could drive my car anywhere. There wasn’t really any bridge [to civilian life].” I heard this same story told time and again, in different ways, in my interviews with those other veterans. And for many, including retired Major Raciti, that led to depression and lashing out, and was often compounded by PTSD. It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that some 20 veterans commit suicide per day (sadly, that number has been increasing among younger veterans).
In 2008, Boyle was honorably discharged, having reached the rank of sergeant. He worked a few odd jobs before going back to school, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Health and Wellness from Canisius College, and stayed on to complete a masters in Health and Human Performance. He worked as a personal trainer, and then landed a job at the Stratton VA Medical Center, where he worked on the mental health floor as a Medical Support Assistant. By no means was he a doctor, he says, but he did his utmost to connect with the younger veterans coming in, doing everything in his power to make their transition home smoother. “The VA system itself is a tangled web,” says Boyle. “It’s very difficult to navigate if you don’t know where to go or what you’re doing.” He saw himself as an equal, a conduit, someone who could help affect positive change in veterans’ lives, any way he could.
Boyle leading a cycling class at Anatomie. (Elario Photography)
Then, nearly a decade after Boyle retired from the Army National Guard, he and his wife, Eileen, began thinking about opening their own business. Boyle tells me that it had always been his Eileen’s dream to open her own gym—she has an Exercise Science degree from the University at Buffalo, a masters in Health and Human Performance from Canisius and has held numerous personal trainer positions—and that’s where Anatomie came into being. First opened in 2016, the gym ping-ponged to two separate locations in two years before landing at its current location in Troy, where Boyle promises me it’s staying. Boyle tells me about the culture that he and his wife are trying to build within Anatomie’s walls. “We wanted [Anatomie] to encompass more of the mental health component, as opposed to just the strength [training],” he says. “There’s so much more to overall health than just being able to deadlift 200 pounds.” Hence, the name of the business, a (French) homonym for the more familiar English word “anatomy,” which nods to a full mind-and-body approach to fitness. “That mental piece is huge,” says Boyle. “That’s why we offer complimentary yoga for veterans, because if they can connect with that somehow and in some way, and use that as a mental release or as a way to de-stress or relax and unwind…hey, come on in, this is the spot for you.” (Anatomie also offers a 10 percent discount for all veterans for all its other classes.) For Boyle, that ethos is more than just about wanting to do good by his fellow veterans, though. “That mental piece helped me process some things and find an outlet when I felt lost,” he says. He got into yoga a few years ago, and the positive effects were instantaneous. “In the military, they wind you up so tight, so you can snap at a moment’s notice,” he says. Say, you’re at a checkpoint in Iraq, and some guy comes up to you and lunges for your weapon, what are you going to do? “They want you to react and then think afterwards,” he says. “Yoga reverses that; it makes you slow down, look at the situation, then react.” The meditative quality of yoga also insures that you don’t let the small stuff get to you during the day—that guy cutting you off on the Northway or that woman yelling at you on the other end of the phone. (At least, that much. I’ve been meditating every morning for three years, and some stuff still makes me lose it.) This is part of that positive culture Boyle and his wife are trying to inject into all things Anatomie; they want to make a personal connection with everyone who comes through their doors, and to that end, you might be surprised when the two address you by your first name, even if it’s only the first or second time you’ve come to a class. (I remember Eileen even asking me if I preferred “Will” over “William.”) “We want everybody to feel like they’re welcome; like this is a place for them,” he says.
There’s this older gentleman, who’s in all of the weekly classes I take at Anatomie, and we exchange niceties most mornings. When I’ve complained of a sore back or legs from a previous day’s workout to him, he’s been quick to counter that, at some point, everything hurts. Besides everything else I like about the gym and its employees, he’s the reason I keep coming back. Boyle tells me that he’s a veteran, too. I can’t help but think: We’re surrounded by them—these superhuman men and women, who risked their lives for us, and went to darker places than we’ll ever go. They could be your neighbor or co-worker or mailman—or the guy next to you at the gym. That’s why, at some point during every workout, I say to myself: “This is the easiest part of the day.” And it always is.
Want to give back this Veterans Day? Join the staff of Anatomie this Sunday, November 11, for its third annual “Drop and Give Me Zen” fundraising event, featuring a donation-based, hybrid bootcamp/yoga class at 7:30am sharp. You can reserve your spot via the MindBody app or Anatomie’s brand-new one. All proceeds go to the Veterans Yoga Project.
Daily Racing Form‘s Dan Illman and Matt Bernier preview the overflow field for the one-mile, $75,000 Kathryn Crosby Stakes, the seventh race of opening day at Del Mar.
