August, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Victory In ‘Win and You’re In’ Whitney Would Give Silver State Breeders’ Cup Options

Winchell Thoroughbreds and Willis Horton Racing's Silver State has thrived since returning from a seven-month hiatus in October, demonstrating class and determination with gradual steps up the ladder from allowance winner to Grade 1 winner.

On Saturday, the talented Hard Spun bay will face off against some of the best older horses in the handicap division in Saturday's Grade 1, $1 million Whitney at Saratoga race course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, Silver State's hot streak commenced at allowance level, when successfully notching his conditions at Keeneland and Churchill Downs last fall. He brought his winning form to Arkansas with a trio of stakes victories at Oaklawn Park.

After a hard-fought outside stretch run in the Jan. 23 Fifth Season, he fended off graded stakes winning veteran Rated R Superstar to capture the Essex on March 13.

Silver State made the grade next out in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap on April 17, where he was little further off the pace than usual, racing along the rail and taking some kickback down the backstretch. Approaching upper stretch, he was tipped out several paths wide and took command inside the eighth pole to win a by a half-length.

Silver State upped his win streak to six with a one-length score in the Grade 1 Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan Handicap on Belmont Stakes Day June 5, where he cut back to one turn and defeated fellow Whitney-aspirants By My Standards and Knicks Go.

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Despite the high hopes, things did not always come easy for Silver State. Following solid placings in the Grade 3 Lecomte [2nd] and Grade 2 Risen Star [3rd] at Fair Grounds in early 2020, he was put to the sidelines following a distant seventh in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby at the New Orleans oval.

“Early in his 3-year-old year he behaved like he'd be a really good horse. Hence, why he ran in the Derby prep series in New Orleans,” said Winchell Thoroughbreds racing and bloodstock advisor David Fiske. “He probably just needed to grow up a little bit and fill out. Mentally, he's always been fine. Silver State never had any issues. He's always been a solid horse. When we brought him back in the fall, he was a bigger, stronger version of himself.”

The Whitney is a Breeders' Cup “Win And You're In” event, offering an automatic entry into the Grade 1, $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic on November 6 at Del Mar. With a victory in the Met Mile under his belt, the option of pursuing the $1 million Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile remains under consideration.

“He's kind of standing in the median of the interstate at the moment,” Fiske said. “We haven't really explored a mile and quarter but we're going to run him on Saturday. It's a 'Win And You're In for the Classic,' so it would be nice to have.”

Asmussen and Winchell previously joined forces to capture the 2017 Whitney with Gun Runner. The subsequent Breeders' Cup Classic winner and Horse of the Year experienced an unusual addition of weight when pacesetting longshot Cautious Giant sprung a horseshoe high into the air, eventually getting entangled in Gun Runner's tail.

“I even suggested to Steve we tie a horseshoe to Silver State's tail and see if that helps,” Fiske quipped. “For Gun Runner's Whitney, we just flew up for the day. We went to the races, went out for a celebratory dinner and then flew home. I guess that made the day more memorable. The horseshoe in the tail and then Gun Runner being Gun Runner made for a big day.”

In 2017, all eyes were on Gun Runner, who went into the Whitney gate as the 3-5 favorite. Silver State, made 6-1 on the morning line, is a part of a more evenly-matched field which includes Grade 1-winner Maxfield and 2020 Preakness-winning filly Swiss Skydiver in addition to 6-5 morning-line favorite Knicks Go and By My Standards.

“You're going to have to really earn this one. It's a small but quality field,” Fiske said.

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Racing And Gaming Conference Of Saratoga Returns With A More Mainstream Approach

In recent racing seasons, the Albany Law School's Racing and Gaming Conference was a hub for lawyers and racing industry executives to gather and discuss legal issues facing the racing and wagering industries. After the 2019 edition of the conference, it seemed the event may have run its course, as the college decided it would no longer host the event, which is traditionally held in Saratoga between the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale and the Jockey Club Round Table.

