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Maven Heads Lucky Coin Field On Friday Card At Saratoga

Richard Ravin's Group 3-winner winner Maven headlines Friday's $120,000 Lucky Coin at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Trained by Wesley Ward, Maven enters the Lucky Coin, a 5 1/2-furlong Mellon turf sprint for older horses who have not won a stakes this year, from an off-the-board effort in the Group 1 King's Stand on June 15 at Ascot.

The 4-year-old American Pharoah chestnut has been a boom-or-bust proposition with four wins and four off-the-board efforts from eight starts. As a 2-year-old, Maven graduated on debut on the main track at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y., in April 2019 and two months later shipped to France and captured the Group 3 Prix du Bois traveling five furlongs on the Chantilly turf.

Last year, Maven won a turf allowance sprint at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., but finished off-the-board in the Mahony at Saratoga and the Grade 3 Franklin-Simpson at Kentucky Downs.

“He didn't really run too well at Saratoga, but he may have been on a bit of a downward spiral then,” Ward said. “We gelded him last year [in October] and at the time that we gelded him, it was getting to be the fall of the year and I didn't really want to take him down to Florida so we just gave him the extra time. He had no issues. He just ran a couple of poor races.”

Maven kicked off his 4-year-old campaign with an allowance score on the Keeneland turf in April that garnered a career-best 104 Beyer Speed Figure before shipping overseas and finishing 11th in the five-furlong King's Stand under Hall of Fame rider John Velazquez.

“We brought him back in the spring and he was a little short going into his first race. He really amazed me how he just exploded that day to the front like he does,” Ward said. “Turning for home, I was expecting him to stop and he just kind of re-broke, and he really wasn't ready. So, that's what inspired me to take him over to Royal Ascot at a distance that I thought would be just awesome for him, five-eighths, off the big numbers he got off his Keeneland run.

“It was good spacing and everything you want to see. I had my rider, Johnny, on him that won on him,” Ward continued. “He broke and kind of sprinted out there and when the running started, he just didn't have it. I'm not sure if this is a horse that is just a horse-for-course or if he can take his show on the road. That's a little bit of a question mark. That said, he's training really, really well right now.”

Velazquez will pilot Maven from the outermost post 8.

Marc Keller's Pulsate, a 5-year-old Speightstown chestnut trained by Robert Ribaudo, was a prominent second in last year's Lucky Coin, finishing 1 1/4-lengths back of Battle Station.

A strong second in his seasonal debut in a six-furlong optional-claiming turf sprint at Belmont on July 4, Pulsate faded to fourth last out sprinting 6 1/2-furlongs on the main track on August 6 at the Spa.

Manny Franco [post 4] will look to provide Pulsate his first win since December 2019.

Patricia Generazio's New York homebred Maxwell Esquire finished 2 1/4-lengths back of Pulsate last out on July 4.

Trainer Christophe Clement said the 4-year-old Discreet Cat colt has trained well enough to earn a fourth career stakes start and first since finishing fifth in the Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship in November.

“He's training well and doing well,” Clement said. “We were looking at other races but we'll see if he can face good horses and see what happens.”

Irad Ortiz, Jr. has picked up the mount from post 5.

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Gatsas Stables' Backtohisroots will look to make amends after stumbling at the start last out on October 4 in the Grade 3 Belmont Turf Sprint Invitational and unseating Jose Lezcano.

The 5-year-old son of Mark Valeski, a first-time gelding trained by John Terranova, boasts a record of 13-3-4-2 with purse earnings of $196,075, including a rallying score in an optional-claiming turf sprint in August 2020 at the Spa.

Backtohisroots will exit post 6 under Luis Saez.

Rounding out the field are Noble Emotion [post 3, Jose Ortiz] a four-time winner from 10 starts for trainer Horacio DePaz; Holiday Stone [post 7, Tyler Gaffalione], an eight-time winner with purse earnings of $532,159 for trainer George Weaver; The Connector [post 2, Willie Martinez], a Monmouth Park ship-in for trainer Michael Dini; and Guildsman [post 1, Ricardo Santana, Jr.], a three-time winner for trainer Robert Falcone, Jr.

