Tag: Triple Crown

NYRA Might Hold Belmont S. Twice In Saratoga

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The next two runnings of the GI Belmont S. could be held at Saratoga Race Course, New York Racing Association President and CEO David O'Rourke said Sunday.

NYRA would make the temporary switch of the oldest race in the Triple Crown series to America's oldest track during a massive re-construction undertaking at Belmont Park. In mid-June, Patrick McKenna, NYRA's vice-president for communications, said that the 2025 Belmont S. might be held at Saratoga Race Course. While noting that a final decision has not been finalized, O'Rourke said Saratoga could host the race next June and again in 2025.

“With Belmont, you're looking at just under a three-year project, including demolition,” he said. “Our preferred course of action is to get moving on the abatement and the demolition early this winter. If we are successful, we will not be back to Belmont until the Belmont S. of '26.

“I won't have a definitive answer on that until a month from now, maybe a month and a half. In terms of our preferred path forward, that would be it.”

Saratoga Race Course would be a suitable host site because it can accommodate large crowds. NYRA still operates Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, but its once-massive grandstand is gone.

Moving the Belmont S. would be a huge economic boon for the city of Saratoga Springs and the Capital Region of upstate New York. The annual 40-day Saratoga meeting is a key economic driver and adding more days in June for the Belmont Stakes festival would be a very big deal in the marketplace.

Thoroughbred racing debuted in Saratoga in 1863 on an existing track on the north side of Union Avenue. The experiment launched by John Morrissey was so successful, that land was purchased across the street and a track was ready for the 1864 season. The first race held on the new grounds, where the current track is located, was the Travers Stakes, named after William Travers, the president of the racing association. For 3-year-olds, it is the most-important race of the season.

The annual Saratoga racing, season, now 40 days, is the highest-profile, most-popular meet in North America. NYRA officials said that total attendance for this year's meet, which conclude Monday, will again top 1 million.

Saratoga Race Course would be the fifth track in New York to host the Belmont S. It was first run in 1867 at Jerome Park Racetrack in the Bronx. The Belmont was staged at Morris Park in Westchester County from 1890 until Belmont Park was opened in 1905. The race was held at Aqueduct Racetrack between 1963 and 1967 when Belmont Park was being rebuilt.

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Arcangelo Proves The Right ‘Choice’ In Travers 154

In many ways, it was a 'good' problem to have.

Having added a maiden success in the GI Kentucky Derby to his Hall of Fame resume at long last aboard Mage (Good Magic) in early May, jockey Javier Castellano continued a magical ride when teaming with Jena Antonucci to make history in the GI Belmont S. on the progressive Arcangelo (Arrogate), as the connections of Mage turned their collective attention to the second half of the season.

Mage resumed with a very good runner-up effort when reportedly not fully fit for last month's GI TVG.com Haskell S., a steppingstone to the GI Travers S., and a burning question over the next three weeks or so revolved around which colt would be the apple of Castellano's eye come the final Saturday in August. For her part, Antonucci always expressed confidence that Arcangelo would win out at the end of the day, and so it proved, as Luis Saez was named on Mage when Castellano declined to commit in a manner deemed timely enough.

A decision–or non-decision, as the case was–having been made, Castellano was now locked into the son of the late 2016 Travers romper Arrogate for a race he'd won a record six times previously, most recently with Catholic Boy (More Than Ready) in 2018. Deftly handled on an afternoon that was crying out for something–anything, really–resembling a happy ending, Arcangelo proved equal to the task under an A-plus steer from his 45-year-old reinsman.

“I never give up,” Castellano said. “I always work hard for moments like this. I've been up and down and thank God I've been lucky enough to win my seventh Travers. It's like the Super Bowl for Tom Brady. I'm so blessed to have people supporting me. When people support your career, it's great.”

Scotland (Tapit) won the break from his outside draw and led them past the winning post for the first time, as 'TDN Rising Star' Forte (Violence), a bit toey in gate one, a keyed-up Mage and GI Preakness S. hero National Treasure (Quality Road) raced handiest to the speed. Arcangelo was fifth of the seven as he hugged the rail, and he was followed by the newly blinkered Disarm (Gun Runner) and, unsurprisingly, the perpetually slow-starting 'Rising Star' Tapit Trice (Tapit).

