The first time LNJ Foxwoods' Scotland jumped into the deep waters of Grade 1 competition, the son of Good Magic got schooled pretty good in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.
Bill Mott, the gelding's Hall of Fame trainer, is hoping for a better result when Scotland runs in Saturday's Grade 1, $1 million betPARX Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing. Scotland, coming off a sixth in the Travers, is the 6-1 fourth choice on the Derby morning line.
“There's not much to say,” Mott said by phone from Saratoga about the Travers. “He went to the lead, got pressured and then backed up. Sometimes you have to go to war to get hardened.”
Before the Travers, Scotland had won four of his first five starts. When he won the Curlin Stakes July 21 at Saratoga, that got him his ticket to the Travers, his first start in a graded stakes. He won the Curlin by 3 1/4 lengths.
Before that, Scotland posted two narrow wins by a head in an allowance and a maiden and a loss by a nose in another allowance.
“He probably thought he won that one,” Mott said of the nose defeat to Tumbarumba in the seven-furlong allowance April 23 at Keeneland.
In the Curlin and the Travers, Scotland showed speed from the bell. He beat Il Miracolo, who is also running in the Pennsylvania Derby, in that race.
Scotland came from off the pace in his two other victories. Mott said it is not imperative that Scotland and regular rider Junior Alvarado have the lead in the Pennsylvania Derby.
“There is other speed in there,” he said. “In the Travers, there was only one horse that had any remarkable speed. It's a bigger field at Parx and someone will probably show some speed.”
Of the 11 horses entered in the Derby, those that have shown early speed in the past include Reincarnate, the 3-1 morning-line favorite for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert; Saudi Crown, the 7-2 second choice for trainer Brad Cox; and Magic Tap, the 5-1 third choice for Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen.
“I don't think we have to prove that we can make the lead here,” Mott said.
Scotland is expected to ship to Parx Friday from Mott's base at Saratoga.
Trainer Larry Demeritte's dream has always been to make it to the Kentucky Derby, and he's now one step closer after 2-year-old colt West Saratoga (Exaggerator) won Saturday's Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes beneath the Twin Spires.
“When I was growing up in the Bahamas, I always watched the Kentucky Derby, and I said, 'In order to win the Kentucky Derby, I need to be in Kentucky,' so I came over here as a very young man,” Demeritte said.
That was 47 years ago.
While the first Saturday in May is still a long way off, the dream feels a lot closer than it did in 2017, when Demeritte was given six months to live.
Diagnosed with multiple myeloma (bone cancer) and a disease called amyloidosis, which causes the body to make abnormal proteins, Demeritte has been undergoing chemotherapy once a month for 6 ½ years.
“You know, I can't focus on what's going on with these frail bodies we have,” said Demeritte. “I said a prayer last week. I said, 'Lord, you always bless everybody, so I got to come over here and I thank you for it. Even if I don't achieve the goal of going to the Kentucky Derby, I can live with that, but that's the desire of my heart.' Because I know that if you do His will, He will bless you with the desire of your heart.
“Life is like bumps in the road. Sometimes you hit some bumps, and sometimes it smooths out for you. That happened today for us, and I'm grateful.”
Of course, Demeritte knows he has to do his part, as well. For example, this colt's purchase for $11,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling sale is the result of years of practice at selecting horses other people may have overlooked.
He's had has some successes: Lady Glamour was a $1,000 yearling who would earn a graded stakes placing and $126,170 on the track before selling in foal to Not This Time for $115,000; Daring Pegasus was a $3,000 yearling who earned $122,092 in Demeritte's name (and $212,518 overall); She's That Cat was a $12,000 yearling who became stakes placed and earned $101,020 in Demeritte's care (and $334,729 overall).
“I go to the sales every year and we don't buy a lot of horses, but we try to get horses that are gonna be racehorses,” Demeritte said. “My motto is I buy a good horse cheap. I don't buy cheap horses.
