Tag: Belmont Stakes

Arcangelo Tunes Up for Breeders’ Cup Classic

Blue Rose Farm's Arcangelo (Arrogate) continued preparations for the Nov. 4 GI Breeders' Cup Classic with a five-furlong drill in 1:00.00 (3/33) at Santa Anita Sunday. Trainer Jena Antonucci, in from New York to watch the work, clocked Arcangelo's final furlong in under :12. He galloped out an extra two furlongs, which Antonucci clocked in “:13 and change” for each furlong.

“It was a serious work. A pretty work,” Antonucci said immediately after the drill. “I wanted sub-12 seconds the final furlong, which he gave me. I think I'm pretty spot-on with that. That's what he'll need to do on race day.”

Ten days ago at Santa Anita, Arcangelo had his first local work when going five furlongs in 1:02.20. Antonucci said the 3-year-old ridgling will have one more work about 10 days ahead of the 1 1/4-mile Classic.

“We'll increase the pace of his gallops and just continue to do what we're doing,” the trainer added. “For his final work, we'll see if we need to tighten something here or there, or if he needs more of a lung-opener.”

Arcangelo, who will be facing older rivals for the first time in the Classic, is coming off wins in the May 13 GIII Peter Pan S., June 10 GI Belmont S. and, most recently, the Aug. 26 GI Travers S.

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The Week in Review: No Plan? No Problem for Castellano in Travers

After getting brushed and shuffled in the early stages of Saturday's GI Travers S. while losing momentum and position, Javier Castellano decided to wing his trip aboard 2.7-1 second choice Arcangelo (Arrogate). He would later explain with a laugh–in the way that only winning jockeys can find humor when their riding tactics go off-kilter–that “it seemed to me that everybody had a plan, except myself.”

Sometimes no plan ends up being the best plan, as demonstrated by Arcangelo's artful dissection of a “loaded” Midsummer Derby that brought together not only the winners of this year's three Triple Crown races, but also the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile champion colt from last season.

Yet while Arcangelo's team–owner Blue Rose Farm, trainer Jena Antonucci, and the now seven-time winning Travers jockey Castellano–deservedly basked in the glory of the colt's well-improvised, 105 Beyer Speed Figure score that came 11 weeks after a 7-1 upset of the GI Belmont S., the connections of the high-profile Travers also-rans might have been rightfully questioning how their own pre-race strategies also seemed to disintegrate shortly after the starter sprung the latch for Saratoga's annual showcase race.

Take 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence), for example. The reigning 2-year-old champ and winner of three of five graded stakes at age three was favored to win the Travers at 1.75-1 odds. But I wouldn't bet that too many people expected him to outbreak the field, especially considering he was fractious in the gate from post one and that he had never led at the first call in any of his previous nine races. Yet he popped out on top and spearheaded the pack for the first 100 yards before jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. decided he wanted Forte back in his comfort zone of targeting pacemakers and not being one himself.

At the same time, GI Kentucky Derby upsetter Mage (Good Magic) also broke with more early energy than usual, leaving Flavien Prat with an unexpectedly hard-to-handle, keyed-up colt as the field scrambled for position into the clubhouse turn.

With both Ortiz and Prat committed to conceding their positions in efforts to get their colts to settle, Castellano had to adjust his own rhythm and cadence in their wake, dropping back to fifth while securing a rail spot for Arcangelo.

The two colts who projected to be the main speeds on paper–the GI Preakness S. wire-to-wire victor National Treasure (Quality Road) and the all-the-way Curlin S. winner Scotland (Good Magic)–then came around Forte and Mage while Arcangelo, taking the shortest route at the fence, edged up into second.

Onto the backstretch, the Travers pack sorted itself into a more logical procession after opening quarter-mile splits of :23.46 and :24.54.

But then the 12-1 'TDN Rising Star' Tapit Trice (Tapit) surged up with an early bid for third behind Scotland and National Treasure, and these tactics, too, were out of the ordinary for a colt who has historically lagged and had to be scrubbed on in the early stages.

But on Saturday, Tapit Trice was newly adorned with blinkers for the first time in a race, and jockey Jose Ortiz had already started nudging him for run at the mile pole to see if the equipment change would produce a prolonged bid that would be able to sustain giving up five paths of real estate through the initial turn.

By the time the field crested the half-mile marker through a third-quarter split in a speeded-up :23.63, the body language of the contenders was telling: Scotland was all-out under pressure, with National Treasure being pushed along but not making headway while three-quarters of a length behind. Tapit Trice continued his wide journey three deep through the second turn, while Arcangelo fluidly clicked into a higher cruising gear, with Castellano tipping him out to the four path and appearing primed to pounce turning for home.

Forte at this point was rallying admirably considering his dire, self-inflicted circumstances, but the favorite's wide move from last under Irad Ortiz was accompanied by a whiff of too-little-too-late desperation. The punchless Mage dropped back to trail the field and was not hammered on for run by Prat when it was evident he was in no way in it to win it.

Banking off the bend through a fourth-quarter split in :24.65, Arcangelo drew abreast with what had essentially been a six-furlong middle move by Tapit Trice and the stubbornly staying-on Scotland.

