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Pletcher Hoping Alydar Will Serve As Breakthrough Win For Spinoff

Wertheimer and Frere's Grade 2-placed homebred Spinoff, a veteran of last year's Triple Crown trail, swept to the lead on the far turn and turned back favored Endorsed through the stretch to earn his first stakes victory in Sunday's eighth running of the $85,000 Alydar at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

It was the third career win in the Alydar for Saratoga's leading rider Irad Ortiz, Jr. as well as Todd Pletcher, who moved into first place in the meet's trainer standings with his 16th victory at the summer stand.

Sent off at 3-1, Spinoff returned $8.40 for a $2 win bet. The 4-year-old Hard Spun colt covered 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.60 over a fast main track.

Spinoff won for the first time in four tries this year, having been beaten a neck when second in the Sunday Silence on May 17 over a sloppy track at Gulfstream Park. After coming up empty in a one-mile optional claiming allowance last out on July 2 at Belmont Park, he bounced back with a huge effort in the Alydar.

“He ran really well here last year in a mile and an eighth two-other-than and had a pretty rough trip last time and I think he ran better than it looked on paper,” Pletcher said. “We had good spacing to this and we had been pointing to it for a while. He's trained well and I thought we were going to get a good setup. The race kind of unfolded exactly how Irad and I talked about before the race and it's nice when it falls into place.”

Ortiz, Jr. settled Spinoff in the clear three wide as Its All Relevant, a winner of two straight and three of his last four races, was in front through a quarter-mile in 24.97 seconds and a half in 49.57, under moderate pressure from Bodexpress. Its All Relevant's lead shrunk as the field hit the turn and Spinoff and Bodexpress ranged up to challenge.

Spinoff came off the turn in front and was set down for a drive to the wire by Ortiz, Jr. as Endorsed, the 3-5 favorite who ran fourth in last year's Grade 1 Runhappy Travers, tried to mount his bid on the far outside but was unable to gain any ground. Spinoff crossed the wire 2 ¾ lengths in front, while there were 4 ½ lengths between Endorsed and Bodexpress in third followed by Backsideofthemoon and Its All Relevant. Tenfold was scratched.

Third in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special as a 2-year-old in 2018, Spinoff ran second in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby to punch his ticket to the 2019 Kentucky Derby where he ran 18th. After skipping the Preakness, the chestnut showed up in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes and ran sixth, beaten only three lengths, before a failed bid on turf in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby. His sophomore season ended when he rolled home 5 ¾ lengths the best in a nine-furlong optional claiming allowance last August at Saratoga.

“It's rewarding,” Pletcher said of the Alydar win. “He's a horse we always had high hopes for. We placed him pretty ambitiously. He's always been right on the verge of breaking through so hopefully, as a 4-year-old, maybe he can take it to the next level.”

Pletcher also won the first running of the Alydar in 2013 with Vitoria Olimpica, and followed up with Rally Cry in 2017. Ortiz, Jr. was first with Farhaan in 2014 and Royal Posse in 2016.

“My horse ran a great race today,” Ortiz, Jr. said. “Last time, he got in a little trouble. He relaxed so well today, and the race set up for him. In the turn, he relaxed in the clear and when I asked him to go, I got plenty from him.”

Live racing returns Wednesday to Saratoga to open the fourth full week of racing with a 10-race program that includes the 104 th running of the Grade 2, $150,000 Adirondack at 6 ½ furlongs for 2-year-old fillies in Race 9 at 5:17 p.m. First post is 12:50 p.m. Eastern.

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Tiz The Law Even-Money Favorite In Final Kentucky Derby Future Wager

Four weeks in advance of the rescheduled $3-million Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (Grade I), Belmont Stakes (Grade I) and Travers Stakes (GI) winner Tiz the Law is the clear-cut horse to beat in the eyes of bettors as he closed as the even-money favorite Sunday in Pool 7 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager.

If the future wager is any indication, Tiz the Law, a winner in six of his seven starts and an earner of $2,015,300, could be the shortest-priced Kentucky Derby favorite since Arazi finished eighth at odds of 4-5 in 1992. The only other horse to start at less than 2-1 odds during that span was Point Given, who finished fifth as the 9-5 choice in 2001.

Sackatoga Stables' Tiz the Law, trained by Barclay Tagg and ridden by Manny Franco, has been either the first or second individual favorite in every Future Wager pool since last November: Pool 1 (11-1); Pool 2 (8-1); Pool 3 (7-1); Pool 4 (5-1); Pool 5 (2-1); Pool 6 (5-2); and Pool 7 (1-1).