Cracksman joined Winx as the highest-rated racehorse of 2018 in the latest edition of the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings.
Cracksman won the Group 1 Champion Stakes on QIPCO British Champions Day by six lengths over high-class Crystal Ocean, boosting his rating to 130. That’s the same rating achieved by the Australian superstar mare Winx, whose most recent effort produced a third win in the Group 1 Cox Plate. Winx’s rating remained unchanged from the last WBRR update in October, but the rankings committee operating under the auspices of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities boosted Cracksman from 125 following his tour de force at Ascot.
The newest rankings come after the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs, but races during that two-day event barely moved the WBRR needle. Accelerate, the BC Classic winner, retained his rating of 125, while the highest-rated dirt horse in the world remains Gun Runner (129), who was retired following his win almost 10 months ago in the Pegasus World Cup. The WBBR rate Justify, the Triple Crown winner, at 124.
Enable won the BC Turf, but her rating of 125 attained after her win in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe remained unchanged. Roaring Lion, who flopped in the BC Classic, was rated 127 before a hard-fought Oct. 20 win in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot and retained that rating.
The committee might have underrated City of Light, who was rated just 120 following a powerful win in the BC Dirt Mile. Roy H, the BC Sprint winner, was rated 122, two points higher than before his dominant win at Churchill on last Saturday.
Beauty Generation, the best miler (if not the best horse) in Hong Kong, had his rating raised from 123 to 126.
Weekend Hideaway, a winner of stakes races in seven consecutive years, will begin his stallion career in his home state of New York, at Irish Hills & Dutchess Views Stallions LLC in Saratoga Springs.
“The recent great news that the New York Stallion Stakes Series purse values have doubled for New York-based sires’ progeny makes a precocious sire like Weekend Hideaway especially attractive,” Michael Lischin of Irish Hill & Dutchess Views said in a release. “His 2-year-olds will be eligible for purses of up to $500,000 per race and millions of dollars of enriched restricted purses thereafter.”
Weekend Hideaway, an 8-year-old son of Speightstown, finished his career this summer with a record of 13-7-10 from 49 starts and earnings of more than $1.1 million for owner Red and Black Stable and trainer Phil Serpe.
Weekend Hideaway won the David Stakes and Bertram F. Bongard Stakes in his 2-year-old campaign in 2012, and added the Gone Fishin Stakes the following season. He added his fourth New York stakes victory in the 2014 John Morrissey Stakes at Saratoga, and early the following year, traveled to Gulfstream to win the Florida Sunshine Millions Sprint. He won the Affirmed Success and Commentator Stakes in 2016, repeating in the latter the following year. Weekend Hideaway won this past summer’s John Morrissey, in what would prove his penultimate start.
Weekend Hiudeaway placed in nine other stakes, highlighted by a third in the Grade 1 Vosburgh Stakes in October 2016, beaten just two lengths, and a third in the Grade 2 Futurity Stakes in 2012.
It’s a tale of two race cards at Aqueduct on Friday as three legs of the early pick five are for maiden 2-year-old fillies and the late pick four has a trio of allowance or optional claimers for 3-year-olds and up.
It’s an interesting program, but four of those six races are scheduled for turf. It rained in the area Monday and Tuesday, should be pleasant Wednesday and Thursday, and the forecast calls for rain again Friday.
The race 8 feature is a second-level optional-claiming turf sprint, which has 10 horses, plus four-main-track-only runners on standby, including Pete’s Play Call and Still Krz.
Regardless of surface, Battle Station, who has won on firm turf, good turf, and in the slop, looks well spotted. Trained by Wesley Ward, he knocked out his New York-bred conditions with victories in the Rego Park and Bertram Bongard stakes and then won an open first-level allowance at Saratoga before being sent to Kentucky Downs for the $257,000 Franklin-Simpson, a 6 1/2-furlong turf stakes.
Battle Station raced in contention to the stretch but then tired to finish 10th, beaten seven lengths, in the 11-horse field. He has been working steadily at Keeneland and looks ready to go with John Velazquez named to ride.
If the turf course were firm, Stolen Pistol would be a key figure, but he does not appear to be at his best over softer footing.
Dr. Shane won a first-level allowance on turf last Friday and was entered back in this race Sunday by trainer Danny Gargan. Although the quick turnaround is a concern, he is capable on turf or dirt.
Race 7, a second-level optional claimer for New York-breds over 1 1/16 miles on turf, offers a nice matchup between the 3-year-olds Gambler’s Fallacy and Way Early.
Gambler’s Fallacy has rallied from far back to win his first two starts, both for trainer Chad Brown. He won his debut over good turf and then came back to win an allowance over a yielding course.
