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Spa Notes: Country Grammer Possible for Runhappy Travers

Paul Pompa, Jr.’s GIII Peter Pan S. hero Country Grammer (Tonalist) could make his next appearance in the GI Runhappy Travers S. at Saratoga Aug. 8, the owner told the NYRA notes team Friday.

“If he comes back well, the Travers would be the logical spot. It’s coming back a little soon but so far, so good,” Pompa, Jr. said. “We always have liked this horse, but the COVID-19 situation has created gaps, just due to lack of racing.”

A $60,000 Keeneland September yearling turned $450,000 OBS April breezer, Country Grammer broke his maiden going nine furlongs over the Aqueduct last November and resumed with an even fifth to Ete Indien (Summer Front) in the GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S. Feb. 29. He was a wide-trip third in Belmont allowance company June 4, but enjoyed a smoother run in transit in Thursday’s Peter Pan, sneaking through at the rail turning for home before outlasting ‘TDN Rising Star’ Carocaro (Uncle Mo).

Country Grammer became the second graded winner for his second-crop sire in the Peter Pan. The other, Tonalist’s Shape, is the morning-line favorite for Saturday’s GI CCA Oaks at Saratoga.

Dayoutoftheoffice Likely to Reappear During Meet…

Dayoutoftheoffice (Into Mischief), who gave trainer Tim Hamm his first Saratoga stakes winner when upsetting Thursday’s GIII Schuylerville S. at odds of 19-1, is likely to contest one or both of the graded races for juvenile fillies at the Spa over the course of the next six weeks.

“The [GII] Adirondack S. [Aug. 12, 6 1/2 furlongs] is a possibility and the [GI] Spinaway [Sept. 6, seven furlongs] is possible. I don’t know if we would do both or [just] one of the two. But we’ll probably run her up back there at least once.”

Owned by Hamm in partnership with breeder Siena Farm, Dayoutoftheoffice–who led home an Into Mischief exacta–posted a front-running, 4 3/4-length debut victory over 4 1/2 furlongs at Gulfstream May 14. Hamm was confident that his filly would relish the extra real estate in the Schuylerville.

“It’s the kind of read we had on her training up to her first race. We thought the 4 1/2 [furlongs] might be too short for her,” he said. “But she got that down, and I was optimistic she wanted to run farther than that. I believe if she stretches out, she’ll be able to handle that as well. If you don’t look good there, it closes a lot of doors. But if you win, you have options open, and you just want to lay out a good schedule now and get her where she needs to be.”

Tap It To Win Aiming For Jerkens…

Live Oak Plantation’s Tap It To Win (Tapit), who defeated GIII Peter Pan S. hero Country Grammer in the aforementioned June 4 allowance ahead of a low-odds fifth to Tiz the Law (Constitution) in the GI Belmont S. 16 days later, breezed a half-mile in :48.09 Monday morning and will shorten back up for the seven-furlong GI H. Allen Jerkens S. presented by Runhappy at Saratoga Aug. 1.

“He’s looking good. We’re going to the Allen Jerkens with him and he should fit well in there,” said Jamie Begg, assistant to trainer Mark Casse. “I think the cutback to seven-eighths is good and we’ll be able to sit off the speed and make a run.”

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‘He Was My Idol’: Wesley Ward Saddles Saratoga Winner For Hall Of Famer Steve Cauthen

Winning any race at Saratoga is highly rewarding for trainer Wesley Ward, but a victory from Palace Avenger in a Thursday six-furlong allowance held sentimental value for the conditioner winning on behalf of co-owner and longtime friend, Hall of Fame jockey Steve Cauthen.

Ward, who was a jockey for five years before transitioning to training in 1989, grew up idolizing Cauthen, who piloted Affirmed to victory in the 1978 Triple Crown at the age of 18 before moving to Europe due to weight restrictions in the United States.

“He was my idol,” Ward said.

Owned by Cauthen's Dreamfields in partnership with Don Brady, Mark O. Board and John Gaynor, Palace Avenger notched a second career win, arriving at the event off a runner-up finish at Churchill Downs at 29-1.

“It's always nice to win for a guy like Steve,” Ward said. “He's really a class act. Just a guy you really want to win for because he's such a great person.”

Ward began riding in 1984, just five years after Cauthen moved his tack to Europe, where he would go on to become a three-time champion jockey in Great Britain. During their careers as riders, both Cauthen and Ward were represented by agent Lenny Goodman.

