Knicks Go | Horse Racing Free Tips

No Catching Knicks Go in Whitney

Korea Racing Authority's even-money favorite Knicks Go (Paynter) ran off from a strong field in Saturday's GI Whitney S. to earn an automatic spot in the starting gate for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic and reassert himself at the top of the handicap division. Last seen posting a 10 1/4-length bounce-back victory in the GIII Cornhusker H. July 2 after settling for fourth at odds-on in the GI Metropolitan H., the grey opened up some five or six lengths on his competition down the Saratoga backside through a half in :46.76. His rivals started to inch closer after six furlongs in 1:10.32, with champion filly Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) taking the first run at him, but Knicks Go swatted away that challenge while well out in the track and re-broke near the sixteenth pole to hold sway by 4 1/2 lengths. The streaking pair of Maxfield (Street Sense) and Met Mile hero Silver State (Hard Spun) completed the exacta and trifecta, respectively, while Swiss Skydiver was fourth.

A 70-1 winner of the 2018 GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity as a member of the Ben Colebrook barn, Knicks Go improved signficantly in 2020 after being transferred to Eclipse winner Brad Cox. His perfect three-start campaign was punctuated with a dominant win in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, and he added the lucrative GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. over this nine-furlong distance at Gulfstream in January. He faded to fourth after dueling with fellow American Charlatan (Speightstown) in the $20-million Saudi Cup in February, and also weakened surprisingly in the June 5 Met Mile, but earned a career-best 113 Beyer at Prairie Meadows back at nine furlongs.

Saturday, Saratoga
WHITNEY S.-GI, $925,000, Saratoga, 8-7, 4yo/up, 1 1/8m, 1:47.70, ft.
1–KNICKS GO, 124, 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. $535,000. Lifetime Record: 22-8-3-1, $5,368,995.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick
Rating: F.
2–Maxfield, 122, c, 4, Street Sense–Velvety, by Bernardini.
O/B-Godolphin (KY); T-Brendan P. Walsh. $185,000.
3–Silver State, 124, c, 4, Hard Spun–Supreme, by Empire
Maker. ($450,000 Ylg '18 KEESEP). O-Winchell Thoroughbreds
LLC and Willis Horton Racing LLC; B-Stonestreet Thoroughbred
Holdings LLC (KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen. $100,000.
Margins: 4HF, 1 3/4, 4HF. Odds: 1.05, 2.10, 5.60.
Also Ran: Swiss Skydiver, By My Standards. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

“I was challenged a little bit going to the first turn, but [Swiss Skydiver] sent a little bit and I was just going to see what they were going to do and take it from there,” winning rider Joel Rosario said of his tactics. “I was a half-length in front going into the turn and I just decided to keep him going forward.

“The way he was moving he just skipped to the last quarter-pole. He loved what he was doing. He was very relaxed and going forward. I was really happy with the way he was going turning for home.”

Cox, who trains two other major Breeders' Cup Classic contenders in sophomores Essential Quality (Tapit) and Mandaloun (Into Mischief), said, “He ran huge. There's always a concern when you ship to Saratoga and this can be a demanding surface. I thought the race at Prairie Meadows really tuned him up well. He was well within himself and that was his big work for this race five weeks ago. He had three maintenance works at Ellis and he came in here a fresh and happy horse, ready to go.

“Maybe down the lane at the sixteenth pole I thought, 'Oh wow'. He's going to win this thing', and at that point I was thinking, 'What a horse. What a performance.' For him to go forty-six and change and spread out down the backside and get away from them and just kick on at the eighth pole and have to fight off some really, really good challengers. This was an incredibly deep group of horses and I'm very proud of the effort of my horse today.”

As for a path going forward, Cox said, “He's a very sound horse and he's happy. We wouldn't be here if he wasn't. We'll come up with a plan somehow. We'll just let the dust settle but it will probably be the Classic.”

Maxfield, a fellow Breeders' Futurity winner, was seven-for-eight coming into the Whitney, having most recently put GII Alysheba S. and GII Stephen Foster S. wins back to back.

“He ran his race. No excuse, really,” said his trainer Brendan Walsh. “I think the best horse won on the day. [Jockey] Jose [Ortiz] said he got to a point where he thought he was going to get him, but [Knicks Go] didn't stop and didn't come back to him. But he ran well. Second is no disgrace. We're always proud of this horse and there will be other days.”