Castellano gave one cursory look over his right shoulder to size up the threat from Forte, and he saw enough to know he wouldn't have to glance back in that direction again while hustling his colt with a vigorous hand ride in upper stretch.

Three-sixteenths out, Arcangelo put away both pacemakers, then braced for a fresh challenge from the late-striding Disarm (Gun Runner). A bit of judicious right-handed stick work outside the eighth pole elicited just enough torque from Arcangelo to keep Disarm at bay, with the final margin between them a length at the wire and Tapit Trice 2 1/2 lengths farther back in third.

In order, Forte, National Treasure, Scotland and Mage rounded out the finish.

Although Arcangelo's winning Beyer represents a three-point bump over his 102 for the Belmont S. and continues the colt's upward arc of always running a faster figure than his previous race over six lifetime starts, his final time of 2:02.23 for 10 furlongs was the slowest winning time for the Travers since V.E. Day stopped the timer in 2:02.98 back in 2014.

Arcangelo also made his winning move through a final quarter- mile clocked in :25.85, which is the slowest final split for the Travers since Keen Ice required :26.49 to upset American Pharoah in the 2015 edition.

Your Travers takeaway will depend upon how much emphasis you put on each of the above-mentioned factors.

On one hand, the winner looked visually impressive, and resonates as a colt who doesn't need to have everything go his own way to run his “A” race.

Arcangelo's speed figure came back more than respectable, but when the raw times get compared to the race's recent history, they're only so-so.

You also have to factor in that the next time Arcangelo meets Grade I competition, three of his main contenders are probably not going to suffer the disadvantageous types of trips that skewed the efforts of Forte, Mage, and (to a lesser degree) Tapit Trice.

On Sunday, the connections of the Travers top four reported all colts emerged from the race in decent shape. Mage's team posted on Twitter that he was doing well after “a bad day at the office.”

Antonucci was non-committal about a next start for Arcangelo. The GI Breeders' Cup Classic, though, would afford the same 11-week spacing as the colt's wins between the Belmont S. and the Travers.

That time frame would also match the same 11 weeks that Arcangelo's sire utilized when he won the Travers and the Classic in succession in 2016.

And let's not forget that Arrogate then parlayed those emphatic wins at age three into a sweep of the GI Pegasus World Cup and G1 Dubai World Cup early in his 4-year-old season.

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Arcangelo Proves The Right ‘Choice’ In Travers 154

In many ways, it was a 'good' problem to have.

Having added a maiden success in the GI Kentucky Derby to his Hall of Fame resume at long last aboard Mage (Good Magic) in early May, jockey Javier Castellano continued a magical ride when teaming with Jena Antonucci to make history in the GI Belmont S. on the progressive Arcangelo (Arrogate), as the connections of Mage turned their collective attention to the second half of the season.

Mage resumed with a very good runner-up effort when reportedly not fully fit for last month's GI TVG.com Haskell S., a steppingstone to the GI Travers S., and a burning question over the next three weeks or so revolved around which colt would be the apple of Castellano's eye come the final Saturday in August. For her part, Antonucci always expressed confidence that Arcangelo would win out at the end of the day, and so it proved, as Luis Saez was named on Mage when Castellano declined to commit in a manner deemed timely enough.

A decision–or non-decision, as the case was–having been made, Castellano was now locked into the son of the late 2016 Travers romper Arrogate for a race he'd won a record six times previously, most recently with Catholic Boy (More Than Ready) in 2018. Deftly handled on an afternoon that was crying out for something–anything, really–resembling a happy ending, Arcangelo proved equal to the task under an A-plus steer from his 45-year-old reinsman.

“I never give up,” Castellano said. “I always work hard for moments like this. I've been up and down and thank God I've been lucky enough to win my seventh Travers. It's like the Super Bowl for Tom Brady. I'm so blessed to have people supporting me. When people support your career, it's great.”

Scotland (Tapit) won the break from his outside draw and led them past the winning post for the first time, as 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence), a bit toey in gate one, a keyed-up Mage and GI Preakness S. hero National Treasure (Quality Road) raced handiest to the speed. Arcangelo was fifth of the seven as he hugged the rail, and he was followed by the newly blinkered Disarm (Gun Runner) and, unsurprisingly, the perpetually slow-starting 'Rising Star' Tapit Trice (Tapit).

Castellano made a key move entering the clubhouse turn, allowing Arcangelo to improve inside of Forte, and when National Treasure rolled forward to prompt Scotland, it left the gray colt with the run of the race from the box seat. Traveling beautifully in midpack passing the midway point, Arcangelo needed next to no encouragement to keep pace with the leading group, and, once eased out into the four path, made ominous progress outside the typically one-paced Tapit Trice approaching the five-sixteenths marker. Spun out five or six wide into the stretch as Forte began to wind up with a bit of a run from behind, Arcangelo struck to the front with a furlong and a half to race and stayed on nicely for the victory. Joel Rosario rolled the dice up the fence with Disarm and was in tight inside of a weakening Scotland in upper stretch, then flew home to be runner-up in a case of what might've been. Tapit Trice plugged on for third, ahead of his favored stablemate Forte in fourth. National Treasure, Scotland and a disappointing Mage completed the order of finish.