Partnering in campaigning Thoroughbreds together is something that both Cauthen and Ward had always talked about doing.

“I always watched him from afar,” Cauthen said. “After I retired, I would see him at the sales and the track. We'd always stop and chat with each other and we would say 'We've got to get together' and we finally did.”

While Cauthen made his mark in Europe as a champion rider in the 1980s, Ward is currently making a name for himself as a trainer. Ward is known for having a knack with training young horses and sending some of his talented young horses to Europe, including Lady Aurelia who was named European Champion 2-Year-Old Filly in 2016.

“I'd say his job was harder,” Cauthen said. “It's a lot to take on going over there with a horse that's never run over a course like the ones in Europe, and he's figured it out. Not just at Royal Ascot, but at France and all over the place.”

Cauthen has some familiarity with the family of Palace Avenger, having piloted the daughter of Palace's grand dam Chimes of Freedom to victory in the 1989 Group 1 Moyglare Stud and 1990 Coronation Cup, both Group 1.

“It's a good family,” Cauthen said of the Private Account mare who also produced 2003 Champion Sprinter Aldebaran and multiple graded stakes winner Good Journey. “Chimes of Freedom was a chestnut with a white blaze so her and Palace Avenger are similar in that regard. They're about the same size, about 16 hands. The biggest similarity between the two is that they both try. That's the part you can't see when you buy them.”

A start against stakes company could be on the horizon at some point for Palace Avenger.

“I think that's what we're on the lookout for somewhere. We've talked about it a little bit,” Cauthen said.

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Gargan To Saddle First Runhappy 2-Year-Old At The Spa

Highly regarded freshman stallion Runhappy will have his first progeny race at the Spa when Peachy Queen faces a field of 10 juvenile fillies in Sunday's seventh race going 5 ½ furlongs over the main track.

Runhappy, the 2015 Champion Sprinter now standing at Claiborne Farm, captured that year's Grade 1 King's Bishop at Saratoga for owner Jim McIngvale, traveling seven furlongs in a stakes record 1:20.54.

Owned by West Paces Racing, Peachy Queen is out of the Gio Ponti broodmare Year of Promise who is a half-sister to Grade 1 winners Smiling Tiger and She's a Tiger.

The bay filly has been training forwardly for Danny Gargan at Saratoga most recently posting a bullet half-mile work in 48.20 seconds over the main track.

“She's doing really well,” Gargan said. “I'd like to get her started and get a good race out of her. She's a really sweet filly and very laid back.”

Bred in Kentucky by Fred W. Heitrich III, Peachy Queen was purchased for $180,000 from last year's Keeneland September Yearling Sale, where she was consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency.

Jockey Manny Franco will be aboard from post 6.

Live Oak Plantation homebred Our Flash Drive, a Florida-bred Ghostzapper filly, is training sharply for Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse and could provide steep opposition.

Our Flash Drive breezed a half-mile in 47.46 seconds on July 5 on the Belmont main track in company with Cotton, a 2-year-old New York-bred colt who finished a good second in his July 12 debut at Belmont which garnered a 54 Beyer Speed Figure.

“She outworked Cotton that day pretty handily,” said assistant trainer Jamie Begg.

Our Flash Drive will exit post 10 under Joel Rosario on debut and Begg said the filly will benefit from being outside horses.

“I'm happy she drew outside. I think with this filly it may suit her fancy,” said Begg. “Joel is good at making them settle and the way the track played yesterday, she can pick up the speed.”

Out of the unraced Dynaformer mare Dynamotor, her third dam, Slew City Slicker, produced Grade 1-winner Pool Land.

Trainer Todd Pletcher will debut Maryland-bred Lucifers Lair, a bay Quality Road filly owned and bred by Stuart Grant's The Elkstone Group.

Lucifer's Lair is out of the graded stakes-winning Put It Back broodmare Devil's Cave and arrives at her debut off a sharp breeze from the gate at Belmont Park going a half-mile in 48.04 seconds.

Jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. will be aboard from post 9.

