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Forster Looking At Salvator Mile As Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile ‘Win And You’re In’ For Pirate’s Punch

Whatever reservations trainer Grant Forster had about shipping Pirate's Punch from Kentucky to Monmouth Park for the second time in a little more than four weeks disappeared when he put the speedy 4-old gelding back on the work tab.

Disqualified from first place in the Grade 3 Philip H. Iselin Stakes for interference on Aug. 22 at the Oceanport, N.J., track, Pirate's Punch has maintained the form that saw him cross the finish line a 1 1/2-length winner that day.

So Forster will try again, this time in Sunday's $150,000 Grade 3 Salvator Mile that headlines Monmouth Park's 14-race card, and he will do so with an eye on the future: the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.

“We were looking for any reason not to come back but he just would not give us any reason not to do it,” said Forster. “He has been absolutely fantastic every day since he has been back in Kentucky after the Iselin and he has answered every question we gave him.

“He deserves the chance to go back and do it again.”

But there's a little more to it this time, Forster conceded.

“We're looking at this race as kind of our win and you're in for the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile,” he said.

Forster, who took over the training of Pirate's Punch from Jeff Mullins last summer, is still looking to add a graded stakes win to Kentucky-bred's credentials. He thought he had one in the Iselin in what was essentially a two-horse race between Pirate's Punch and Warrior's Charge, with Pirate's Punch disqualified from first for interference in the stretch.

“What can you do? That's sports,” said Forster. “Calls go against you in every sport in every country in the world. We were ecstatic with how our horse ran and we felt like we had the best horse that day. So we're back to try to do it again on Sunday.”

A son of Shanghai Bobby, Pirate's Punch shows a 4-3-4 line for 16 career starts, with earnings of $242,751. His appearance at Monmouth Park in the Iselin marked the 10th different track he has raced at over his career and the ninth time in his past 10 starts that he was trying a mile and a sixteenth.

He will be shortening up to a mile for only the third time in his career.

“I think a mile, a mile and a sixteenth, a mile and an eighth … I don't think there is any real specialty to him per se,” said Forster.

The eight-horse Salvator Mile field, he said, “is more well-rounded than the Iselin field was.”

“In the Iselin, Warrior's Charge was the most accomplished horse in the race,” he said. “You look at this field and see a horse like Bal Harbour and I am more worried about him this time than I was in the Iselin. It's his third time off the layoff. There's Top Line Growth, who ran a big number off a layoff. We'll see if he's ready to build off of that or if he will regress.

“With (Grade 1 winner) Valid Point (trying dirt for the first time in his career) you don't know if they're experimenting or if they feel this will move him up. I don't know. He's a hard read.”

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Vertical Threat Takes on Elders in Pat O’Brien

Lightly raced sophomore Vertical Threat (Tapiture) takes on a hard-knocking group Saturday in Del Mar’s GII Pat O’Brien S., a “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the furlong-longer GI Big Ass Fans Dirt Mile. Sixth in a Santa Anita turf sprint first up May 23, the $100,000 OBS April buy romped by six lengths at Los Alamitos June 27 and doubled up in similarly impressive fashion to add the restricted Smiling Tiger S. here July 25. The 92 Beyer Speed Figure he earned last out looks competitive considering fellow 3-year-old Collusion Illusion (Twirling Candy) annexed the Aug. 1 GI Bing Crosby S. with a 93. Third in that heat was Law Abidin Citizen (Twirling Candy).

Favored at 5-2 on the morning line is Flagstaff (Speightstown) for the powerful John Sadler barn. The 6-year-old’s 2020 campaign has included a victory in the GII San Carlos S. over this trip in March and a narrow second to Whitmore (Pleasantly Perfect) in the GIII Count Fleet Sprint H. in April. He’s been off since finishing fourth in the GII Triple Bend S. in June, but has been working swiftly in preparation for this (See XBTV video of Aug. 22 breeze in which he finished clear of stablemate Shortlist {Congrats}, an optional claiming winner at the beginning of the month).

Seven-year-old Giant Expectations (Giant Surprise) hasn’t won since 2017, but his best effort would make him tough to beat. He took this event in the same year as his last victory, and was second by a head in it last term. He was last seen being eased after a slow start in the Dirt Mile Nov. 2.

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Flagstaff Faces Giant Expectations In ‘Win And You’re In’ Pat O’Brien Stakes

Flagstaff is a lovely, little town in the mountains of Northern Arizona. Flagstaff is also a very fast racehorse who could be tough to beat at Del Mar Saturday afternoon in the 35th running of the Pat O'Brien Stakes.

The O'Brien, a seven-panel spin for 3-year-olds and up, carries a purse of $150,000 and Grade II status. It also is a Breeders' Cup “Win & You're In” race that guarantees the victor entry with all fees paid to the $2,000,000 BC Dirt Mile to be run on Saturday, November 7 at Keeneland in Kentucky.

Flagstaff, the horse, is a 6-year-old gelding by 2004 sprint champion Speightstown who has been judiciously spotted and raced by trainer John Sadler for the Kentucky-bred's owners — Lanes End Racing or Hronis Racing. He didn't make it to the races until his 4-year-old season and only shows 13 starts in total. Five of them have been wins, though — the last two coming in stakes at the O'Brien's seven-furlong distance — and he sports earnings that read $485,785.

