#5 Closethegame Sugar closes strong to take the 4th Race @PID_Casino!

Jockey: @iradortiz
Trainer: Adam Rice
Owner: Adam Rice and Sugar Diaz LLC@PA_HBPA

#TwinSpiresReplay pic.twitter.com/hdqG7OCd7u

— TwinSpires Racing (@TwinSpires) September 18, 2023

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A field of six went to the post in the 11-furlong allowance on a turf course officially labeled 'good' for Sunday's racing after riding yielding Saturday following heavy rains that canceled the last four races on Friday. The Graham Motion-trained Frivole (Fr) (Anodin {Ire}) saved ground from her inside draw and maintained that position through the stretch for the first time, but her action became choppy nearing the entrance to the clubhouse turn and she was pulled up and out of the race by jockey Manny Franco and eventually vanned off the track, according to a tweet from NYRA's Keith McCalmont. Motion told Daily Racing Form that Franco pulled her up “out of an abundance of caution” and that the filly was back in her stall.

Ever Summer (Summer Front), favored off a narrow defeat in a soft-turf renewal of the GIII Robert G. Dick Memorial S. July 1, sat in third position as they raced down the backstretch and was making a menacing three-wide move nearing the quarter pole when she took a bad step and fell. Irad Ortiz, Jr., who had picked up the mount when Joel Rosario took off his Sunday rides, was cast to the turf course. According to McCalmont's tweet, the Brereton Jones homebred, trained by Christophe Clement, suffered an injury to her left fore and could not be saved. Ortiz, Jr. visited first aid on site and was passed fit to accept his remaining mounts.

Prior to the running of the day's sixth race, NYRA officials announced that the three remaining turf race on the program would be run on the main track instead.

“NYRA moved the final three turf races (7,9,10) of Sunday's card to the main track in consultation with the jockeys, who expressed concern with the overall condition of the courses following heavy rains throughout last week,” said Patrick McKenna, vice president of communications for NYRA. “NYRA will be evaluating both turf courses over the next two days and will adjust the temporary rail positions for Wednesday's live racing program.”

The late decision caused an uproar on social media, given that a Pick 5 including those three races was to begin in race six. For wagering purposes:

• Pick 4 starting in Race 4: Race 7 is ALL
• Pick 6 starting in Race 5: Races 7,9,10 are ALL
• Pick 5 starting in Race 6: Races 7,9,10 are ALL
• Cross Country Pick 5: the 5th Leg (SAR9) is an ALL
• Grand Slam starting in Race 6: Races 7,9 are ALL

The two race four incidents come in the immediate aftermath of Saturday's GI Test S., in which the undefeated Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic) suffered a life-ending injury.

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A winner a black-type winner at the turf sprint distance last out May 21 in Santa Anita's Desert Code S., Conclude's first race after his freshening from that contest proved fruitful as the 9-2 second choice here. Showing some early speed after the jump but quickly overtaken and outrun by a loose leader on the clubhouse turn, the chestnut son of GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Believe You Can bided his time in second as Game Time (Not This Time) reeled off :22.17, :46.58 and 1:11.32 splits. Three furlongs out and locking horns with that one around the far turn, Conclude took over nearing the head of the stretch and drove clear to a stylish 1 1/4-length victory. The 5-2 favorite Classical Cat tried gamely to catch him but had to settle for second while 26-1 shocker Ah Jeez gave his sire two of the top three placings in the trifecta. Conditioner Philip D'Amato went 1-2 as well as picking up his 45th stakes victory and third Oceanside S.

“When he opened up a length or two at the top of the lane, I thought he was the horse,” said D'Amato after the race. “Classical Cat was coming on pretty good, but I think when Conclude felt him, he just spurted out again. I'm proud of both my horses.”

Conclude is his dam's most recent to the races as she aborted her 2021 American Pharoah. Believe You Can did have a yearling filly by Nyquist but her 2023 foal by Essential Quality was stillborn. The mare is a full-sister to the dam of GISP King Russell (Creative Cause) and a half to the dam of MSP Baytown Bear (Upstart). This is the family of MGSW Classic Elegance; MGISP Standard Deviation (Curlin); and multiple course record-setter GSP Summer to Remember (Summer Front). Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

It was a trainer @PhilDamato11 exacta in the $100,000 Oceanside Stakes at Del Mar. #9 Conclude ($11.40) under @HIBerrios tracked the early leader and then pulled away in the stretch to win. Congrats to all the connections including owners @lrfracing.