Attorney Patrick Brown, co-founder of Brown & Weinraub, couldn't let it go.

“I was very disappointed because I worked on it for many years,” Brown said. “I decided, well I know the conference, so why don't I step up and try to do it myself?”

Brown was on the event's advisory board for the law school, and had been a panelist, sponsor, and speaker at various times during the life of the event. The conference had been offered for continuing education credits for equine attorneys, but Brown had bigger ideas of what it could be.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic struck and one of Brown's first actions as the new organizer of the event was to cancel its 2020 edition. He delayed planning the 2021 conference until it became clear that the Saratoga race meet would go on with fans in attendance. Then, he got to work.

As the product of a law school, the conference has previously been focused on academic legal subjects. Brown wanted to open it up a bit, so racing fans and industry professionals could find an engaging topic presented in a way that made sense to them. While lawyers still make up a portion of the speakers and panelists at this year's event, Brown has balanced them with non-attorneys whose perspective he finds key to the issues at hand.

“I wanted to move the focus of the conference from academic/lawyer to some academics, lots of industry folks, and if we can attract some fans, just regular people who are really interested in horse racing and the gambling industry, I wanted to try to make the panels attractive to fans as well – and potential participants in horse racing,” Brown said. “I think we lawyers can get into the weeds quickly. It's interesting, and the panels I participated in were very good for lawyers but I wanted to make it less of that and more accessible to non-lawyers.”

This year's topics include an examination of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) and its challenges, information on decoupling, ownership models, sports betting in New York, mobile sports betting, esports wagering, and tribal gaming.

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Brown has also moved the event from a hotel downtown to the 1863 Club at the track and will be partnering with the New York Racing Association for the first time. It always made sense to have the event during the race meet, but Brown wanted to connect it more directly with the experience of the track, which is the primary draw for most attendees.

In some ways, Brown said he has had a career's worth of preparation to structure an event like this one (although he admits he has had considerable organizational help from Spectrum Gaming Group). Brown worked in Gov. Mario Cuomo's Counsel's Office in the late 1980s, where he advised Cuomo on matters pertaining to racing, lottery, and tribal gaming law. After Cuomo left office, Brown worked for a firm with a number of racing industry clients before launching his own firm in 2001.

He is also a Thoroughbred owner.

Brown said there are two panels he's most excited about — one he will moderate on mobile sports wagering, and another titled 'Economics of Bookmaking,' which will feature a top Vegas attorney and a professional bookmaker.

“The point of that panel is to highlight that one of the fundamental challenges of the new sports wagering is to get people to change their behavior,” said Brown. “People who bet on sports in this country have been doing it the same way for a long time and when you bet with a bookie, you don't have to put the money up, you can bet on credit. There's advantages to doing it that way, and the authorized sports books have to now get people to change that behavior.

“I really like the array of policy choices you have to make when you're trying to create a rational horse racing and gambling policy in a state. It's really fascinating to me.”

The Racing and Gaming Conference at Saratoga will be held Aug. 16 and 17. Registration is available on site or in advance at this link.

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Prat, Smith Head East For Weekend Saratoga Stakes Engagements

Having doubled the win total of his closest rival with a productive Week 3 of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club meeting in Del Mar, Calif.,, leading rider Flavien Prat was scheduled to ride three races on at the seaside track on Thursday and then head for Saratoga and the big stakes weekend there.

Prat enters Week 4 here with 20 wins from 70 mounts, an impressive 29 percent win rate and has recorded top-three finishes in 63 percent of his starts. The native of France, who marked his 29th birthday on Wednesday, will be in upstate New York on Friday to ride Public Defender (2-1) in the Grade 2 Hall of Fame Stakes for Chad Brown. Prat rides two more for Brown on Saturday – Always Carina in the $500,000, Grade 1 Test Stakes and Flavius in the $120,000 Lure.

Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith, who like Prat is represented by agent Brad Pegram, is also headed to Saratoga with a key assignment being on Secret Protector for Charles Appleby in the $1 million Saratoga Derby Invitational.