Silver State had won six in a row coming into Saturday, including the GII Oaklawn H. two back going this distance.

“I had the best trip,” said that one's rider Ricardo Santana, Jr. “The winner was much the best. We were fortunate to be third; my horse ran his race. [Trainer] Steve [Asmussen] is happy, the owner is happy, and I'm happy, and that is the most important thing.”

Pedigree Notes:

Knicks Go stands alone as the only Grade I winner to date for Paynter, who has four graded winners among his 18 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.

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Walsh Prepares Four For Kentucky Downs Previews At Ellis Park

Trainer Brendan Walsh hopes to use the $100,000 Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Turf Sprint as a stepping stone to competing in the compact meet at Kentucky Downs in Franklin, Ky. Born Great proved last year that he relished that undulating surface by winning not once, but twice. Though not unprecedented, it is rare for horses to race more than once at Kentucky Downs' short all-turf meet. Born Great did so with great success, knocking out a maiden victory that he followed with an allowance score a week later.

Born Great in his last start finished second by a neck in a Churchill Downs turf sprint won by graded-stakes winner Angaston.

“He's doing great,” Walsh said. “We'll see how it goes, but hopefully it will set him up good for Kentucky Downs. He really liked it there last year. He might be as good this year as last, if not better. He ran a really good race at the end of the Churchill spring meet and was very unlucky. Five-and-a-half (furlongs) is probably as short as he would want. But the 6 1/2 at Kentucky Downs set him really well last year.

“But this is a tough race. There are two or three really nice horses in there. It's a good race.”

Walsh also has Ethical Judgement in Saturday's $100,000 Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Dueling Grounds Derby, Amazima in Sunday's $100,000 Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Ladies Sprint, and the 4-year-old filly Family Way taking on the boys in the $125,000 Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Turf Cup.

Ethical Judgement gets back to turf for the first time since he was second in his first race. He ran well in three starts rained off the turf before finishing fifth in the Ohio Derby at 1 1/8 miles on dirt, the same distance as the Preview Dueling Grounds Derby.

“He seems to be good on the dirt as well,” Walsh said. “But he's another one we'd like to try him back on the grass. And if that worked well, maybe he'd be a horse for the Dueling Grounds Derby at Kentucky Downs.”

Amazima did not run well over Arlington Park's Polytrack in the Grade 3 Matron Stakes. But before that, she was a good third in a turf sprint after shortening up in distance.

Family Way ran seventh in Arlington's Grade 3 Modesty at 1 3/16 miles on turf after having a win and a second in two allowance starts since arriving from France.

“Why not?” the Irish-born Walsh said of taking on males. “In Europe, we do it all the time. The distance is what I really like about it. The mile and a quarter would really hit her right between the eyes. There isn't a whole lot around that distance.”

Walsh is a big fan of Ellis' Kentucky Downs Preview series.

“We've got a barn at Ellis, so we don't have to go too far to run,” he said. “They're nice prep races for Kentucky Downs.”

[Story Continues Below]

Walsh will saddle the 4-year-old Maxfield in Saturday's Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Maxfield, who is 4, never ran at Ellis Park but spent all summer of his 2-year-old season training at the Pea Patch before launching his career at Churchill Downs. The Whitney's field of five is composed of all Kentucky-based horses, including Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Knicks Go and By My Standards, owned by Chester Thomas of Madisonville. The 5-year-old Knicks Go broke his maiden at Ellis Park and finished second the next year in the Ellis Park Derby.

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Equibase Analysis: By My Standards Poised To Run Down Knicks Go

The number seven is rampant in the 2021 edition of the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney Stakes, as each of the five entrants possesses seven career victories. Combined, the field has won 35 of 70 races for more than $12 million career earnings. Leading the group is Knicks Go, who has made a career of taking the lead at the start and running his competitors off their feet while coasting home in front in the final eighth of a mile. Using his early speed, Knicks Go has won five of his last six North American starts, most recently the Grade 3 Cornhusker Handicap at the distance of the Whitney.

Next in accomplishments is the filly Swiss Skydiver, winner of the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes against males last fall and winner of the Grade 1 Beholder Mile earlier this year. Maxfield has only been defeated one time in eight career starts and enters the Whitney off strong victories in the Grade 2 Alysheba Stakes and in the Grade 2 Stephen Foster Stakes, also at the distance of this race. Silver State has also won two graded stakes in a row starting with the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap in April at this nine-furlong trip, followed up by a win in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap in June. Last but certainly not least in this strong quintet is By My Standards¸ runner-up in the 2020 Whitney and winner of the Oaklawn Mile Stakes in April before a runner-up effort in the Metropolitan Handicap.