Watch more on @FanDuelTV. pic.twitter.com/g03HkbSbXi

— TVG (@TVG) July 22, 2023

CAESARS SPORTSBOOK OCEANSIDE S., $104,000, Del Mar, 7-21, (C), 3yo, 1mT, 1:35.09, fm.
1–CONCLUDE, 120, c, 3, by Collected
        1st Dam: Believe You Can (GISW, $1,280,324), by Proud Citizen
        2nd Dam: El Fasto, by El Prado (Ire)
        3rd Dam: Taegu, by Halo
($140,000 RNA Ylg '21 KEESEP). O-Little Red Feather Racing, Madaket Stables LLC and Brereton C. Jones; B-Brereton C. Jones (KY); T-Philip D'Amato; J-Hector Isaac Berrios. $60,000. Lifetime Record: 5-3-1-0, $179,600. *1/2 to Believe in Royalty (Tapit), SW & GSP, $194,385.
2–Classical Cat, 124, c, 3, Mendelssohn–Conquest Strate Up, by Not Bourbon. ($65,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP). O-Michael House; B-Pippa's Hurricane LLC (KY); T-Philip D'Amato. $20,000.
3–Ah Jeez, 120, c, 3, Mendelssohn–Poetic, by Violence. ($80,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP; $55,000 2yo '22 OBSAPR). O-Great Friends Stables, LLC and Mark Davis; B-Machmer Hall (KY); T-Doug F. O'Neill. $12,000.
Margins: 1 1/4, 1HF, 3/4. Odds: 4.70, 2.50, 26.00.
Also Ran: Mas Rapido (GB), Game Time, Agency, Ze'bul, El Oro (Fr), Zalamo (Fr), Mr Fisk, Escape Artist, Kid Azteca, Ever a Rebel. Scratched: Panic Alarm (Ire).

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But then that's pretty well how Thornton himself might have felt, as one born and bred for horses, had he ever been torn away to work in some other walk of life.

Even today, seven years after retiring from a long career with Airdrie Stud, he still has around 15 mares–many in partnership with his old buddy Tony Holmes–on a 330-acre farm established by his father in 1946 outside Paris, KY. This was where Thornton first learned about horses, and this is where he continues to find them a daily source of wonder and discovery. In between, for three decades as general manager of Airdrie, he could be entrusted with any and every responsibility, especially while his employer Brereton C. Jones had one or two other claims on his attention. For the Governor of Kentucky knew that here was a man whose innate flair for horses had been honed to a degree uncommon even in the Bluegrass–and never more so, indeed, than in the remarkable 14,000-mile voyage that had induced such a comical stagger in that sea-born foal.

It was Humphrey Finney who had urged Carter Thornton to send his son Tim, on graduating college, to complete his equine education a little further afield.

“Dad wanted me to come here and work right off,” Thornton recalls. “But he said okay, and let me go to England and work at the National Stud there. And then Humphrey got me onto this ship, from Southampton to New Zealand: 170 horses, the most ever gone to sea. It was pretty amazing.”

A couple of years previously, Thornton had taken a rather smaller number through the Panama Canal with Charlie Nuckols.

“That gave me the appetite, that's why I wanted to do it again,” he says. “But I didn't know it was going to be 60 days of sea. Going through Panama was only two weeks, but going around Africa took forever.”

And with so many more horses! They ranged from an 18-hand Clydesdale to miniature ponies.

“There had only been 14 head going through Panama,” Thornton recalls. “But that wasn't even a livestock ship, they were just strapped on the back. The waves would come over, it was just wood crates and a couple times we had to fix the wood back down. That was much more dangerous than the big ship. Those 170 were all below deck and air-conditioned and in steel pipe pens.”

Nonetheless, confinement and rolling seas brought obvious risks to a creature that must colic instead of vomit. Hence a low-energy diet, bran mash and so forth.

“I mean, one would get colicky every once in a while, but luckily nothing bad,” Thornton says. “But because of the disease factor, they wouldn't let us stop anywhere. Our first stop after England was Perth. From Perth we went over to Sydney and unloaded some more. And from there we went another 1,200 miles to New Zealand and unloaded the last. It was a good experience. Wouldn't want to make a living of it, but it was something to see.”