Prat and Smith will remain there for Sunday's card where the main event is the $700,000 Saratoga Oaks.

Among those hoping to capitalize in the — “While Prat's away, it's an opportunity to make hay” – sweepstakes at Del Mar are Juan Hernandez, Umberto Rispoli, Abel Cedillo and Kyle Frey.

Hernandez (10 for 72) is second in the standings with Rispoli (9 for 60) and Cedillo (9 for 70) tied for third. Frey (8 for 35) rounds out the top five.

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Saddling 10 winners from 54 starters, Peter Miller, often teaming with Prat, has double the victory total of Bob Baffert (5 for 21). Mark Glatt, Simon Callaghan and Peter Eurton all have recorded four wins in the first 10 days of the meeting.

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Con Lima Tries To Stretch Speed To 1 3/16 Miles In Saratoga Oaks Invitational

Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Joseph Graffeo, Eric Nikolaus Del Toro and Troy Johnson's multiple graded-stakes winner Con Lima, first or second in 11 of 12 lifetime starts, can help put the exclamation point on what is sure to be an emotional weekend for trainer Todd Pletcher in Sunday's Grade 3, $700,000 Saratoga Oaks Invitational at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

The 1 3/16-mile Saratoga Oaks Invitational, middle jewel of NYRA's Turf Triple series for 3-year-old fillies, is one of two grass stakes on the program, joined by the $120,000 Fasig-Tipton De La Rose for older fillies and mares. Sunday's card also features the Grade 2, $200,000 Adirondack for juvenile fillies on the main track.

In his first year of eligibility, the 54-year-old Pletcher will be inducted Friday into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame, located across Union Avenue from the racetrack where he has been leading trainer 14 times including last year. Two days later he will be looking for his first win in the Saratoga Oaks, inaugurated in 2019.

Con Lima set the pace but fell a half-length short of winner Santa Barbara in the first leg of the Turf Triple series for sophomore fillies, the Grade 1, 1 ¼-mile Belmont Oaks Invitational July 10 at Belmont Park. The Commissioner filly was left alone on an easy lead, going a half-mile in 51.31 seconds and a mile in 1:40.76 before being caught late.

Prior to that race, Con Lima won the 1 1/16-mile Honey Ryder May 1 at Gulfstream Park and Belmont's Grade 3 Wonder Again June 3 in successive starts, both also on the turf, where she has a record of five wins and two seconds from seven tries.

“It's not obvious in her pedigree, but obviously she's performed well over the grass. She appreciates the tighter turns at Saratoga like she did at Gulfstream. She's doing well and we're looking forward to trying it again,” Pletcher said. “She just continues to step up. She's been super consistent and gives a good effort every time.”

Flavien Prat has the mount from post 5 on Con Lima, whose other stakes wins came over the winter at Gulfstream in the Ginger Brew January 2 and Grade 3 Herecomesthebride February 27, when she was placed first following the disqualification of Spanish Loveaffair.

“She seemed to really like Gulfstream, which is a tighter course, so maybe that will work in her favor here,” Pletcher said. “If she continues to run her races the way she has been, she should be able to get one of [these].”

Trainer Chad Brown is set to send out the pair of Higher Truth and Rocky Sky in the Saratoga Oaks. Michael Ryan, Jeff Drown and Team Hanley's Higher Truth was third, a nose behind Con Lima, in the Belmont Oaks, just her fourth career start and first in a stakes.

“She got a great trip and was right there. I was proud of her effort,” Brown said. “She's a horse that continues to improve, so we should be in good shape. Moving forward as far as her development, I really like what I see. She's a distance horse, absolutely.”

Peter Brant's Rocky Sky will be racing for the first time in the U.S. after four starts in her native Ireland. Last out, she won the 1 ¼-mile Irish Stallion Farms E.B.F. Salsabil Stakes April 24.