The Lucky Coin is slated as Race 9 on Friday's 10-race card. First post is 1:05 p.m. Eastern. Saratoga Live will present daily television coverage of the summer meet on FOX Sports. For the complete Saratoga Live broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule.

NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Saratoga Race Course, and the best way to bet every race of the summer meet. Available to horseplayers nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com.

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Kentucky Downs Smashes Handle Record, Total Wagering Goes Over $59 Million

Even before Saffie Joseph won Wednesday's eighth race with Sugar Fix on closing day of the RUNHAPPY Meet at Kentucky Downs, the trainer's thoughts had turned to next year.

“First meet here. I love it,” said Joseph, one of America's fast-rising trainers who this summer expanded his East Coast base to include Kentucky. “It's a cool setting, different from what you're used to seeing in America. It's kind of like a European track. I'm coming back every year. As long as we have the owners providing the horses, we hope to make this an important part of our year.”

Fergus Galvin, a representative for Qatar Racing's Sheikh Fahad al Thani, said that Guildsman's victory in the Grade 3 Franklin-Simpson Stakes on the closing card “certainly made Sheikh Fahad a big fan of Kentucky Downs. He's already wanting to stock up the stable to point to the meeting next year.”

Kentucky Downs smashed its betting records at the six-date meet with total wagering of $59,828,444 on 62 races, including $9,487,705 on Wednesday's 10-race finale. The previous record was last year's $41,239,699 for 50 races over five days.

This meet was run without spectators, with horse owners and a limited number of their guests attending the races under social-distancing protocols.

“We love it here,” Kentucky-based trainer Brendan Walsh said before saddling Guildsman to victory in the Franklin-Simpson. “It's been good to us. We always enjoy coming here. It's always a nice atmosphere. It's a shame we don't have the people this year, but hopefully next year will be different.”

Walsh sent out the meet's only two-time winner, Born Great. He had a trio of wins, seconds and thirds and noted that just being close can be lucrative at Kentucky Downs.

“Absolutely. We ran second in the 2-year-old stakes and got $94,000 with a 2-year-old filly,” Walsh said, referencing Flown's finish in the $500,000 The Mint Juvenile Fillies on opening day. “It's fantastic.”

Purses paid out to horse owners totaled a record $12,337,000 spread over the six days, topping last year's record total of $11,520,380 paid out over five days. Overnight races (maiden, allowance and claiming) continued to be among the most lucrative in the world, even with a moderate per-race purse reduction forced by the COVID-related two-month shutdown during the spring of the Historical Horse Racing gaming operation

“It's a great set-up,” said California-based trainer Doug O'Neill. “Purses are insane. They take care of you. I'd love to see them add a few days to this meet. Sometimes with such a short meet, it's hard to bring them from California for fear that you won't get in (your targeted race); there's not a Plan B. But if they were to have say three weeks of three days a week or something like that, it would open up the door more for people to ship in. Or two weeks, four days a week. The horses are there, and the purses are here. The set-up is here. The management's here. A few more days would be helpful for the horsemen.”

With the leading riders from both coasts and Kentucky convening at Kentucky Downs, the meet assembled the season's strongest group of riders at one track outside the Breeders' Cup. Among those riding at the track for the first time were New York-based reigning Eclipse Award champion Irad Ortiz and California budding superstar Umberto Rispoli. Ortiz's six wins included three stakes: Imprimis in the $700,000, Grade 3 RUNHAPPY Turf Sprint, Theodora B. in the $500,000 TVG and Outadore in the $500,000 Bal a Bali Juvenile Turf Sprint.

“I really like it,” said Ortiz, the brother of two-time Kentucky Downs leading rider Jose Ortiz. “It's different than all the other tracks I've been riding. It's not like a regular track, just two turns. This is uphill, downhill, tight turn. I like it. I just have fun. I'm glad I'm able to ride some horses here.”