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Irish Oaks Headlines Saturday Action

Aidan O’Brien will be looking to bring down more barricades on Saturday as he chases the record of Sir Michael Stoute in The Curragh’s G1 Juddmonte Irish Oaks. With five wins in the mile-and-a-half Classic, he sits one shy of the tally wracked up over the decades by the Newmarket-based legend and it will be no surprise were he to join him in 2020. Four fillies contest the latest renewal from Rosegreen, with Evie Stockwell’s G1 Epsom Oaks and G2 Ribblesdale S. runner-up Ennistymon (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) the current standard-bearer on that form. Normally, being beaten nine lengths in the Epsom monument would be no commendation coming into this equivalent, but to be that distance from her exalted stablemate Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) is probably creditable. “We’ve been very happy with Ennistymon since her last run in Epsom. She ran a great race, so we’re looking forward to this,” O’Brien said.

Ennistymon’s rider Wayne Lordan was on Snow (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) when she beat her elders in the G3 Munster Oaks at Cork July 5, which was her first try at this trip. Previously runner-up in the June 21 G3 Blue Wind S. over 10 furlongs June 21, the full-sister to Kew Gardens (Ire) is charting the kind of progress that makes one from her stable with her pedigree impossible to discount in this company. That also applies to Laburnum (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who came off second-best in a tussle with the Ger Lyons-trained Even So (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) in the Listed Naas Oaks Trial over a mile and a quarter last time July 4.

“We were delighted with Laburnum the last day, she was very inexperienced going into it–a baby, really,” O’Brien said of the full-sister to Roderic O’Connor (Ire). “When she won her maiden she didn’t know much, so we felt that she had to run again to learn. She seems to be in good form and is stepping up to a mile and a half. It will be very interesting to see what happens with her, but there is every chance she is going to move up plenty. She is a very straightforward filly.”

Earlier on the Curragh card, the O’Brien-Lordan combination is in evidence in the G2 Paddy Power Minstrel S. on the exciting Lancaster House (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who beat the high-class Speak In Colours (GB) (Excelebration {Ire}) with authority in the G3 Gladness S. over this seven-furlong trip June 13. He has to contend with last year’s winner Romanised (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}), who stages his return to action for Robert Ng and Ken Condon. Already successful in the 2018 G1 Irish 2000 Guineas, he proved himself a genuine top-class performer on his latest two outings when winning the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois and finishing runner-up in the G1 Prix du Moulin.

Aidan O’Brien’s record in the G2 GAIN Railway S. is remarkable, with his tally of 13 successes just one short of the late great Vincent O’Brien. Wayne Lordan is on the June 26 course-and-distance maiden winner Merchants Quay (Fr) (No Nay Never), leaving Michael Hussey to partner the July 3 Navan maiden scorer Forest of Dreams (Ire) (No Nay Never). Jessie Harrington saddles Zhang Yuesheng’s June 8 Naas maiden winner Lucky Vega (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), while Ger Lyons relies on To Glory (GB) (Toronado {Ire}) who was off the mark over another 150 yards on debut at Limerick June 29. The fixture’s other pattern race is the G2 Comer Group International Curragh Cup, in which Lordan is on Ballydoyle’s unexposed June 18 Fairyhouse maiden-winning 3-year-old Memorabilis (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) as he takes on Lloyd Williams’ veteran Twilight Payment (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) who scored over course and distance last time in the June 27 G3 Vintage Crop S.

Earlier in the afternoon, Newbury host the G3 bet365 Hackwood S. for the sprinters, with Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum’s TDN Rising Star Repartee (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) looking to step up on his winning return in Windsor’s Listed Carnarvon S. over this six-furlong trip June Jun 28. Among the unexposed 3-year-old’s opponents is last year’s G2 City of York S. winner Shine So Bright (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}), who was third when attempting to force the issue in the seven-furlong Listed Surrey S. at Epsom July 4. “As long as the ground is on the quick side, I would hope he’ll run very well. I think they’re calling the ground good at the moment and as long as it stays that way, I’m sure he’ll be fine,” trainer Andrew Balding said. “He’s a very useful horse on his day and I was happy with his last run at Epsom.”

Also on the card is the Listed bet365 Rose Bowl S. over six furlongs, where Manton Park Racing’s Method (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) bids to uphold the form of his Doncaster debut June 26. Having beaten the subsequent G2 Duchess of Cambridge S. runner-up Fev Rover (Ire) (Gutaifan {Ire}) there by 4 1/4 lengths, there is an understandable air of excitement surrounding the latest Martyn Meade project. “He was quite impressive at Doncaster, but this is a totally different ball game,” he said with a dash of humility. “He’s come out the race really well and I’m expecting him to progress and make a good showing of himself. It’s a natural stepping-stone. It’s just the right sort of race for him. I think he learnt a lot the other day.”

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