“We've had her for a little while now. She seems to be really adapting to the program. The last couple works were the best I've seen from her. She's an exciting prospect,” Brown said. “She's doing everything right. We momentarily thought about the Belmont Oaks. It was just too soon for her. I wanted more time with her and I think it was the right decision. I really like where I'm at now with her.”

Jose Ortiz has the mount on Higher Truth from post 1 while older brother Irad Ortiz, Jr. rides Rocky Sky from post 6.

Also in from Europe are Creative Flair and Messidor.

Godolphin homebred Creative Flair was beaten a head when third in the Group 3 Prix Chloe July 18 at Chantilly in France. The bay daughter of Dubawi won twice this year in England, including the 1 1/8-mile Betfair British E.B.F. Abingdon Stakes June 10 at Newbury.

“She ran a huge race last time. It looked like she was really going to go and win that, and she just got collared near the line,” said Chris Connett, traveling assistant for trainer Charlie Appleby. “She will wear a hood to run in, but she's always worn that and we won't change anything now. She'll sit on or near the pace and she sees the trip pretty well. Her form is solid, and she should take a bit of beating.”

Hall of Famer Mike Smith gets the assignment on Creative Flair from post 7.

Blue Devil Racing Stable's Messidor, trained by Joseph O'Brien, has been third in three stakes in England and Ireland, and was only beaten 4 ½ lengths when eighth in the Group 3 Ballylinch Stud Priory Belle One Thousand Guineas Trial April 11 at Leopardstown, contested at seven furlongs. Hall of Famer John Velazquez rides from post 2.

Lazy F Ranch homebred Gam's Mission capped a three-race win streak in the Grade 3, 1 1/8-mile Regret May 29 at Churchill Downs. The effort propelled the Galileo filly into the Belmont Oaks, where she was outkicked late following a wide trip and wound up fourth, beaten only two lengths.

“I thought she ran great,” trainer Cherie DeVaux said. “All things considered, I think she ran her race which was really good in a Grade 1 stepping up in company and losing by two lengths to some very nice fillies. It was further than she's ever gone before and a big step up in company, and I think she handled it all really well. She came out of it in good shape.”

Saratoga meet-leading rider Luis Saez climbs aboard for the first time from post 3.

The connections of Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables and Michael Caruso's Plum Ali will be hoping to see some early foot to aid the winner of the Grade 2 Miss Grillo last fall that has been beaten a total of five lengths in her last three races – the Grade 2 Appalachian April 3 at Keeneland, Wonder Again and Belmont Oaks.

“The filly is doing well. The only thing with the filly that we need is perhaps a bit of pace to run at,” said Miguel Clement, assistant trainer to his father, Christophe Clement. “She's been a bit compromised in her last few starts by a lack of pace. Hopefully she can get a real pace to run at and be able to show her true ability.”

Joel Rosario will be in the irons from post 4.

Completing the field is Respect the Valleys' Out of Sorts, last out winner of the 1 1/16-mile Christiana Stakes July 3 at Delaware Park. Prior to that, the Dramedy daughter ran in back-to-back allowances at her home track of Pimlico Race Course, finishing second by a nose May 15 on the undercard of the Grade 1 Preakness, and first by a head June 13. Both races came against older horses.

Out of Sorts is trained by Brittany Russell, whose husband, jockey Sheldon Russell, comes in from Maryland to ride from outside post 8.

“It's sort of one of those now or never situations. She's doing great. She's been awesome on the turf this year. We think she'll love the distance. She's cool. She's a handy filly,” Brittany Russell said. “Sheldon can get her to shut off, but she also has that little bit of gas to her if he needs to use her a little bit. I think she's just the right type, and we want to find out if she's that kind.”

The Saratoga Oaks Invitational is carded nine on Sunday's 10-race program, which offers a first post of 1:05 p.m. Eastern. Saratoga Live will present daily television coverage of the 40-day summer meet on FOX Sports. For the complete Saratoga Live broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule.

NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Saratoga Race Course, and the best way to bet every race of the 40-day meet. Available to horseplayers nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com

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