Owing to the heavy favoritism Knicks Go will receive from bettors, I'm going to opt for By My Standards to post the upset in this year's Whitney Stakes. Winner of the 2019 Louisiana Derby and well-regarded in the Kentucky Derby that year, By My Standards had little chance in the Derby after getting squeezed back at the start and losing position. Sitting out the balance of 2019, By My Standards returned as a 4-year-old last year and won three races in a row including both the New Orleans Classic Stakes and Oaklawn Handicap before a big runner-up effort behind Tom's d'Etat in the 2020 Stephen Foster Stakes. Next came a career best effort with a 113 Equibase Speed Figure when second behind Improbable in the 2020 Whitney. He ran poorly last fall in two races but just as he did to start 2020, By My Standards started 2021 with a bang, first winning the Oaklawn Mile in April before a runner-up effort in the Metropolitan Handicap (Met Mile) in June. Although second in the Met Mile, By My Standards may have been best as he brushed the gate at the start, was soundly bumped back to last of six and was wide on the turn. Nevertheless, By My Standards rallied and was beaten just one length at the finish by Silver State. Now having finished first or second in five of six career starts at this mile and one-eighth distance, with a clean break By My Standards can post the upset win in this year's Whitney by running as well as he did in last year's edition of the race.

That being said, By My Standards must run down Knicks Go in the stretch to win. There's a saying in racing that “speed is the ultimate bias,” and with Knicks Go that is a fact. Brilliant as a 2-year-old when winning the Breeders' Futurity in the fall of 2019, Knicks Go went off form but got his brilliant speed back after moving to the barn of Brad Cox over the winter of 2020. Reeling off three wins in a row including the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile last fall, Knicks Go won the Pegasus World Cup Invitational this past January with a strong 115 figure just one point shy of the career best 116 figure earned three months earlier. Following uncharacteristically poor fourth-place finishes in the Saudi Cup and Metropolitan Mile, Knicks Go showed all his speed, and talent, winning the Cornhusker Handicap last month at the distance of the Whitney and could prove impossible to catch once again.

Maxfield has been nearly perfect in his career, winning seven of eight races. His only loss came when trying 1 1/4 miles in the Santa Anita Handicap in March, perhaps just a bit farther than he wants to run. In his only try at the nine-furlong distance of the Whitney¸ Maxfield easily won the Stephen Foster Stakes in his most recent start near the end of June, earning a 107 figure. Perhaps he didn't have to run any faster, because two months earlier when winning the Alysheba Stakes, Maxfield earned a career-best 115 figure which stands up as nearly the same as the best figures of the top contenders in this field. It must also be noted that jockey Jose Ortiz is a perfect five-for-five when riding Maxfield, compared to four-for-five for Joel Rosario (Knicks Go) and seven-for-14 for Gabriel Saez (By My Standards).

In terms of probability, both Silver State and the filly Swiss Skydiver can't be ruled out. Silver State earned a 113 figure winning the Oaklawn Handicap in April at the distance of the Whitney before a game victory in the Metropolitan Handicap, while Swiss Skydiver already proved capable of beating males in last year's Preakness (111 figure) and won the Beholder Mile in March off a layoff similar to the one she's coming off today. Notably, North American leading jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. rides Swiss Skydiver for the first time and the jockey is in a pitched battle with his brother Jose for the coveted Saratoga riding title, with the brothers having won 24 races each through Wednesday and one behind leading jockey Luis Saez.

Win Contenders, in preference order:
By My Standards
Knicks Go
Maxfield

Whitney Stakes – Grade 1
Race 10 at Saratoga
Saturday, August 7 – Post Time 5:48 PM E.T.
One Mile and One Eighth
4-Year-Olds and Upward
Purse: $1 Million

Ellis Starr is national racing analyst for Equibase

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Knicks Go Meets Maxfield in Star-Studded Whitney

For a race that offers just a five-horse field, Saturday's GI Whitney S. at Saratoga will nevertheless feature plenty of intrigue, as two of the handicap division's top stars will meet the one-two finishers from the GI Metropolitan H. and a certain champion filly whose trainer called an audible to enter her in the meet centerpiece for older horses, a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic.