Topping off this unique lesson was the chance to escort a Thoroughbred from the hold to Ra Ora Stud for Sir Woolf Fisher, and then to stay on for six months working at Widden Stud (and becoming fast friends with “Bim” Thompson).

He had seen quite another world, then, by the time he returned to Threave Main–and another world is just how the family farm, in that era, might strike the younger generation today. For it was still possible in the 1960s for a small family operation to maintain a thriving stallion program. At a time when people referred to 20 mares as a full book, even the factory farms couldn't monopolize the mare population. As a result, the Thorntons were routinely able to stand half a dozen stallions including The Doge, sire of Hall of Famer Swoon's Son, and the imported British sprinter Tudor Grey (GB).

Carter Thornton had himself made an equally uncommon start in the game, aged just 19 when invited to succeed his grandfather–who had himself first learned his horsemanship with draft horses–as manager of Fairholme Farm for Robert A. Fairbairn, who had been part of the syndicate that imported Blenheim and Sir Gallahad. What names! One way or another, then, several generations of horse lore were condensed into the energetic young man from Threave Main who caught the attention of Kentucky's new lieutenant governor in 1988.

“Hopefully he would go on to be governor, so knew he wasn't going to be around that much and was looking for a manager,” Thornton explains. “He knew me, from breeding mares over there and so on, and knew I'd been around stallions a lot. Main thing, he knew I was honest; and he knew I was a hard worker. And we just got along real good. Couldn't have been a better relationship. He was a great boss but has become a great friend. I mean, I consider him almost like kin. And we always owned a couple of horses together. He'd do that with you. We had fun.”

And the things that made Jones a great boss, according to Thornton, were exactly the same as those that served him so well as governor.

“Definitely,” he says. “I mean, everybody loved him, from the people running the state to the grooms at Airdrie. Because they knew he's honest and he treated you fair. His word was his bond. And he expected that from everybody else too. That's why he always had good people around him. And that's kind of like my dad was, too.”

That trust became the foundation of Thornton's long tenure at Airdrie. During his employer's terms of public service, he found all manner of responsibilities delegated his way.

“Pretty much I did it all,” he acknowledges. “Recruiting, all that kind of thing. I was hands-on, every part of the farm. But we had a real good stallion manager, Kelly McDaniel, who was there forever. Really good guy. Another unbelievable guy was the broodmare manager Mark Cunningham, an Australian who's been there 40-something years now. He's really down-to-earth and you can't run him off the farm. He's a worker, and a very good horseman. And then we had a real good yearling manager, Richard Royster. Brery's philosophy was that if you did a good job, he didn't bother you. He knew you could do it. And it was the same for me: if my people are doing a good job, I don't bother them. That's a successful way to run a farm.”

All that said, Thornton stresses that it was Jones who always had his hand on the tiller; Jones, even with all his other distractions, whose inspired stallion recruitment and syndication were the foundation of the farm's half century of success.

“He couldn't afford the $15-million horses,” Thornton says. “But he was such a good promoter and even though he had to buy cheaper, he always had the best-looking horses in Central Kentucky. Never had an ugly horse in the barn. And that was something he could promote, because they'd have good-looking foals that would sell. And he did it over and over. So people started getting in line to buy shares. He was really at the cutting edge of syndicating and making the first-year horse popular. And he was an unbelievable salesman.”

Moreover Jones would put his money where his mouth was, building up an unusually large broodmare band of his own to support the stallions. He ran an aggressive program, but the farm has always retained an unchanging bedrock of trust and probity.

“Brery had some battles, but he wouldn't back up, believe me,” Thornton observes. “He's the most genuine, honest person and has really been so good for the horse business. And though he had a few clients, 95% of those horses were his. That's what amazed everybody. He had, like, 150 mares. That was a lot back then. And it was so much more fun just to deal with your own horses, rather than with clients!”

The ultimate vindication of this strategy, of course, was three homebred GI Kentucky Oaks winners in eight years.