“I feel like on the backside I had so much horse, I could blow by and open up by 10 and I just took my time and let him develop,” Castellano added. “I put him outside, enjoyed my ride and very lucky and thankful and blessed you guys gave me the opportunity and a lot of confidence to ride the horse and working together every single step. It seems to me he's a super horse. Keep our fingers crossed, keep him sound. All the credit to Jena. She does such a good job with the horses.”

It was another feather in the cap of Antonucci, the first of her sex to train a Belmont winner and the second to saddle a Travers winner, joining Mary Hirsch (1938).

“The significance of accomplishing anything in any gender at the top of any sport or industry is a gift,” she said. “It doesn't come without the team and without every single person on our team. The significance of this is hard to put into words right now.

“Anyone that wants something bad enough, you just have to work your tail off for it. It doesn't matter–man, woman, boy, girl–that's just white noise. If you want it, go fight for it and make it happen for yourself.”

It had been 77 days since the Belmont, but Antonucci had no problem whatsoever bringing Arcangelo into the Travers off works.

“It just never was a layoff in my mind with this horse,” she explained. “I understand the traditionalists of this sport are always going to view gaps in that manner. This horse has had his entire career that way because [owner] Jon [Ebbert] wants this horse to be brought along slowly, correctly and be given the time he needs to grow up. I feel we have respected that with the horse and Jon has respected that in the horse.”

A debut second sprinting in the Gulfstream slop last December, Arcangelo was fourth to future GII Louisiana Derby hero Kingsbarns (Uncle Mo) over a mile Jan. 14 before graduating with Castellano at the controls Mar. 18. The ridgling battled hard in taking the May 13 GIII Peter Pan S. to earn his way into the Belmont, and, with Antonucci riding as hard as anyone from the Belmont boxes, easily defeated Forte at Big Sandy.

What once was an open question is no longer, as put succinctly by Forte's part-owner Mike Repole.

“I'm not afraid to say it; that's the top 3-year-old in the country. No doubt.”

Pedigree Notes:

Arcangelo is one of four stakes winners–all graded–from the second of what will be just three crops for the late Arrogate and is one of his five Grade I winners to date. To date, Arcangelo has been represented by a total of nine stakes winners, seven at the graded level. From a family with tremendous depth and influence in the stud book, it is remarkable that he was purchased by Ebbert for just $35,000 at Keeneland September in 2021.

A May 11 foal, Arcangelo is out of the unraced Modeling, a half-sister to GISW Streaming (Smart Strike), SW Treasuring (Smart Strike) and SW Cascading (A.P. Indy), who was acquired by Don Alberto Corporation for $2.85 million in foal to Distorted Humor at the 2014 Keeneland November Sale.

Given the black-type in his third dam, it's hardly surprising Arcangelo might have been cut out for a race like the Belmont. Better Than Honour fetched an eye-watering $14 million from Southern Equine Stables at the 2008 Fasig-Tipton November Sale, some 17 months after her daughter Rags to Riches (A.P. Indy) duplicated her half-brother Jazil (Seeking the Gold)'s feat in annexing the final leg of the Triple Crown. Better Than Honour was also responsible for U.S. Grade II winner and Japanese Group 1-placed Casino Drive (Mineshaft); Breeders' Cup Marathon hero Man of Iron (Giant's Causeway); and the dam of MGSW & GISP Greatest Honour (Tapit). Tapit himself played a large role in Saturday's outcome as the broodmare sire of the first two home and the sire of the third.

Modeling has not produced a live foal since Arcangelo and was most recently covered by Munnings.

Saturday, Saratoga
TRAVERS S.-GI, $1,250,000, Saratoga, 8-26, 3yo, 1 1/4m, 2:02.23, my.
1–ARCANGELO, 126, r, 3, by Arrogate
1st Dam: Modeling, by Tapit
2nd Dam: Teeming, by Storm Cat
3rd Dam: Better Than Honour, by Deputy Minister
($35,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP). O-Blue Rose Farm; B-Don Alberto
Corporation (KY); T-Jena M. Antonucci; J-Javier Castellano.
$687,500. Lifetime Record: 6-4-1-0, $1,754,900.
Werk Nick Rating: A.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Disarm, 126, c, 3, Gun Runner–Easy Tap, by Tapit.
1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. 'TDN Rising Star'. O/B-Winchell
Thoroughbreds LLC (KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen. $250,000.
3–Tapit Trice, 126, c, 3, Tapit–Danzatrice, by Dunkirk.
'TDN Rising Star'. ($1,300,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP). O-Whisper Hill
Farm, LLC and Gainesway Stable (Antony Beck); B-Gainesway
Thoroughbreds Ltd. (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher. $150,000.
Margins: 1, 2HF, 4HF. Odds: 2.70, 12.20, 13.50.
Also Ran: Forte, National Treasure, Scotland, Mage.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

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