Peter Callahan's three-time Grade 1 winner Swiss Skydiver put in her final piece of serious preparation for Saturday's Grade 1, $1 million Whitney at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
With Irad Ortiz, Jr. aboard, the Kenny McPeek-trained 4-year-old daughter of Daredevil went five-eighths in 1:01.21 Sunday over a Saratoga main track rated fast.
A winner over six different ovals, including Saratoga when capturing last year's Grade 1 Alabama, Swiss Skydiver has won with five different jockeys aboard.
Ortiz, Jr. will look to increase that number when he pilots the chestnut filly in the Whitney.
“He loved her and said she felt great,” McPeek said. “We're excited, we should be ready. She's adaptable to racetracks and jockeys, it doesn't really matter.”
Swiss Skydiver has posted six graded stakes wins over five different ovals with her biggest claim to fame taking place against males in last year's Grade 1 Preakness Stakes. The last female to capture the Whitney was undefeated Hall of Famer Personal Ensign in 1988.
McPeek breezed graded stakes winner King Fury over the Oklahoma training turf Sunday in preparation for Saturday's $1 million Grade 1 Saratoga Derby Invitational going 1 3/16 miles over the Mellon turf course.
The son of Curlin, out of Grade 1-winner Taris, worked with Jose Ortiz aboard in company with Fighting Seabee, winner of the 2019 Grade 3 With Anticipation, and finished off his five-furlong move in 1:01.25.
Owned by Fern Circle Stables and Three Chimneys Farm, King Fury scored in the Grade 3 Lexington on April 10 over a sloppy and sealed track at Keeneland two starts back. He arrives at his turf debut off a close second to Masqueparade in the Grade 3 Ohio Derby on June 26 at Thistledown.
McPeek said he would like to run King Fury in the $1.25 million Grade 1 Runhappy Travers.
“Jose seemed to think that he can handle the turf,” McPeek said. “We'll learn a little something about him and it's a big purse. That's been our goal all summer is to get him to the Travers. The turf race is looking deep but it shouldn't hurt him.
“It's a very good group of 3-year-olds and Essential Quality had another workmanlike win yesterday, but it's hard to separate the 3-year-olds until the Breeders' Cup,” McPeek continued. “That's the race that really separates everybody.”
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