Larry Jones, Rosie Napravnik and Brereton Jones after Believe You Can's victory in the GI Kentucky Oaks | Getty Images

“That's probably one of the things I'm proudest of,” Thornton says. “All three RNAs. Unbelievable. That was always one of the good things about him, he wasn't afraid to race. He was pretty much a commercial breeder, but he'd set a value on them and if they didn't bring that, he would race them. And he's been so lucky with smaller fillies. With the smaller ones, it's not as hard on their joints. But you lead one up to the sale ring and see what happens. It's weird. Seems like every good filly Brery's had has been smallish. So he's always upped the ante, on the reserve, if they're small because he figures they can run. Especially after Proud Spell (Proud Citizen). She was a game, sweet girl.”

Thornton's own continued engagement with the marketplace means that he can proudly monitor the legacy he built up with his former employer. Every few pages, in every catalogue, one of the stallions they made will be right there in the second or third generation–notably Harlan's Holiday through Into Mischief, and Indian Charlie through Uncle Mo.

“Probably one of my favorite horses, Indian Charlie,” says Thornton. “I can't get enough Indian Charlie mares. He was such a good sire, and such a nice horse to be around. He always put such a pretty horse on the ground. Stretchy, good-looking horses. And he's even doing it now, through those mares. Half their foals end up big, stretchy horses like him. It's amazing, all that coming from that gene.”

Indian Charlie | Barbara Livingston

Not so amazing, mind you, when you see the parallel genetic heritage handed down from one generation of Thorntons to the next.

Thornton's father, setting aside wartime service training air pilots, gave him a direct link to another era; to an age when yearlings were walked from Winchester to be loaded onto the train to be sold at Saratoga. You're looking at four generations of hardboot lore stretching to a great-grandfather who'd started out with draft horses and ended up selling Hoop Jr. for Fairbairn. Another Kentucky Derby winner, Canonero II, was subsequently raised here at Threave Main for breeder Edward B. Benjamin.

“But the horse was crooked so Mr. Benjamin got rid of him,” Thornton says with a shrug. “He brought $1,200 as a weanling. Just shows, you never know.”

Yes, well, that's never going to change! But nor will the benefits secured for horses by those who do the job right; who have the patience to do things the way their forefathers did, without cutting corners. That's why this man and this land continue to outpunch their weight. With his old employer, Thornton co-owned 2015 GI Mother Goose S. winner Include Betty (Include); and more recently he raised one of the richest Thoroughbreds in history in G1 Saudi Cup winner Emblem Road (Quality Road).

“A lot of things are done a lot fancier than back in the day,” Thornton reflects, before trying to explain what has been lost in the process. “Just old values. Tried-and-true things that work. Some of the best experiences are right here. Growing up on this farm and learning from dad, and running a bunch of horses, with not very much help, just us doing it all ourselves, hands on.

“In the '50s and '60s we always had five or six studs here. Cheap horses, $2,500 to $3,500 horses. But back then, you could make money breeding a horse like that. It was good living. We raised tobacco, and cows. Still like a cow. And I bale all my own bedding. Saves a lot of money. It's definitely an old-school farm. We're kind of proud of it, because there's not that many left.”

His father was such a thoroughgoing horseman that summertime he would go off and train at places like Delaware and Monmouth, especially fillies that could be bred someday. Some won stakes, like the 18-for-41 sprinter Plumb Gray or another daughter of Tudor Grey, Little Tudor, who won the Debutante S. at Churchill.

“Just hard-knocking horses,” says Thornton. “But the farm and the track, back then, were together. For years it was just the trainer and the owner would go around and buy horses. Now you've got all these agents, scared of their jobs. Every hair's got to be perfect in line, or they won't touch it. And they let so many good horses go by.”

That's a market environment that makes it hard for farms on this scale to remain viable. Though his nephew Eric Buckley ran Threave Main for several years, nowadays it is Thornton's daughter Jessica who channels the family horsemanship into a fifth generation as a reproductive veterinarian.

“There's not many family farms left really,” Thornton says. “We're kind of proud of being one, but it's tough with these big conglomerates taking over. It's getting harder and harder to play ball. The purses are really good, that's what's keeping the yearling market going. But the bottom line is you need quality. We try to upgrade every year, get rid of two or three [mares] and buy one. But it's so expensive. You can't breed your cheap horse anymore and make a living. The labor situation's gotten so tough, and you got put a lot more into the stud fees to compete.”

He has seen things become similarly challenging for trainers who try to maintain the same hardboot standards; and doesn't see many of the same stamp as Larry Jones, who trained all three of those Oaks winners.