Given the morning-line at 6-5 is the Korea Racing Authority's enigmatic star speedball Knicks Go (Paynter). A shocking winner of the GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity at 70-1 for Ben Colebrook in 2018, the gray failed to find the mark in his next 10 tries before being reborn when switching to Brad Cox's barn. Winning a pair of allowance/optional claiming events by a combined 17 3/4 lengths, Knicks Go survived a sizzling pace and kicked clear to a 3 1/2-length conquest of the GI Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile last fall at Keeneland and followed that up with a frontrunning score in the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S.

It's been up-and-down in three starts since, however, as he retreated to a well-beaten fourth in the G1 Saudi Cup and filled the same slot with no visible excuse as a 4-5 chalk in the Met Mile. Shipping in to Iowa for the GIII Cornhusker H. July 2 at Prairie Meadows, however, he was back to the old Knicks Go, cruising to a devastating 10 1/4-length romp with a career-high 113 Beyer. In a short field with no definite other speed signed on, the 5-year-old figures to get the right setup in this nine-furlong test.

“He'll break running. We'll see how far he can take himself around there, hopefully the whole way,” Cox told the NYRA notes team. “He's set up for a big effort. He's been working really well at Ellis. [The Cornhusker] gave us the confidence to try the Whitney. It solidified that the horse needs two turns. We're excited about getting him back in the Grade I ranks going around two turns.”

Likely to be a close second choice is Godolphin's once-beaten sensation Maxfield (Street Sense), who tries for his first Grade I win since his juvenile season. He stamped himself as a potential championship contender when romping by 5 1/2 lengths from well back in the Breeders' Futurity, but a series of setbacks forced him to miss the Breeders' Cup and, after returning for a score in the GIII Matt Winn S. last May, eventually the Triple Crown. The imposing dark bay picked up where he left off with a 3 1/4-length success in the Tenacious S. last December at Fair Grounds, but suffered his first defeat when third at 11-10 in the GI Santa Anita H. Mar. 6. Since then, he notched open-length victories in the GIII Alysheba S. and GII Stephen Foster S. at Churchill to run his impressive career record to 7-for-8.

“He's a horse that even still is lightly raced. We were always on the back foot with him,” trainer Brendan Walsh said. “He ran twice as a 2-year-old, and we've always been battling a little inexperience or a lack of seasoning. But ever since we ran him in California and his couple runs since, he's getting to where he's a more seasoned horse and I think that's going to [serve] him well from here on in because he's going to have to be at his best against the horses he's up against. It's a big test for him, so we'll see how he stacks up against them.”

The favorite of the fans–if not the bettors–will be Peter Callahan's Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil), entered against the boys after a Saratoga barn quarantine forced trainer Ken McPeek to redirect her from a planned start in last Sunday's GIII Shuvee S. Reeling off a dazzling championship 3-year-old campaign that included 10 races at nine different tracks, five graded stakes triumphs and, of course, the chestnut's seismic defeat of eventual champion Authentic (Into Mischief) in the GI Preakness S. She flattened out to seventh in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff, however, and, after bouncing back with a tally in the GI Beholder Mile S. Mar. 13 at Santa Anita, could not stay with Letruska (Super Saver) or Monomoy Girl (Tapizar) when third, beaten 6 1/2 lengths, in the GI Apple Blossom H. Apr. 17 at Oaklawn.

“She's had a bumpy first half of the year,” McPeek said. “No major issues, but just stuff that kept her from showing off. She had a little hind leg infection that was bothering her. It didn't appear to be a big deal going into Oaklawn, but it might have been why she ran a little flat that day. We're excited about [the Whitney]. The Shuvee would have been ideal, she's been ready to run. I've always thought if you're here, you run where you're at. It's a little bit out of the box, but she's ready.”

There's a realistic possibility that streaking Silver State (Hard Spun) could give trainer Steve Asmussen his record-breaking 9,446th win in Saratoga's second-most prestigious race. Scoring just once–in a dead heat–in his first five career outings, the $450,000 Keeneland September buy has been unstoppable since returning from a seven-month layoff last October, visiting the winner's circle six straight times, including in the Met last out June 5. The runner-up that day, By My Standards (Goldencents), who was also second to eventual champion older dirt male Improbable (City Zip) in last year's Whitney, rounds out the field.

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