“I try to look for horses that I think will stand up to the way I train a horse. And you know, if a horse has more than one defect, because they all have a defect, it's about what you can live with. This horse is really balanced and he had a good throat.”
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Those bargain successes are a big source of pride for the Bahamian native.
“It's so cool, because I always said when I came here, I was the only farm manager who was Black in Kentucky,” said Demeritte. “I like upsetting the cart, because that's this game. You never know who could come up with a good horse, but you have to keep at it. You've got to keep working, so I am really excited for that.”
So, although it took West Saratoga five starts to break his maiden, a few more than Demeritte thought would be necessary, the trainer never felt overly concerned.
He has a lot of experience training 2-year-olds; in the Bahamas, before Demeritte made the move to the United States, he trained the country's champion 2-year-old three years in a row.
“[West Saratoga] would have broken his maiden earlier, but we had the number one post four times in a row,” Demeritte explained. “It's pretty tough going five-eighths, to come out of the one hole, you know. We never wanted to treat him like a sprinter, because he always seemed like he wanted to stretch out, so we didn't want to really pressure him to go really hard from the break.”
Nonetheless, West Saratoga ran three seconds, two at five furlongs and one at seven furlongs, before finally making it to the winner's circle when stretched out to a mile at Ellis Park.
The progression is reminiscent of something Demeritte learned from his father, also a trainer in the Bahamas.
“My dad was a very, very good conditioner of a horse, so I learned that from him: how to feed a horse, and really condition a horse,” said Demeritte. “The only thing is that I understand there's a peak to every horse, and he would always try to get a little more out of every horse. I learned that if you try to get more than that peak, then it slides over the other side. Now, I understand how to know what I have in the horse, and how to keep them at their peak.”
From his base at The Thoroughbred Center in Lexington, Demeritte watched as West Saratoga approached that peak. So even though the colt was the second-longest chance on the board at 12-1 in the Iroquois, Demeritte remained confident.
“I'd been telling [owner] Harry [Veruchi] all week that they'd have to run 1:36 to beat him, because I knew I had him set up to run that kind of time,” Demeritte said.
West Saratoga was in fourth early on, then went five wide before digging in to pull away from his rivals to win by 1 ¾ lengths.
Exaggerator colt West Saratoga wins the Iroquois (G3) under Rafael Bejarano
“I saw the early fractions, but the last part I didn't see, because I was rooting too hard,” he said, laughing. “He's a nice colt, and he's moved forward with every race. … We've had some good horses in the past, but none like this one.”
The next step will be a race like the Breeders' Futurity (G1) at Keeneland on Oct. 7, but West Saratoga is unlikely to make the trip out west for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita Park.
“I would really love to start him at Keeneland,” Demeritte said. “That's the right thing for the horse. A lot of the races that he had short were more like workouts, so I feel like that's the proper step, to run him here at Keeneland then give him a breather.”
Demeritte hasn't yet considered how he might plan a spring schedule for West Saratoga, the star of his nine-horse stable. Right now, he's enjoying the ride.
“Hopefully this ride lasts a long time!” he quipped. “Now, I've run a lot of horses on Derby day, practicing for the Kentucky Derby, so when the day comes I don't have to be nervous!”
Godolphin's Pretty Mischievous made the trip south from Saratoga Race Course to Parx Racing Wednesday and got her first look at the racetrack where she'll contest the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion Stakes on a perfect late September morning Thursday in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.
Accompanied to the track by trainer Brendan Walsh on his pony, Pretty Mischievous and exercise rider Roger Horgan galloped once around the 1-mile oval shortly after the track opened for training at 6 a.m.
“She handled it all very well, just one turn of the track,” Walsh said as Pretty Mischievous peered over her stall screen as Gilmore, who the trainer will run in Saturday's co-featured betPARX Pennsylvania Derby, walked the shedrow. “It wasn't a particularly hard trip for them, coming down yesterday.”
