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Happy Saver Remains Unbeaten in Belmont Return

3rd-Belmont, $93,120, Alw (C)/Opt. Clm ($100,000), 5-28, 4yo/up, 1m, 1:36.57, ft, 1 length.
HAPPY SAVER (c, 4, Super Saver–Happy Week {MSP, $228,674}, by Distorted Humor), off since annexing last October's GI Jockey Club Gold Cup going 10 local panels, picked up where he left off to stay unbeaten. A 5 1/2-length debut romper sprinting here last June, the Wertheimer homebred bested older allowance rivals by four lengths going nine furlongs at Saratoga a month later, good for a 96 Beyer Speed Figure and 'TDN Rising Star' honors. The chestnut continued his ascent with a victory in Pimlico's Federico Tesio S. Sept. 7, and bested fellow 'Rising Star' and then-sophomore Mystic Guide (Ghostzapper) in the Oct. 10 JCGC. Mystic Guide subsequently dominated both the GIII Razorback H. at Oaklawn in February and G1 Dubai World Cup in March. Pounded down to 2-5, Happy Saver was pushed out of the gate to stalk from third three deep. He challenged for command after six furlongs in 1:11.73, wore down Top Speed (Orb) by midstretch and glided home a length to the good. The winner has a 2-year-old half-sister by Candy Ride (Arg) and a yearling full sister. Lifetime Record: GISW, 5-5-0-0, $326,200. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
O/B-Wertheimer Et Frere (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher.

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Friday’s Belmont Stakes Update

• John and Diane Fradkin's GI Preakness S. winner Rombauer (Twirling Candy) worked a half-mile in company Friday on the Belmont Park main track in preparation for the GI Belmont S. Rombauer, trained by Michael McCarthy, was clocked in :50.01 (53/86) beneath John Velazquez over the fast main track.

“I was very happy with the work,” McCarthy said. “I just wanted him to go ahead and get familiar with Johnny. It seemed like he was well in hand at all times. Johnny asked him to gallop out a little bit going underneath the wire and the horse seemed to respond nicely. I'm very happy with what I saw today.”

• Friday morning was a busy one for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher as he worked GI Curlin Florida Derby winner and GI Kentucky Derby ninth Known Agenda (Curlin), GII Wood Memorial winner and Derby 13th Bourbonic (Bernardini) and GIII Peter Pan S. third Overtook (Curlin) in their final moves for the Belmont.

Known Agenda, with Irad Ortiz, Jr. up, breezed in tandem with stablemate and fellow St. Elias Stable colorbearer, the GI Hill 'N' Dale Metropolitan H.-bound Dr Post (Quality Road), covering five furlongs in a bullet 1:01.12 (1/10).

“We got caught in behind a couple of horses and they were kind of off the rail and spread out a bit which made it a little tricky,” Pletcher said. “In the end, Irad thought it was good. He said that Known Agenda had more of a target, jumped into the bridle and was on the muscle. He finished up and galloped out well.”

About 10 minutes later, Bourbonic and Overtook worked a half mile in company in :48.49 (5/86). The pair galloped out five furlongs in 1:00.80.

“He's a horse that at times will work like he's capable of stepping up,” Pletcher said of Bourbonic. “The one thing he does is gallop out strongly. He's always given indications that the distance would suit him.”

Pletcher added, “Overtook is historically not an overly ambitious work horse, but I thought he went well this morning. I was looking for him and Bourbonic to just show they have some decent energy. I think his two breezes since the Peter Pan have been better than what we were seeing beforehand, so I'm happy with that.”

• Rock Your World (Candy Ride {Arg}), winner of the GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby and 17th in the Derby after getting roughed up at the start, worked five furlongs in a bullet :58.40 (1/34) at Santa Anita Friday. “It was a good work,” trainer John Sadler said. “He ships to New York tomorrow. We hope to right the ship in the Belmont.”

• Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow), winner of the GII Louisiana Derby and third-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, drilled five furlongs before Friday's first race at Santa Anita in 1:00.48 (5/34). Jockey Flavien Prat was aboard for the move. “Very happy with his breeze today,” trainer Doug O'Neill said. “Flavien was happy with the way he did it and that makes me happy. He had a good strong gallop going into this work and now he's got a strong work and gallop-out going into the race. We just want to stay injury-free and we're pumped up and optimistic about a week from tomorrow. This horse is getting more and more confident and he's starting to separate himself from the others.”

