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Fire At Will Resolute In Winning Off-The-Turf With Anticipation

Three Diamonds Farm's Fire At Will made his main track debut a winning one, staying off the pace as Blame the Booze set the early speed before gaining the lead in the stretch and holding off the even-money favorite's re-rally bid in deep stretch for a half-length win in the $100,000 With Anticipation for juveniles moved off the turf on Wednesday at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

(The With Anticipation was originally carded as a Grade 3 race but with the change in surface is automatically downgraded to a listed stakes. Its status will be reevaluated by the American Graded Stakes Committee.)

After running sixth in his debut on August 20 over firm Saratoga turf, Fire At Will made his second appearance at the Spa, taking a step up in class in the 16th running of the With Anticipation that was originally carded for 1 1/16 miles on the Mellon turf. With heavy rainfall forcing the race off the grass and into a seven-furlong dirt sprint, Fire At Will was content to track in the back of the pack in fourth under Irad Ortiz, Jr. as debut winner Blame the Booze led the field through the opening quarter-mile in 22.60 seconds and the half in 45.61 on the sloppy and sealed track.

Approaching the top of the stretch, Ortiz, Jr. urged Fire At Will up and soon gained the advantage along the rail, overtaking Blame the Booze and repelled a stretch-length challenge, completing the course in 1:23.14.

“Speed is doing well so far, but I don't like to rush the horses too much, so I just broke out of there with good intentions,” said Ortiz, Jr. who won four races on the card and is the meet leader with 51 victories with five days remaining. “He didn't have the speed to stay close with them, so I just let him be him, let him settle and tried to save some ground. When I asked him, he responded really well from the half-mile all the way to the wire.

“I was saving all the ground I could and stayed on the rail,” he added. “I was thinking about getting outside but I saw the horse [Blame the Booze, No. 1] get out a bit, so I just stayed on the rail and went for it.”

Trained by Mike Maker, Fire At Will's ability to stay off the pace made the difference.

“It wasn't necessarily by design. We left it up to Irad, he's a smart rider,” said Maker assistant Nolan Ramsey. “As soon as he took back off the pace, I was really happy and he made a good run.”

Ramsey said they talked to Three Diamonds Farm's Kirk Wycoff about staying in the race when it was moved off the grass and made a winning decision.

“With a short field, it made sense,” Ramsey said. “The horse really seemed to get a lot out of his first start and he's been pretty sharp since. He worked a really nice half for us last time [bullet breeze in 47.16 on Aug. 29] and we talked to Mr. Wycoff and Mike and made the decision to stay in and we're clearly happy we did.”

Bred in Kentucky by Troy Rankin, Fire At Will was purchased for $97,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The Declaration of War colt went off at 3-1 and returned $8.20 on a $2 win wager.

Three Diamonds Farm registered its eighth win of the summer meet, tying Repole Stable for second-place in trailing only Klaravich Stables with 12.

Blame the Booze, a first-out winner for trainer Wesley Ward by 2 1/2 lengths on July 10 at Belmont Park in a race also moved off the turf, was five lengths clear of Zippy Baby for second. Winfromwithin completed the order of finish.

“He broke pretty nice and was right there,” said Blame the Booze jockey Luis Saez. “He was handling the track good and tried hard. He got a little tired at the end. When I made him switch leads, he came back on a little but the other horse was already gone.”

American Monarch, the morning-line favorite, and Nathan Detroit both scratched.

Live racing resumes Thursday at Saratoga with a 10-race card highlighted by the the $100,000 P.G. Johnson for 2-year-old fillies on turf in Race 3 at 2:17 p.m. Eastern and the New York Stallion Stakes Series Park Avenue for state-bred 3-year-old fillies in Race 6 at 4:01 p.m. First post is 1:10 p.m.

The post Fire At Will Resolute In Winning Off-The-Turf With Anticipation appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Thursday’s Insights: Expensive Curlin-Taris Colt Debuts Going Two Turns

7th-CD, $97K, Msw, 2yo, 1 1/16m, 4:16 p.m. ET
KING FURY (Curlin), the first and only foal out of the late Grade I winner Taris (Flatter), makes his debut in this two-turn affair. King Fury brought $950,000 from Fern Circle Stables and Three Chimneys Farm as a FTSAUG yearling and is trained by Ken McPeek. ‘TDN Rising Star’ Taris, a $90,000 KEESEP yearling turned $2.35 million FTKNOV horse of racing age, concluded her career with a runaway win for Mrs. John Magnier, Michael B. Tabor, and Derrick Smith in the 2016 GI Humana Distaff S. TJCIS PPs

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Aidan O’Brien hopes stable stars Magical and Enable have the chance to face Ghaiyyath again

Aidan O'Brien says he would relish the opportunity to take on Ghaiyyath again in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown a week on Saturday.