“He's just a down-to earth, no-nonsense horseman,” Thornton says. “Kind of like me, hands-on and old school. He trained for me a little bit, too, but he's cutting back. Got a farm down in Henderson, fixed up real nice. But he can flat train a horse.

“You can't get any labor and the cost of operating is just getting out of hand as far as smaller guys to make a living. You can't do it. And it's gotten to be these big conglomerates that are doing it. Can't knock them. But you don't have to like it.”

As a result, though, very few general managers today will handle stallions daily the way Thornton always did. He loved to have just a couple of other people around, letting Mother Nature govern as much of the covering process as could be safely allowed.

So, yes, Thornton might strongly resemble a particular president; and he may have shown Silver Hawk to the late Queen of England, while discussing each other's corgis. But he already has the highest status he could wish for, as a horseman's horseman.

“I'm very lucky to have been among horses all of my life,” he says. “You'll always learn something every day. I went to Airdrie in '88 and was there 30 years. We had a lot of changes. We had a lot of fun. They say time flies. I mean, Bret [Jones, Brery's son] was raised up when I was over there and now he's running it. That's amazing, to me, but he's a great boy. He's got a lot of his daddy in him. He's doing a good job and I'm so happy for him. He was smart enough to buy into Girvin. Who would have known Girvin was going to do what he has? But he's on fire now. It's a good feather in his hat.

“He can't pay the crazy money, either. But if it was an exact science, nobody would be in the business. If you don't like this game, you don't need to be in it because it's the toughest game played outdoors. Dealing with Mother Nature, and livestock, the lows can be very low. But the highs are very high. I'm lucky to be bred and raised into it, and lucky to be still going seven days a week. I love it.”

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“After evaluating the colt upon my arrival, I feel that he has not been able to reach the peak fitness required to take on a race as tough as the Kentucky Derby,” Yahagi said. “Considering the future of the horse and the fact that we cannot show the horse's true ability in his current state, we have decided to scratch Continuar from the Kentucky Derby. I am very sorry that I cannot participate in the world's number one horse racing festival, however I sincerely hope to return to the Derby in the future. I want to thank everyone who has supported Continuar and Yahagi Stable on this journey.”

Continuar qualified for the Kentucky Derby through the Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby point series where he received an invitation to compete in the first leg of the Triple Crown. With this defection, Brereton Jones and Naber Racing's King Russell (Creative Cause), trained by Ron Moquett, will draw into the field and break from the outside post 20. The program number 23 will remain the same. King Russell will be ridden by Rafael Bejarano.

“You can't help but feel for the ones that scratch,” Moquett said by phone, when asked about the news that his horse had drawn in. “This is an opportunity for the team, our owners and we have been here all week preparing just like King Russell was already entered. We know he is special horse and like Babe Ruth calling his shot, I predicted that he would finish in the top three in the Arkansas Derby and that he would be in the [Kentucky] Derby. Here we are. After the training, pointing him here, galloping, schooling, we are going to see if he can get the mile and a quarter. I've been here before with Far Right in 2015 and that following year with Whitmore, and now it is time to get down to business because we are wanting to do more.”

Scratch time for Kentucky Derby 149 is Friday at 9 a.m. ET.

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Airdrie will showcase 14 yearlings by the stallion duo at Keeneland, starting with the consignment's first horse to go through the ring in Book 1. Hip 179, a Preservationist colt out of Brereton C. Jones homebred Church By the Sea (Harlan's Holiday), reflects the caliber of broodmare that Airdrie chose to back these young sires.

“This colt is from a family that everyone knows well,” said Airdrie Stud's Director of Sales Jocelyn Brooks. “Not only has Church By the Sea produced multiple graded stakes winners herself, but her family goes back to MGSW Cairo Memories (Cairo Prince) and GI Blue Grass winner Zandon (Upstart). This colt is what you want to see in a Book 1 horse. He's big and strong, beautiful and athletic, and he has a really nice way of going. We're excited about bringing him over to the sale.”

The consignment has eight additional Preservationist yearlings cataloged including Hip 1067, a colt out of Lifetime Memory (Istan) from the family of Grade II winner Speaktomeofsummer (Summer Front).

