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Knicks Go Gains ‘Confidence’ In Iowa, Headed To Aug. 7 Whitney

The Korea Racing Authority's Knicks Go may have disappointed in the Saudi Cup and the Met Mile, but the 5-year-old son of Paynter got back on track Friday night at Iowa's Prairie Meadows with a 10 1/4-length romp in the Grade 3 Cornhusker Handicap. Trainer Brad Cox was pleased with the horse's effort, and told the Thoroughbred Daily News his next target will be the G1 Whitney at Saratoga on Aug. 7.

“It's always great to run in Grade 1's and it's great to have horses that are Grade 1 horses,” Cox told the TDN. “He's a Grade 1 horse. But I do think a race like this one can give the horse confidence and fitness without really getting to the bottom of them. It was a nice race going a mile-and-an-eighth and I think it, being five weeks out, was a nice set up for the Whitney. A race like that can do a lot for a horse. He's a sound, happy horse and we witnessed that last Friday.”

The Whitney is a “Win and You're In” race for the Breeders' Cup Classic, which Cox indicated could be a future target for Knicks Go. The horse won the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland last fall, so Cox would be changing things up to aim for the 1 1/4-mile Classic. The trainer suggested Knicks Go is better around two turns, as both of his poor efforts in 2021 came in one-turn races.

“With the way he ran Friday and the configuration of Del Mar, the Classic is definitely in play,” Cox continued. “Both Breeders' Cup races are in play. At Del Mar, we think a mile-and-a-quarter is something he can handle. I think he's a horse that benefits from a shorter stretch. Keeneland has a short stretch when you run a mile there. Gulfstream has a bit of a shorter stretch. There was a shorter stretch the other night at Prairie Meadows and Del Mar doesn't have a long stretch. Those are things we've picked up on over the last year that seem to benefit him.”

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

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Going… Going… Gone.

Knicks Go (Paynter), a razor-sharp winner of the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile Nov. 7 and GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. Jan. 23, got back on track in a big way with a front-running, tour-de-force victory in Friday evening's GIII Prairie Meadows Cornhusker H.

Fourth in both the $20-million Saudi Cup Feb. 20 and GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan H. June 5, the 3-5 favorite cleared the field heading into the clubhouse turn in this return to his preferred two-turn trip. The 2018 GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity hero carved out fractions of :23.33 and :47.02, let it out a notch on the far turn and dropped the hammer in the stretch to win by an effortless, 10 1/4 lengths over Last Judgment (Congrats). Knicks Go received a career-best 113 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort.

Pedigree Notes:

Knicks Go stands alone as the only Grade I winner to date for Paynter, who has four graded winners among his 17 black-type winners. The breeding of Knicks Go has been well-documented, with his dam's last two matings being significantly upgraded: Kosmo's Buddy has a yearling filly by Justify and a filly by Ghostzapper of this year. Ghostzapper, like Paynter, is a son of Awesome Again.

Knicks Go, the fifth Maryland-bred generation of his family, is one of 10 stakes winners out of daughters of the Danzig sire Outflanker. The Moore family's Green Mount Farm claimed the two-time stakes winner Kosmo's Buddy for $40,000 in her penultimate career start at Monmouth in 2010. She RNA'd for $195,000 at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Mixed Sale.

Friday, Prairie Meadows
PRAIRIE MEADOWS CORNHUSKER H.-GIII, $300,000, Prairie Meadows, 7-2, 3yo/up, 1 1/8m, 1:47.33, ft.
1–KNICKS GO, 126, h, 5, by Paynter
                1st Dam: Kosmo's Buddy (MSW, $298,095), by Outflanker
                2nd Dam: Vaulted, by Allen's Prospect
                3rd Dam: Aube d'Or, by Medaille d'Or
($40,000 Wlg '16 KEENOV; $87,000 Ylg '17 KEESEP). O-Korea
Racing Authority; B-Angie Moore (MD); T-Brad H. Cox; J-Joel
Rosario. $180,000. Lifetime Record: MGISW, 21-7-3-1,
$4,833,995. Werk Nick Rating: F. Click for the
eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Last Judgment, 120, g, 5, Congrats–Fantasy Forest, by
Forestry. ($90,000 Ylg '17 FTKOCT; $300,000 2yo '18 OBSAPR).
O-Michael Dubb, Steve Hornstock, Michael J. Caruso & Nice
Guys Stables; B-Woodford Thoroughbreds, LLC (FL); T-Michael Maker. $60,000.
3–Rated R Superstar, 117, g, 8, Kodiak Kowboy–Wicked Wish,
by Gold Case. O-Danny R. Caldwell; B-ThornDale Stable LLC
(KY); T-Federico Villafranco. $30,000.
Margins: 10 1/4, HF, 12. Odds: 0.60, 3.40, 17.80.
Also Ran: Tenfold, Dinar, Modernist. Scratched: Drifting West.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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Pirate’s Punch Returns To Face Ny Traffic In Saturday’s Salvator Mile

Pirate's Punch and Ny Traffic took turns with impressive performances a year ago at Monmouth Park. Now they'll match their considerable talents in the same race at the track.