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Freshman Sire Unified Gets First Win at Churchill

Lucky Seven Stable's Behave Virginia (Unified) launched her career in style, rolling home an impressive 5 1/2-furlong winner at Churchill Downs Friday to become the first winner for freshman sire Unified (Candy Ride {Arg}). Narrowly in front into the far turn, she was briefly headed by 6-5 favorite Trade Secret (Goldencents), but wrested the lead back from that rival turning for home. In command from there, the 7-1 chance drew clear through the stretch, crossing the wire 5 1/2 lengths ahead of Trade Secret while under a hand ride.

Her 'TDN Rising Star' sire was winner of the 2016 GIII Bay Shore S. and GII Peter Pan S. and the following year's GIII Gulfstream Park Sprint S. before a narrow second in the GI Carter H. The Lane's End inmate's first juveniles have been well received this spring, with a pair of colts at OBS March selling for $530,000 and $400,000, respectively. Behave Virginia's dam, She's Behaving, produced a colt by Tamarkuz last season.

3rd-Churchill Downs, $98,116, Msw, 5-28, 2yo, f, 5 1/2f, 1:04.15, wf, 5 3/4 lengths.
BEHAVE VIRGINIA (f, 2, Unified–She's Behaving, by Mineshaft)
Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $57,488. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
O-Lucky Seven Stable (Mackin); B-Khalid Mishref Alkahtani (KY); T-Kenneth G. McPeek. *$30,000 Wlg '19 KEENOV; $115,000 Ylg '20 KEESEP.

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Letter to the Editor: the Man O’ War Project

My sincere thanks to Ms. Sue Finley for the compelling article about the Man O' War Project in the TDN Thursday. I whole heartedly appreciate Earle Mack's support of our veterans.

I have only mentioned my own personal story about PTSD to a few people. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 my father left Columbia University and enlisted in the Air Force. He was 17, turning 18. He went to Officers Training School and was promptly shipped to the South Pacific to work in the intelligence corps. His job was to set up airfields for reconnaissance once the Marines had taken an island. You can imagine the carnage he saw with the Japanese scorched-earth policies in full force and in full view to a young man not yet 20. The indigenous people suffered enormously. It affected my father deeply.

When he returned from the South Pacific, he finished up at Columbia, then moved to Lexington to find a position in the horse business. He worked for Keene Daingerfield at the Thoroughbred Record (later, better known as the Dean of Kentucky Stewards). Experiencing difficulty adjusting to civilian life, did he self-diagnose some sort of stress disorder and know that he needed to reconnect with horses to reprogram his psyche? One wonders. The whole concept of PTSD had not yet been identified at that time and men were supposed to buck up and push through the pain. It was a different era. It seems that something inscrutable drew him back to horses and he eventually readjusted to post-war life. He trained horses at Keeneland in the mornings before work in the late '40's while starting a family and working at The Record.

Later in life, when GE hired him for his first real job and he was transferred to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, he took in layups from Suffolk Downs and the vibrant fair circuit in Massachusetts at our farm in Stockbridge. We were just an hour from Saratoga. I remember him taking me to the Travers when Jaipur beat Ridan by a nose in 1962.

He always had horses in his life until just a couple of years before he died, by suicide, at age 49 (when I was 19). My sister and I have often wondered if he had stayed physically connected to horses if he might have made it through the rough patch preceding his suicide and enjoyed a full life.

He only spoke about his South Pacific experience once to me, when I threatened to leave home to enlist during the Vietnam War era, because we had argued, and it had turned violent. I was 18. But he knew that war was as close to hell as life can be and he did not want that for me, or on his conscience. He was gone a year later.

My sister and I have both kept horses in our lives; my wife Mary and I have five retired racehorses at our farm here in Kentucky and my sister has three warmbloods at her ranch in Los Alamos, California. It is our lifeline at times too, and perhaps an homage to our late father who connected us with horses, for life.

The research Earle Mack has funded is meaningful. If it saves one veteran's life, it was worth whatever he invested in the Project. I tip my hat to him and say thanks.

Best regards,

Joel B. Turner

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