Way Early, who is trained by George Weaver, finished second in the Grade 2 Penn Mile and fourth in the Grade 3 Kent at Delaware Park over the summer before dropping into a first-level statebred allowance at Saratoga, which he won. He returned from a two-month layoff to miss by a nose in an open first-level allowance three weeks ago.
Race 2, a maiden race for 2-year-old fillies at six furlongs on turf, features the expensive sale purchases And She’s Gone and Lady Grace, who will be making their first starts.
Bred by Claiborne Farm, And She’s Gone sold for $725,000 at the 2017 Keeneland September sale to Royal Oak Farm, a breeding facility outside Lexington, Ky. The daughter of War Front and the Arch mare Bend is now owned by the Chadds Ford Stable of Phyllis Mills Wyeth and is trained by Graham Motion.
And She’s Gone is a half-sister to both $1.1 million earner Clearly Now – who won the Swale, Bold Ruler, and Belmont Sprint Championship – and to Bendable, winner of the Desert Stormer and Beverly Lewis stakes.
Lady Grace was purchased by owner Tracy Farmer out of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales April auction of 2-year-olds for $300,000. Trained by Mark Casse, the daughter of Kantharos is a half-sister to Sis City, winner of the 2004 Demoiselle and the following year’s Ashland and Davona Dale.
Whether Saturday’s $150,000 Artie Schiller is contested on a wet Aqueduct turf course or moved to the main track, Kiaran McLaughlin trains a leading contender.
McLaughlin entered two in the Artie Schiller, one for the grass and another for dirt. His grass representative is Grade 2 Bernard Baruch winner Qurbaan, who finished third over good turf in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile on Oct. 6 at Keeneland, while Exulting, third in a Belmont Park allowance Sept. 22, stands as his main-track-only entrant.
The Artie Schiller, which drew 12 entries, is a more compelling race if it stays on the grass – though that is no certainty given an already damp Aqueduct turf course that is forecast to receive rain from Friday afternoon into early Saturday morning. As of midday Thursday, the National Weather Service was calling for more than an inch of precipitation over that period for the New York area.
The Artie Schiller is a backup race for Qurbaan, a 5-year-old Speightstown horse McLaughlin had hoped to start in last week’s Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs. He was excluded when the race overfilled with pre-entries.
“He’s been just great since he’s come to us,” said McLaughlin, who began training him this year after the horse arrived from Europe.
Although Qurbaan possesses wet-course form – having also run third in a Group 3 stakes in France last year over good-to-soft going – few in the Artie Schiller are as skilled over off conditions as Blacktype.
A 7-year-old French-bred gelding trained by Christophe Clement, Blacktype enters the Artie Schiller following two consecutive wet-course victories, capped by the Oct. 8 Knickerbocker over good turf at Belmont in a race he won for the second consecutive year after taking it over similar ground in 2017. His win that preceded his 2018 Knickerbocker came over a yielding course in a Belmont allowance race Sept. 27.
“He prefers some give in the ground, which it looks like there is a chance we’ll get,” Clement said.
Joel Rosario, a week after winning three Breeders’ Cup races at Churchill Downs, returns in the irons aboard Blacktype, who along with Qurbaan and stretch-out sprinter Proforma carries co-highweight of 124 pounds. They spot the opposition between two and six pounds.
In addition to Exulting, others that would benefit from an off-the-grass scenario in the Artie Schiller are Papa Zula, another main-track-only competitor; Backsideofthemoon, a horse with predominantly dirt experience; and the versatile Proforma, a stakes winner on turf and dirt.
Atlantic Beach Stakes
A couple races before the Artie Schiller, another stakes goes as the sixth race on the Saturday card at Aqueduct – the inaugural running of the $100,000 Atlantic Beach for 2-year-olds, scheduled for six furlongs on the grass.
Six of the seven entrants have already raced on wet turf courses. The exception, Absentee, is unraced on grass altogether. The experienced lot includes Backtohisroots, second to eventual Breeders’ Cup Juvenile runner-up Uncle Benny over good turf in the Futurity on Oct. 7 at Belmont, as well as Wallace, who led throughout in winning over yielding ground in the Soaring Free Stakes at Woodbine when he last sprinted on grass.
Wallace followed that race by fading to 12th in the Grade 1 Summer Stakes at Woodbine, a mile race in which he set the pace for nearly six furlongs.
If the Atlantic Beach is moved off the grass, Absentee has the most substantiated dirt form, having won his debut at Parx Racing before finishing second in a fast allowance won by Maximus Mischief on Oct. 20. The latter race earned him a race-best 86 Beyer Speed Figure, a number 20 points higher than the fastest dirt figure posted by Backtohisroots.