“He comes from another favorite family here on the farm,” Brooks explained. “He's a stunning physical and is another big, strong colt. He's powerful looking, but is still very fluid moving. We think he'll be very popular with his physical and his really nice family that we've had for all these years.”

A $485,000 yearling himself, Preservationist made six trips to the winner's circle for Centennial Farms and trainer Jimmy Jerkens, with headline victories in the GI Woodward S. and the GII Suburban H. Despite Preservationist's success as an older horse, Brooks said that Airdrie was initially drawn to the bay because of the speed he showed early in his career.

“Our big conversation that we've had with breeders–and actually what we found out when we were looking to bring him to stud–is that he was very precocious,” Brooks noted. “As a 2-year-old, he was the best-training horse in the barn, as they said. When he broke his maiden going six furlongs in 1.09:01 and ran a 3 ½ Ragozin number, you say, 'I'm thinking of the horse that won the Woodward and the Suburban. I didn't realize that he had that speed.' So not only was he a Grade I winner going long, but he also had the speed that everyone is after.”

Preservationist colt out of Church by the Sea selling in Book 1 at Keeneland September | Matt Wooley – EquiSport Photos

A homebred for Emory A. Hamilton, the son of Arch boasts a pedigree that contains a number of influential broodmares like Too Chic and Courtly Dee.

“Preservationist's pedigree, top and bottom, is one of the best that you'll find with those Middlebrook Farm and King Ranch families that go back for generations of top-quality horses,” Brooks said. “His pedigree has been a huge draw for breeders.”

Brooks explained that based on the first few Preservationist crops on the ground at Airdrie and the additional yearlings they have had a chance to look at, the stallion is passing on some of his best qualities.

“Preservationist is a big, powerful, strong horse, but he's still very athletic,” she said. “We've been really excited about his foals. They are all nice physicals and definitely are very athletic. A lot of them look like him in having that good bone and nice size.”

Preservationist, who has stood for a fee of $10,000 in his first three years at Airdrie, had 26 progeny go through the ring as weanlings including an $85,000 Airdrie-consigned colt out Limitless (Discreet Cat). Brooks said their team was happy with the results from the weanlings that Airdrie sent through the ring.

“They sold very well and went to the right buyers–people who have a wonderful eye and who we respect their opinion,” she said. “We always say that the Airdrie pinhook is the best angle because we brought them over to the sale as weanlings to show off how much we love our Preservationists and hopefully they show up and do even better in September. When [buyers] see the individual physicals, with his pedigree on top of everything, we think that he's going to have a really strong sale.”

Preservationist has 36 progeny cataloged for the Keeneland September Sale while his studmate and fellow first-crop yearling sire Divisidero will be represented by nine yearlings.

Divisidero gets back-to-back wins in the GI Woodford Reserve Turf Classic S. | Coady

Airdrie's consignment includes Hip 2689, a Divisidero colt out of MSW Keep Crossing (Istan).

“This colt is a good example of a Divisidero because they really do favor him,” Brooks said. “They definitely have his balance, build, and fluid movement and hopefully they have his speed. This colt is just a lovely horse. He's been really easy to be around and he looks like 'Divisidero 2.0.'”

Another Airdrie stallion with an impressive pedigree, Divisidero hails from the family of breed-shaping stallions Northern Dancer, Halo and Danehill.

“He's from a female family that you don't get the chance to breed to very often,” Brooks said. “It's just a fantastic pedigree and we're really lucky to have that here on the farm. He's a beautiful horse. He's very well put together and he definitely looks like a horse that would be a very fast turf horse.”

Campaigned by Gunpowder Farms, the son of Kitten's Joy was a debut winner early in his sophomore year and went on to claim the GII American Turf S. on the Kentucky Derby undercard in his third career start. The turf specialist claimed at least one graded stakes win every year over his five seasons on the track, including back-to-back scores in the 2016 and 2017 editions of the GI Woodford Reserve Turf Classic S.

“We always joke about telling people to go back and watch his race on Derby Day because any one of them would work, either his first stakes win or one of his two Grade I wins,” Brooks said. “He raced against some of the best turf horses that there have been in recent years and he had an incredible turn of foot. People are excited by his explosive speed, for sure. Everyone wants that in their sire.”

To help fight the ongoing battle for a fair shake in the commercial market for young turf sires, Airdrie Stud has thrown whole-hearted support to Divisidero to get his stud career off to a fast start.