Santa Anita Derby (GI) winner and Shared Belief runner-up Honor A. P. and Blue Grass (GII) and Ellis Park Derby winner Art Collector both closed at odds of 8-1. Haskell winner Authentic was the 11-1 fourth betting choice.

Horses in order of favoritism in the three-day Aug. 7-9 KDFW Pool 7 (Final Odds and $2 Win Will Pays): #22 Tiz the Law (1-1, $4.20); #10 Honor A.P. (8-1, $18.20); #2 Art Collector (8-1, $19.60); #3 Authentic (11-1, $25.80); #23 Uncle Chuck (15-1, $33.20); #11 King Guillermo (19-1, $41); #24 “All Other 3-Year-Olds” (24-1, $51.60); #21 Thousand Words (25-1, $53.60); #4 Caracaro (29-1, $60.80); #19 Sole Volante (29-1, $60.80); #14 Ny Traffic (30-1, $63.40); #8 Enforceable (36-1, $74.60); #13 Max Player (38-1, $78.20); #7Dr Post (40-1, $82); #5 Country Grammer (55-1, $112.20); #17 Shared Sense (65-1, $132.20); #6 Dean Martini (66-1, $135.40); #1Anneau d'Or (70-1, $142.40); #12 Major Fed (79-1, $160.80); #20 South Bend (127-1, $256.80); #15 Pneumatic (140-1, $283); #9 Finnick the Fierce (164-1, $330.80); #16 Rushie (188-1, $379.80); and #18 Shivaree (285-1, $572.40).

The Kentucky Derby Future Wager, offered for a 22nd consecutive year, enables bettors to wager on possible Kentucky Derby contenders in advance of America's greatest race at odds that could be more attractive than those available on the day of the race.

On March 17, Churchill Downs Incorporated announced the 146th running of the Kentucky Derby (GI), the 1 1/4-mile classic for 3-year-old Thoroughbreds, would be rescheduled from May 2 to Saturday, Sept. 5 amid public health concerns in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Total handle for Pool 7 of the KDFW was $194,215 ($122,573 in the Win pool and $71,642 in Exactas). Visit www.KentuckyDerby.com/FutureWager for more information.

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Art Collector Records Front-Running Win In Runhappy Ellis Park Derby

Art Collector, Bruce Lunsford's homebred colt by Bernardini, rolled to his fourth consecutive win for trainer Tommy Drury on Sunday, winning the $200,000 Runhappy Ellis Park Derby at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky.

Under confident handling from Brian Hernandez Jr., Art Collector covered 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.02, winning by about three lengths. Attachment Rate, who was wide much of the way, finished second for trainer Dale Romans and jockey Joe Talamo. Necker Island finished third, with Rowdy Yates fourth, Grade 3 Indiana Derby winner Shared Sense fifth and G3 Ohio Derby winner Dean Martini sixth in the field of 12 3-year-olds.

Art Collector set fractions of :23.33, :46.74, 1:10.70, and 1:35.25. Truculent, who pressured Art Collector for much of the way, finished last.

The race offered qualifying points (50-20-10-5) to the top four finishers for the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby.

“He's done nothing wrong this year, he's answered every question,” Drury said on TVG after the race.

Art Collector came into the Ellis Park Derby off a 3 1/2-length win over the filly Swiss Skydiver in the G2 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on July 11, coming from just off the pace. He won two allowance races before that at Churchill Downs, one of them in wire-to-wire fashion.

“I never really sent him, he broke sharp like he always does,” Hernandez said on TVG. “If I needed do I thought I could run them off their feet. It was impressive. He was drawing away pretty easily. Like Tommy said, we wanted to use this race as a building block, a foundation.”

From the Distorted Humor mare, Distorted Legacy, Art Collector began his career racing on turf for trainer Joe Sharp. He finished sixth in his first dirt race at Churchill Downs last November, then came from off the pace to finish 7 1/2 lengths in front in a Nov. 30 allowance race. A post-race drug test turned up positive for the prohibited substance levamisole and Art Collector was disqualified from that win.

Lunsford subsequently moved the horse to Drury, who is based at the Skylight training center near Louisville.

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Art Collector Takes Heat, Keeps Going in Sharp Ellis Derby Score

There was no easy ride for heavily-favored ART COLLECTOR (c, 3, Bernardini–Distorted Legacy, by Distorted Humor) in Sunday’s Runhappy Ellis Park Derby, as he was pressured hard on the front end throughout, but in the end it made little difference, as the streaking bay turned away all challengers to cement himself as one of the favorites for the GI Kentucky Derby.