Pretty Mischievous, the 2-1 favorite on Parx Director of Racing and Racing Secretary David Osojnak's morning line, comes into the Cotillion on a three-race win streak in Grade 1 stakes. She won the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs and Acorn at Belmont Park this spring, and the Test at Saratoga Race Course after the breakdown of Maple Leaf Mel in the final strides.
The homebred daughter of Into Mischief could take a significant step toward the 3-year-old filly championship with a Cotillion victory. She's won four of five with a second this season, after a 2-year-old campaign where she won three of four with a third.
Walsh marveled at the filly's consistent career that started with a maiden win Sept. 18, 2022 at Churchill Downs through the Aug. 5 Test.
“I was looking at her record the other day and it's unbelievable,” Walsh said. “It's a testament to her. Look, you have to have the ammunition, but it is a testament to her. I haven't had too many of them that have been able to keep it that consistent for that long. Generally, you hit some bump, or they'll back up, something. She's won seven of nine and the couple times she got beat she was second or third. It will be nice if we can pull it off again Saturday.”
Tyler Gaffalione, aboard Pretty Mischievous in her last three starts, takes the call again Saturday from post three in the field of nine entered in the 1 1/16-mile Cotillion.
Walsh left Pretty Mischievous and Gilmore in Saratoga to finish preparations for their Parx engagements and heads into Saturday feeling confident.
“She's doing great,” Walsh said. “I was up there for a few days for her last couple of works. I just didn't want to bring her all the way down (to Kentucky) and back up again for the race. She was doing so well up there. It made sense to leave her.
“I've been very, very happy both times with what I've seen coming back there. She's doing as good as maybe she's done at any point in the year, which is remarkable considering she's had a busy year but it doesn't surprise me. She's just rock-solid.”
It was a day for the die-hards at Part Two of the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale where a filly by first-season sire Soldier's Call (GB) led the way at €45,000 to Joe Foley.
But the story of the sale was the strength of the Italian buyers, with Cristiana Brivio, who operates under the banner of Razza Latina, and Valfredo Valiani, two of the leading purchasers on the day.
Foley, who also stands Soldier's Call at Ballyhane Stud, was repeating the trick from last year after topping this sale 12 months ago.
“I am delighted to have found her, she has a great pedigree-her second dam [Ameerat] won the 1,000 Guineas and there is loads of page here,” said Foley.
He added, “She is a stunningly-beautiful filly, too, and looks a real classy type. She will run in the Clipper Logistics colours.”
Breeder David Laverty enjoyed a fine payday having purchased the filly's dam Ebbraam for just 1,000gns.
“I bought the mare via a Tattersalls Online Sale through Covid,” said the breeder who hails from County Armagh and keeps 10 to 12 mares. “From day one this filly has always been in proportion and is a great walker.
“The team at Ballyknock has done a great job with her prep. My father has been breeding horses for a lifetime and we have had the highs and very lows, it is nice to get a result for all of us.”
The session concluded with a turnover of €1,546,100 and a robust clearance rate of 81 per cent.A vibrant international atmosphere was maintained over both parts of the September Yearling Sale – yearlings have been purchased by representatives from 13 different countries, with over 80 shipping to Italy, the most popular overseas destination for new acquisitions. Horses are also travelling to the Far East with Thailand appearing on the buyers' sheet for the first time.
Tattersalls Ireland CEO Simon Kerins commented, “The demand witnessed over the last two days has carried through into today's session, resulting in lively trade and a clearance rate comparable to last year given the increased catalogue. The plethora of both international and domestic buyers throughout the week has significantly contributed to these results. We hugely appreciate the support of our loyal vendors who have recognised that Part Two of the sale has established itself as a viable option for selling commercial yearlings.”
He added, “We now turn our attention to preparing the catalogue for the Sapphire Sale with entries closing for foals, yearlings and broodmares on Friday, 20th October and the sale taking place on Friday, 16th November.”
All yearlings catalogued for the September Yearling Sale and Sapphire Sale are eligible for the €250,000 Tattersalls Ireland Super Auction Sales Stakes 2024.