“We have bred 15 to 20 mares to Divisidero every year that he has been here,” Brooks shared. “We really believe in this horse. We love his pedigree, we love what he did on the track and we love him physically. His foals have followed in his footsteps in that they're very similar to him. They have his build and they look like very fast horses and very good-moving horses.”

With the recent loss of Kitten's Joy, who passed away in July this year, Divisidero is one of just a handful of young stallions standing in the U.S. with the opportunity to carry on the perennial leading stallion's legacy.

“With the loss of Kitten's Joy, who will never be replaced, it's nice to have such a well-bred son of his that was so accomplished on the racetrack standing here at Airdrie,” Brooks said. “Hopefully he will have an opportunity to fill a tiny bit of the footsteps that Kitten's Joy left behind.”

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In principle, the bare couple of minutes dividing anticipation from outcome at Saratoga on Saturday will be history tangibly in the making. From the flux of hopes and interests vested in the maturing Thoroughbreds that enter the gate, a single name will suddenly be petrified into the pantheon.

In reality, however, it's very seldom that we can know quite what it is we might be looking at. In terms of volunteering a stallion of due stature, for instance, it has to be acknowledged that the Travers overall shares a rather patchy profile with the GI Kentucky Derby either side of the last horse to win both, Street Sense in 2007. Take out Bernardini, who won the Travers the year before, and it's only recently that a couple of young stallions have begun to shore things up again for either race.

Poignantly, it does appear as though the spectacular flowering of Arrogate in 2016 was a legitimate signpost–only for the road to plunge clean off a cliff. Those bidding for his final crop of yearlings at Keeneland in a few days' time will be contesting a legacy that has very quickly evolved, from an unsurprisingly slow start, via the charismatic endeavors of Secret Oath and now Artorius.

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For the time being, at any rate, Artorius does feel like quite a good example of the way we tend to look into the future through the prism of the past. He brings a fairly irresistible narrative into the Travers, being even more lightly raced than was his sire when picking up the pieces against exhausted Triple Crown protagonists. And, being out of an elite Ghostzapper racemare, he does look tantalizingly eligible to salvage Arrogate's legacy, if only he can cope with this steep elevation in grade. Yet it's almost as though those high emotional stakes have somehow been loaded into odds that imply some ordained destiny.

Yet who would presume to predict the future, when even the past can take so long to separate itself into coherence? Nobody, of course, could have foreseen the tragic denouement of Arrogate's tale. But most of us were pretty sure of where we stood with Gun Runner, when he staggered into third in the Travers, fully 15 lengths behind Arrogate: a horse that had shown his hand, precocious enough to run third in the Derby but apparently tapering off by this point. Gun Runner persevered, however, and after observing Arrogate reach the bottom of the barrel–presumably an oil barrel–in Dubai, he ran up to that sequence of five Grade Is by an aggregate 27 1/2 lengths.

And now here he is, poised to seal one of the most remarkable stud debuts of recent times with two runners–and don't forget that he would have a third, but for the local prohibition of Taiba's trainer–in a race that offers a pretty instructive snapshot of the shifting landscape among Kentucky stallions. Another young gun, Upstart, fields a son who has had this race in mind ever since that fleeting flirtation with an uncontested coronation on the home turn in the Derby; while Not This Time, consolidating his own outstanding start, matches Gun Runner with two: Epicenter, whose candidature for divisional honors makes a Grade I feel pretty imperative, and Ain't Life Grand.

Of the established elite, indeed, only Medaglia d'Oro can muster a candidate to emulate his 2002 success in outsider Gilded Age. To be fair, he also has a stake in proceedings through the dam of Ain't Life Grand, Cat Moves. This is the only mare owned by Peggy and Ray Shattuck, whose homebred GII Iowa Derby winner would hardly be as stupefying a result here as Rich Strike, himself of course by a Travers winner in Keen Ice, back at Churchill in May. While expectations for Rich Strike seem pretty much back to what they were on Derby day, Ain't Life Grand announced himself at Saratoga with a molten 45.88 workout last week, fastest of 79 clocked that morning.