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Mike Smith Talks Honor A. P., Derby Memories On TDN Writers’ Room

As a Hall of Fame jockey and two-time winning rider of the GI Kentucky Derby, Mike Smith knows his way around Churchill Downs. After having his morning-line favored mount Omaha Beach (War Front) scratched the week of the race last year, Smith is back aboard a major contender in Saturday’s Run for the Roses. Wednesday, the 55-year-old rider who’s still at the top of his game joined the TDN Writers’ Room presented by Keeneland. Calling in via Zoom from Louisville as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Smith talked about his mount Honor A. P. (Honor Code), his past Derby wins, Holy Bull, Arrogate, whether he thinks about retirement and more.

Honor A. P. punched his ticket for the Derby with a win in the GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby, but was second at 1-5 last out in the Shared Belief S. at Del Mar Smith said he thinks the colt’s improved training and distance capabilities give him confidence in a peak effort Saturday.

“The Santa Anita Derby was a mile and an eighth, Shared Belief was a mile and a sixteenth, so he shortened back up,” Smith said. “And he didn’t get a whole lot of serious training in between the two races. They certainly wanted him to be peaking at this time and not then. I think his best work going into that race was 1:02 something, so he kind of ran a bit sluggishly and finally came running at the end. And actually still ran really well. He ran a 102 Beyer. But since then, we’ve really stepped up his training and put some sharp works into him. Then after his two really sharp works, we did a maintenance work and he did it so nice. He went seven-eighths in 1:27 and galloped out in 40, which was really good. He did that all on his own. So he’s coming into the Derby training extremely well, really fine-tuned and fit to run his best effort.”

Smith has chosen to stay aboard the John Shirreffs trainee instead of taking the return call on Authentic (Into Mischief), who he rode to victory for Bob Baffert in the GI Haskell Invitational.

“They’re tied with each other. The first time they ran against each other [in the GII San Felipe S.], Authentic beat Honor A. P.,” he said. “We’d come off a foot injury, had missed some time, so I knew he wasn’t 100% going into that race. In the Santa Anita Derby, I knew he was. And I thought that the distance would really suit him well. I just truly think that when we’re going to go a mile and an eighth and further, that’s when you see Honor A. P. really start to shine, really start to stand out. And that’s just what made my mind up. I can’t wait to see what he does going a mile and a quarter.”

Smith reminisced on his previous two Derby wins, first aboard 50-1 shot Giacomo (Holy Bull) and second on undefeated favorite Justify (Scat Daddy).

“We were running out west [with Giacomo] where the tracks were really fast at the time,” Smith remembered. “They weren’t suiting him, but he would run second or third and really gallop out strong, so I knew that once we got off the West Coast racetracks, he was going to excel. He was going to run better. Was it going to be good enough for him to win the Derby? I wasn’t really sure, but I was talking myself into it. I’d ridden his father in the Derby. He was a big favorite and ran probably his worst race, so I wanted to redeem his father’s name. I was using that to keep me pumped up and keep me excited. Then the more I looked at the race, I saw that this pace is going to be really hot. This could really set up for me. And that’s exactly what happened.”

“When I was with Justify, it was a whole different story,” he said. “We had all the hype, he was the horse to beat. We actually believed that he had the kind of talent to be a Triple Crown winner. He was that kind of horse. So there was a whole lot more pressure with him.”

Asked about the secret to his longevity and whether or not he thinks about retiring, Smith said, “At times I think about it, but then I think, ‘Well, where else am I going to have this kind of fun?’ I’m having a blast right now, getting the opportunity to ride in these big races. And if I did anything right early on in my career, I really took up physical fitness instead of going out and playing golf and not doing a whole lot. Every morning, I just made it a way of life. I train every morning. If I’m not training myself, I have two different personal trainers that train me at least five times a week. I go at it pretty, pretty hard. I’ve been doing it for a long time and it’s starting to pay off in my later years. I’m still as fit as I was 10 years ago. So for some reason I’m hanging in there. And as long as I can continue to do that, I plan to ride another few years.”

Elsewhere on the show, the crew broke down the Derby and Oaks fields from all angles and, in the West Point Thoroughbreds news segment, reacted to the creation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act and its corresponding alliance. Then, host Joe Bianca addressed the comments made by Barclay Tagg Tuesday about the racial unrest in Louisville. Click here to watch the podcast, click here for the audio-only version.

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