Pirate's Punch, idle since the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 7, and Ny Traffic, who made his return to racing on May 2, top a field of 10 for the Grade 3, $150,000 Salvator Mile, the headliner on Monmouth Park's Saturday card.

When last seen at Monmouth Park, Pirate's Punch won the Salvator Mile in 2020 – a race after being disqualified from a victory in the Grade 3 Iselin Stakes. Ny Traffic was second in last year's Grade 1 TVG.com Haskell Stakes, beaten a nose by 2020 Horse of the Year Authentic.

Rounding out the Salvator Mile field are Bal Harbour, Basin, Croatian, Galerio, Green Light Go, Informative, War Stopper and West Will Power.

A 5-year-old Kentucky-bred, Pirate's Punch needed surgery to remove a chip from one of his knees shortly after the Breeders' Cup, with trainer Grant Forster now eager to get him started on his 2021 campaign.

“After his surgery we took our time with him and did the proper rehab. Hopefully we have a foundation in him,” said Forster. “He's doing fantastic. He seems like he's a bigger, stronger horse this year.

“Since we put him back in training he hasn't missed a day of training, hasn't missed a work, hasn't missed a gallop. He has been ultra-consistent and we think we have him ready to run and ready to get back in the game and get going.”

The 4-year-old Ny Traffic, in his first race since the Preakness Stakes on Oct. 3, impressed in his 2021 debut, blazing to a 6¾-length victory in an allowance optional claimer at Belmont Park on May 2.

“He came back in a big way. He won emphatically,” said trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. “We were hoping he would win but we never envisioned he would run like that in his first race back after seven months off.

“It's a long year and he has a lot in front of him. We're hoping this race can be a building block for the year.”

Ny Traffic, a son of Cross Traffic-Mamie Reilly by Graeme Hall, has a 3-3-2 line from 12 career starts, with lifetime earnings of $612,220. Despite that, he has yet to win a graded stakes race.

“He came close (in last year's) Haskell,” said Joseph. “He definitely has a graded stakes win in him. Hopefully it's this year – and maybe this weekend.”

Ny Traffic is owned by John Fanelli, Cash is King LLC, LC Racing, Paul Braverman and Team Hanley.

Pirate's Punch, a son of of Shanghai Bobby-Catch the Moon by Malibu Moon, sports a 5-3-4 line from 18 career starts with $332,751 in earnings. He is owned by Gulliver Racing LLC, Craig W. Drager and Dan Lehan.

Saturday marks the 74th running of the Salvator Mile.

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Fiske Pondering Next Step For Silver State

After running his win streak to six with a conquest of the Grade 1, $1 million Hill 'N' Dale Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., Silver State has plenty of options on the table said co-owner Ron Winchell's racing and bloodstock advisor David Fiske.

Trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, the son of Hard Spun carried five straight triumphs into the prestigious one-turn mile event, including three stakes wins at Oaklawn Park. He made his seasonal bow with a narrow victory in the Fifth Season on January 23 going a two-turn mile before notching wins in the Essex on March 13 and the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap on April 17.

Silver State began his six-race tear off a seven-month layoff when defeating winners going seven furlongs on October 22 at Keeneland. He produced a career-best 101 Beyer when traveling the same distance next out at Churchill Downs.

Given Silver State's versatility, Fiske said he is still determining a target for the 4-year-old bay colt, who earned an automatic entry into the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile in capturing the Met Mile.

“He's in that spot where we could stretch him out again, or we could shorten him up,” Fiske said. “He seems to be effective at seven [furlongs], a mile, a mile and a sixteenth and a mile and an eighth, He can go just about anywhere. We'll probably talk about whether we want to go in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and keep him at a middle distance or if we want to stretch him out again.”

Campaigned on the Fair Grounds division of the Kentucky Derby trail last year, Silver State was put on the shelf following a distant seventh in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby. Fiske said his mental maturity has been highly instrumental.

“He's always had a lot of talent and we always thought a lot of him,” Fiske said. “We had him on the Triple Crown trail last year and maybe he was a little immature for that. We did some body work on him and sent him to the sidelines after the Louisiana Derby. With the pandemic, there was a lot of uncertainty as to when. We brought him back in the fall. He was a bigger, stronger version of himself.

“He's always been a large extremely good-looking horse,” he added. “He probably would have gotten good sooner with a more consistent pattern of racing. He may have been victimized by the pandemic a bit.”

Additionally, Fiske expressed delight in seeing Tapit, who was campaigned by Winchell, sire a fourth Belmont Stakes winner. The influential stallion put himself on even terms with Lexington, who sired General Duke [1868], Kingfisher [1870], Harry Basset [1871] and Duke of Magenta [1878].

“Ron and I joke that he hasn't gotten a Derby win because it's too short,” Fiske quipped. “No one has done that in the modern era. We were hoping he would get a Derby winner this year, if not for a slightly troubled trip for Essential Quality.”

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