Ain't Life Grand with Tammy Fox aboard | Sarah Andrew

Certainly the game could do with another fairytale. There's no need to dwell on the potential for awkwardness, in showcasing our best to the outside world, when three of eight runners are saddled by a trainer currently subject to such uncomfortable attention. Having been raised locally, this race is one he would prize perhaps beyond any other. But there you go: all of us have to accept that human capacity for anticipation is distinctly finite; and that fulfilment belongs to the complex, unpredictable realm of outcomes.

Setting all that aside, my own anticipations remain stubborn as ever. As Chad Brown would agree, he is only one of many whose dreams are centered on these three horses. And our community could seek no more flattering representation, to those beyond, than Brereton C. Jones and his family at Airdrie Stud, breeders of Zandon. And if this colt can mark the 50th anniversary of the farm's foundation by finally getting it all together here, even greater laurels would be on the line just down the road at Keeneland in the fall.

Yes, I know: all I'm doing is choosing a different script from the one that appears to favor Artorius so inexorably. I'm shoehorning Zandon's ostensible need for a particular tactical scenario, and a different kind of race from the cat-and-mouse of his latest start, into a storyline of far greater neatness and symmetry than tends to be indulged by this unsentimental, unpredictable world. But we're all sports fans first. We all enjoy our anticipation while it lasts. And we can leave dealing with all those business outcomes until such time as we know what they actually are.

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6th-TAM, $31K, Msw, 3yo, 1m 40yds, 3:15 p.m.
Manzanita Stable's PEACEFUL SUNRISE (Flatter) kicks off for trainer Christophe Clement. Out of MSP Ire (Political Force), she brought $300,000–the second highest-priced juvenile filly by the sire in 2021–after breezing eighth in :10.2. TJCIS PPs

7th-OP, $84K, Msw, 3yo, 1m, 4:19 p.m.
FAITH'S REWARD (Uncle Mo) lands on the also eligible's list in this one mile main track test. Trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, the Brereton Jones homebred is out of GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Believe You Can (Proud Citizen), also campaigned by Jones. TJCIS PPs

7th-SA, $72K, $80k Opt. Clm., 4yo/up, 1m, 6:38 p.m.
CLASSIER (Empire Maker) earned TDN Rising Star status in a front-running win at this venue in October of 2020. Eighth next time in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Keeneland, he was third in third in last June's GIII Affirmed S. before getting up for a narrow score in the GIII Los Alamitos Derby in July. He was last seen finishing fifth in Del Mar's GII Pat O'Brien S. Aug. 28. Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez partners the $775,000 KEESEP buy for the first time. TJCIS PPs

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There wasn't much on the grey's worktab to catch the eye, and she was unveiled here by the typically patient Bob Hess, Jr. outfitted with blinkers and a shadow roll. Walking out of the gate, Cairo Memories tugged her way up between horses past the stands for the first time and was in midpack and off the inside by the time they took the first turn. She continued along under a snug hold behind a :48.67 half, and was up into fourth midway around the home bend. Kent Desormeaux gave the cue to quicken after six panels in 1:13.47, and she gobbled up ground to seize the lead before streaking away under good-looking strides, bumping the margin to 4 1/2 lengths at the line. Second timer Peanut Butter Cup (Candy Ride {Arg}) completed the exacta for the Hess barn.

The 15th juvenile winner this year and third 'Rising Star' in his stallion career for Airdrie Stud's Cairo Prince, Cairo Memories is a full to Cariba, SW, $221,750, a $400,000 KEESEP yearling who won Saratoga's Caress S. last year. A $50,000 September yearling herself, Cairo Memories's Collected half-brother is cataloged as hip 1511 in this year's upcoming auction. Cairo Memories is out of a half-sister to GSW Hello Liberty (Forest Camp) and to the dam of GSW grassers Significant Form (Creative Cause) and Hay Dakota (Haynesfield).

3rd-Del Mar, $72,500, Msw, 9-5, 2yo, f, 1mT, 1:37.64, fm, 4 1/2 lengths.
CAIRO MEMORIES, f, 2, Cairo Prince
                1st Dam: Incarnate Memories, by Indian Charlie
                2nd Dam: Witness Post, by Gone West
                3rd Dam: Most Likely, by Fappiano
Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $42,000. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG. Free Equineline.com catalog-style pedigree.
O-Schroeder Farms LLC; B-Brereton C. Jones (KY); T-Robert B. Hess, Jr. *$50,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP.

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