Breaking sharply at 2-5, Art Collector made the lead on his own power under Brian Hernandez, Jr. while being kept a bit off the rail heading into the clubhouse turn. Pushed along by 99-1 shot Truculent (Raison d’Etat) through a :23.33 quarter, he got no breather through a :46.74 half. Just as soon as he put aside the pace-pressing bomb, the Bruce Lunsford homebred was confronted with a two-pronged challenge from GIII Ohio Derby winner Dean Martini (Cairo Prince) and Attachment Rate (Hard Spun) as three-quarters went up in 1:10.70. The former was the first to sputter as the trio neared the lane, but Attachment Rate put in a game bid before being disposed of himself passing the furlong grounds. Without challengers for the final sixteenth, Hernandez rode Art Collector home hands and heels, finishing 3 1/4 lengths to the good in 1:48.02. Attachment Rate was clear for the place.

“He’s such a professional horse, and he showed it again today. He was able to go :46 2/5 on the lead and just able to widen on them again,” said Hernandez. “It’s a testament to the horse, how really good he is. That’s quick for a half, especially going a mile and an eighth. That’s really fast for a horse. And he was able to do it within himself. He traveled like a winner the whole way. We say that all the time, but being on their back, we have an instinct to know how fast they’re going. That’s all I wanted to do: just stay out of his way and let him travel.”

A second-out graduate on the Kentucky Downs turf, Art Collector was off the board in his next two starts and ended up as one of several horses disqualified for trainer Joe Sharp due to a levamisole positive after dominating a Churchill optional claimer in his 2-year-old finale. Switched to trainer Tom Drury after that, he is undefeated as a sophomore under the new banner, capturing a pair of allowances this spring in Louisville before legitimizing those runs with a similarly sharp tally in the GII Toyota Blue Grass S. July 11 at Keeneland.

“This is huge,” said Hernandez. “We’re going into the Derby now with a legitimate horse. Like we said after the Blue Grass, he’s proven he’s getting better and better with each race. He showed it again today. He put everyone away. He did it all on his own and ran away from there.”

Pedigree Notes:

Art Collector, one of 75 stakes winners and 46 graded stakes winners for Darley’s Bernardini, is the second foal to race out of Grade I-placed Distorted Legacy, who finished fourth, beaten just a length, at 45-1 in the 2011 GI Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf. She is a half-sister to GSW/MGISP Vision and Verse (Storm Cat) out of Grade I-placed Bunting. This is also the female family of GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff heroine Stopchargingmaria (Tale of the Cat) and Venezuelan Horses of the Year Ninfa del Cielo (Ven) (Big Prairie) and Bukowski (Ven) (Big Prairie). Distorted Legacy has a yearling Into Mischief colt and foaled another colt by the same sire Feb. 5.

RUNHAPPY ELLIS PARK DERBY, $193,750, Ellis, 8-9, 3yo, 1 1/8m, 1:48.02, ft.
1–ART COLLECTOR, 122, c, 3, by Bernardini
1st Dam: Distorted Legacy (SW & GISP, $421,466), by Distorted Humor
2nd Dam: Bunting, by Private Account
3rd Dam: Flag Waver, by Hoist the Flag
O/B-W. Bruce Lunsford (KY); T-Thomas Drury, Jr.; J-Brian
Joseph Hernandez, Jr. $115,905. Lifetime Record: 9-5-1-0,
$664,380.
2–Attachment Rate, 118, c, 3, Hard Spun–Aristra, by Afleet
Alex. ($100,000 Wlg ’17 KEENOV; $200,000 Ylg ’18 KEESEP).
O-Jim Bakke & Gerald Isbister; B-C. Oliver Iselin (VA); T-Dale L.
Romans. $32,550.
3–Necker Island, 118, c, 3, Hard Spun–Jenny’s Rocket, by Mr.
Greeley. ($250,000 Ylg ’18 KEESEP). O-Raymond Daniels &
Wayne Scherr; B-Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC (KY);
T-Chris A. Hartman. $18,775.
Margins: 3 1/4, 5 1/4, 1 3/4. Odds: 0.40, 14.40, 31.50.
Also Ran: Rowdy Yates, Shared Sense, Dean Martini, Winning Impression, Anneau d’Or, Sprawl, Trident Hit, Little Menace, Truculent. Scratched: Rogue Element. Click for the Equibase.com chart.

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