Hall of Fame rider Victor Espinoza, who has been aboard in most of the horse's starts, has the call again Saturday and they'll break from Post 4 in the eight-horse lineup.

The chief treat to Flagstaff is likely to be the comebacking Giant Expectations, a 7-year-old horse by Frost Giant who races for the partnership of David Bernsen and Exline-Border Racing and is trained by Peter Eurton. The winner of $1,336,600 will be making his first start in nearly 10 months and gets Del Mar's leading rider, Umberto Rispoli, along for the outing.

Giant Expectations has a history with both the Pat O'Brien and the BC Dirt Mile. He won the former back in 2017 as a 4-year-old, then ran second in it last year. He's run in the BC Dirt Mile the last three years, though he hasn't had much success in the race. The 2019 BC Dirt Mile on November 2 at Santa Anita was his most recent start.

Here's the full O'Brien field from the rail out with riders and morning line odds:

Agnew, Schneider or Xitco's Law Abidin Citizen (Abel Cedillo, 5-1); Little Red Feather Racing and Vanderslice's P R Radio Star (Juan Hernandez, 6-1); Gust or Warren's Manhattan Up (Tiago Pereira, 15-1); Flagstaff (5/2); Tom Kagele's C Z Rocket (Flavien Prat, 4-1); Slam Dunk Racing or MyRacehorse.com's Vertical Threat (Heriberto Figueroa, 8-1); Giant Expectations (7/2), and Doubledown Stables' Blameitonthelaw (Drayden Van Dyke, 12-1).

C Z Rocket is the lone out-of-towner to tackle the local sprinters. California trainer Peter Miller claimed the City Zip gelding for $40,000 at Oaklawn Park this past April and subsequently won three straight races with him in Kentucky. He was shipped to Monmouth Park in New Jersey in July, but never started there. He's won seven races and $341,641.

Law Abidin Citizen was the third-place finisher in the six-furlong Bing Crosby Stakes earlier in the Del Mar meet. The 6-year-old gelding by Twirling Candy has won seven races and more than $500,000, all out of the barn of trainer Mark Glatt.

P R Radio Star will be trying to win his first stakes race in his 31st start. The 5-year-old gelding by Warrior's Reward has won twice already at the current Del Mar meet, taking a pair of allowance sprints.

First post for the 11-race Saturday card is 2 p.m.

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Cox Hoping To Send Warrior’s Charge From Iselin To Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile

Trainer Brad Cox is doing his best to focus solely on Saturday's $200,000 Grade 3 Philip H. Iselin Stakes at Monmouth Park for Warrior's Charge, but it's not always easy when the ultimate goal – the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile – is this close.

Warrior's Charge, fourth in the Grade 1 Met Mile in his last start and a close-up fourth in the Preakness a year ago, heads a compact field of six for the 85th edition of the Iselin, the feature on a 14-race card.

“Our goal, our dream I guess you could call it, is the Breeders' Cup (Dirt) Mile (Nov. 7 at Keeneland),” said Cox. “I don't know if this would be his last race for that. We probably have some options.

“But I'm a one race at a time guy. I want to get through Saturday before we pick out our next couple of races. The goal is definitely to get this horse to the Breeders' Cup (Dirt) Mile and I feel like Monmouth Park's course, the way it plays, the mile and a sixteenth around two turns, would be something he will like. So we'll see.”

A 4-year-old Florida-bred son of Munnings-Battling Brook by Broken Vow, Warrior's Charge launched his 2020 campaign with a win in the Grade 3 Razorback at Oaklawn on Feb. 17. He followed that by finishing second in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap before being beaten just two lengths in the Met Mile at Belmont Park on July 4 in his last start.

Warrior's Charge sports a 4-1-3 from 10 career starts with earnings of $715,310.

“I thought he ran huge,” Cox said of the Met Mile. “I thought it was a big effort. He ran against some Grade 1 horses and he showed he can compete. I was very pleased with the effort and he bounced out of it in good shape.

“He has definitely matured. I think he has shown in his races this year that he has stepped up and run big against some of the best horses in the country.”

The speedy Warrior's Charge looks the most likely candidate on paper to control the pace with his front-running style, though the Grant Forster-trained Pirate's Punch is also a speedy type.

“Obviously we have a great jock for Monmouth Park in Paco Lopez,” said Cox. “So I feel comfortable with the set up. If all goes well and he gets a good, clean trip he will definitely be a factor.

“Bal Harbour is obviously a nice horse. Pirate's Punch is a nice horse as well. It's not a big field but it's a very competitive race. It's a group of horses that are very well matched.”

Bal Harbour, who has competed in graded stakes company his last eight starts, is trained by Gregg Sacco, who also supplemented multiple Grade 1 winner Mind Control to the race. Sacco said a decision on whether Mind Control will go in the Iselin Stakes will be made on Friday. The 4-year-old colt has tried two turns just once in his 14-race career, finishing seventh in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile in 2018.

“He's ready if that's the direction the owners want to go,” Sacco said.

Mind Control last raced in the Grade 1 Vanderbilt at six furlongs at Saratoga on July 25, finishing third.

Warrior's Charge, owned by Ten Strike Racing and Madaket Stables, will ship to Monmouth Park from Churchill Downs on Friday morning, Cox said, with the trainer's 21-year-old son Bryson handling the horse when he arrives in New Jersey.

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