Rispoli had only two mounts at the meet but one was Lighthouse's victory in the inaugural $400,000 Music City for California trainer Simon Callaghan.

Tyler Gaffalione added his first Kentucky Downs riding title to his recent meet crowns at Keeneland and Churchill Downs, winning 11 races including stakes on Guildsman, Got Stormy ($500,000, Grade 3 Real Solution Ladies Sprint) and Plum Ali ($500,000 The Mint Juvenile Fillies).

“This is such a fun place to ride,” Gaffalione said. “Great venue. I look forward to coming here every year. It's a blast. The atmosphere, the people. There's nowhere else like it. And the money is an extra bonus.”

Mike Maker won a record fifth training title with eight victories, while his client Three Diamonds Farm earned its first owner's title at the track with four wins.

Donegal Racing's Arklow, with Florent Geroux riding for trainer Brad Cox, came away with the meet's richest race, taking the $1 million, Grade 3 Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup for the second time in three years. The Maker-trained Zulu Alpha, last year's winner, finished third.

Breeze Easy's Imprimis, trained by Joe Orseno, earned a fees-paid spot in the $1 million, Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint Nov. 7 at Keeneland by virtue of winning the RUNHAPPY Turf Sprint, a Breeders' Cup “Win and You're In” Challenge Series race.

Four-time defending Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown's deep stable was a presence at the meet for the first time, his three wins including Flavius in the $750,000 Tourist Mile and Regal Glory in the $500,000, Grade 3 English Channel Ladies Turf. Brown previously had raced only one horse at Kentucky Downs.

Field sizes, for which Kentucky Downs has led America for the past few years, averaged 9.98, down from last year's eye-catching 11.26 with 12 horses being the maximum that can run. The better races this meet drew exceedingly well, with the 16 stakes races averaging 10.25 horses, including 11.17 for the six sprint stakes. Also notable: The nine first-level allowance races averaged 11.11 horses per race and the 18 non-claiming maiden races 10.33 per race.

Also this meet, Kentucky Downs for the first time utilized Equibase Co.'s Gmax timing and tracking system based on GPS technology, which along with additional high-definition cameras made the broadcast viewing of races much better. Previously, all of Kentucky Downs' races were hand-timed.

Because the new system had some different and more standard starting positions based on GPS measurements, race times varied significantly and generally were faster from past meets. While the hand-timing continued from the new starting positions as part of Kentucky Downs' testing, the technology-generated times were the official clockings for the Equibase race charts.

“We can't thank the horsemen and the horseplayers enough for their support this meet,” said Ted Nicholson, Kentucky Downs' senior vice president and general manager. “The numbers speak for themselves. We appreciate the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission giving us an additional day this year, and the horsemen took full advantage of it. We had some mishaps and glitches, and each will be scrutinized whether they resulted from human error or were beyond our control. Through it all, our racing was spectacular, which is a credit to our owners, trainers and jockeys and to which bettors across the country enthusiastically responded.

“As far as times and course records, we are going to study the data before making a final determination. But in all likelihood, 2020 will become the baseline year going forward as far as course records. With any new technology, there is a learning curve and hiccups. But we believe the new system is a big step toward addressing the challenges of timing such a unique course as Kentucky Downs.”

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Guildsman Prevails In Closing-Day Franklin-Simpson Stakes At Kentucky Downs

Tyler Gaffalione put an exclamation mark on his first riding title at Kentucky Downs in Franklin, Ky., completing a three-win day as Qatar Racing's French-bred 9-1 shot Guildsman came from far back to beat 21-1 shot Island Commish by a neck in the $500,000, Grade 3 Franklin-Simpson Stakes.

It was another neck back to 47-1 Souper Dormy in the capacity field of 12 3-year-old sprinters in the final stakes of the six-date RUNHAPPY Meet at Kentucky Downs.

The Brendan Walsh-trained Guildsman provided the 26-year-old Gaffalione his meet-leading 11th win one race after clinching the 2020 Kentucky Downs riding title. He nailed at least one race on five of the meet's six days.

“That was nice,” Gaffalione said. “It was a great meet. My agent (Matt Muzikar) has done an incredible job preparing for this meet. I'm so thrilled for Brendan. He's been helping me for a long time. We've been trying to hook up with this colt. The distance was key today, just a little extra ground. He kept coming and really proved his stuff today. It was a great race all around.”

Johnny Unleashed led through blistering opening fractions of 21.47 and 44.77 seconds for the quarter- and half-mile, most closely followed by Maven, Island Commish and 2-1 favorite Turned Aside. Meanwhile, Guildsman had one horse beat and was 6 1/2 lengths off the pace entering the stretch run in the seven path.

From there, Guildsman did his best running, and by mid-stretch only 21-1 longshot Island Commish was in front of him with Souper Dormy, longest odds in the field at 47-1, looming after being far behind early.

Guildsman was best in the closing yards to prevail by a neck over Island Commish, the only horse in the early pace that stayed on. Souper Dormy just missed second by another neck. Flap Jack, who was sent off at 37-1 odds, finished fourth, beaten three lengths.

Named after the host town and county of the south-central Kentucky track venue, the 6 1/2-furlong Franklin Simpson yielded among the highest exotics payoffs of the meet.

The foursome fueled a 10-cent superfecta payoff of $6,919.15; the $2 exacta paid $364.00; and the $1 trifecta returned $3,956.30. As for the $2 win-place-show money, Guildsman tickets were worth $21.80, $10.60 and $6.40. Island Commish paid $19.80 and $12.00, and Souper Dormy tickets were redeemed for $18.20.

Following the top four across the finish line were, in order, Turned Aside, Old Chestnut, Another Miracle, Johnny Unleashed, Fore Left, Embolden, Maven and Competitive Saint.

Guildsman was timed in 1:15.87 for 6 1/2 furlongs on turf rated firm. The win pushed Guildsman's record to three wins from 11 starts, with a second and two thirds. The value of the race turned out to be $343,875 because no Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund money was available to the French-bred gelding Guildsman. With the winner's share of $144,150, he upped his earnings to $254,636.

Guildsman made his first six starts in England, France and Ireland last year. Sent to Walsh, he was making his fifth start in America, racing well each time against quality competition. He came into the Franklin-Simpson off his first U.S. win, that coming in Presque Isle's $75,000 Tom Ridge Stakes over a synthetic surface.

“They just sent him over here,” Walsh said. “I guess they just thought maybe he'd fit here. The 5 and the 5 1/2 races, he's been running well but they're a little bit on the short side for him, maybe. We were going six at Presque Isle last time and the 6 1/2 today was right in his wheelhouses. I'm not actually surprised. He's a really talented horse.”

The victory was the third of the meet for Walsh, who also won Wednesday's fourth race with Born Great, the only two-time winner at the meet.

“I'm not just a one-horse trainer,” Walsh said with a laugh.

The victory capped a huge two-week run for Qatar Racing's Sheikh Fahad al Thani. Sheikh Fahad is partners on the Brad Cox-trained Kentucky Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil. Guildsman also provided Qatar Racing its second straight victory in the Franklin-Simpson, being the co-owner of last year's Doug O'Neill-trained winner Legends of War.

“Sheikh Fahad was watching closely at home in England,” said his representative, Fergus Galvin, who was at the Keeneland yearling sales. “He was thrilled. He had a big couple of weeks with Shedaresthedevil. Brendan has done a great job with the horse. He had it mapped out from a few months ago. but Sheikh Fahad has gotten a massive thrill out of him. He's always shown a lot of promise, this horse. He ran in some of the bigger 2-year-old races over there. The distance, 6 1/2 furlongs, and the configuration of the track obviously played to his advantage. But it certainly made Sheikh Fahad a big fan of Kentucky Downs. He's already wanting to stock up the stable to point to the meeting next year.”

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