Castellano made a key move entering the clubhouse turn, allowing Arcangelo to improve inside of Forte, and when National Treasure rolled forward to prompt Scotland, it left the gray colt with the run of the race from the box seat. Traveling beautifully in midpack passing the midway point, Arcangelo needed next to no encouragement to keep pace with the leading group, and, once eased out into the four path, made ominous progress outside the typically one-paced Tapit Trice approaching the five-sixteenths marker. Spun out five or six wide into the stretch as Forte began to wind up with a bit of a run from behind, Arcangelo struck to the front with a furlong and a half to race and stayed on nicely for the victory. Joel Rosario rolled the dice up the fence with Disarm and was in tight inside of a weakening Scotland in upper stretch, then flew home to be runner-up in a case of what might've been. Tapit Trice plugged on for third, ahead of his favored stablemate Forte in fourth. National Treasure, Scotland and a disappointing Mage completed the order of finish.

“I feel like on the backside I had so much horse, I could blow by and open up by 10 and I just took my time and let him develop,” Castellano added. “I put him outside, enjoyed my ride and very lucky and thankful and blessed you guys gave me the opportunity and a lot of confidence to ride the horse and working together every single step. It seems to me he's a super horse. Keep our fingers crossed, keep him sound. All the credit to Jena. She does such a good job with the horses.”

It was another feather in the cap of Antonucci, the first of her sex to train a Belmont winner and the second to saddle a Travers winner, joining Mary Hirsch (1938).

“The significance of accomplishing anything in any gender at the top of any sport or industry is a gift,” she said. “It doesn't come without the team and without every single person on our team. The significance of this is hard to put into words right now.

“Anyone that wants something bad enough, you just have to work your tail off for it. It doesn't matter–man, woman, boy, girl–that's just white noise. If you want it, go fight for it and make it happen for yourself.”

It had been 77 days since the Belmont, but Antonucci had no problem whatsoever bringing Arcangelo into the Travers off works.

“It just never was a layoff in my mind with this horse,” she explained. “I understand the traditionalists of this sport are always going to view gaps in that manner. This horse has had his entire career that way because [owner] Jon [Ebbert] wants this horse to be brought along slowly, correctly and be given the time he needs to grow up. I feel we have respected that with the horse and Jon has respected that in the horse.”

A debut second sprinting in the Gulfstream slop last December, Arcangelo was fourth to future GII Louisiana Derby hero Kingsbarns (Uncle Mo) over a mile Jan. 14 before graduating with Castellano at the controls Mar. 18. The ridgling battled hard in taking the May 13 GIII Peter Pan S. to earn his way into the Belmont, and, with Antonucci riding as hard as anyone from the Belmont boxes, easily defeated Forte at Big Sandy.

What once was an open question is no longer, as put succinctly by Forte's part-owner Mike Repole.

“I'm not afraid to say it; that's the top 3-year-old in the country. No doubt.”

Pedigree Notes:

Arcangelo is one of four stakes winners–all graded–from the second of what will be just three crops for the late Arrogate and is one of his five Grade I winners to date. To date, Arcangelo has been represented by a total of nine stakes winners, seven at the graded level. From a family with tremendous depth and influence in the stud book, it is remarkable that he was purchased by Ebbert for just $35,000 at Keeneland September in 2021.

A May 11 foal, Arcangelo is out of the unraced Modeling, a half-sister to GISW Streaming (Smart Strike), SW Treasuring (Smart Strike) and SW Cascading (A.P. Indy), who was acquired by Don Alberto Corporation for $2.85 million in foal to Distorted Humor at the 2014 Keeneland November Sale.

Given the black-type in his third dam, it's hardly surprising Arcangelo might have been cut out for a race like the Belmont. Better Than Honour fetched an eye-watering $14 million from Southern Equine Stables at the 2008 Fasig-Tipton November Sale, some 17 months after her daughter Rags to Riches (A.P. Indy) duplicated her half-brother Jazil (Seeking the Gold)'s feat in annexing the final leg of the Triple Crown. Better Than Honour was also responsible for U.S. Grade II winner and Japanese Group 1-placed Casino Drive (Mineshaft); Breeders' Cup Marathon hero Man of Iron (Giant's Causeway); and the dam of MGSW & GISP Greatest Honour (Tapit). Tapit himself played a large role in Saturday's outcome as the broodmare sire of the first two home and the sire of the third.

Modeling has not produced a live foal since Arcangelo and was most recently covered by Munnings.

Saturday, Saratoga
TRAVERS S.-GI, $1,250,000, Saratoga, 8-26, 3yo, 1 1/4m, 2:02.23, my.
1–ARCANGELO, 126, r, 3, by Arrogate
1st Dam: Modeling, by Tapit
2nd Dam: Teeming, by Storm Cat
3rd Dam: Better Than Honour, by Deputy Minister
($35,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP). O-Blue Rose Farm; B-Don Alberto
Corporation (KY); T-Jena M. Antonucci; J-Javier Castellano.
$687,500. Lifetime Record: 6-4-1-0, $1,754,900.
Werk Nick Rating: A.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Disarm, 126, c, 3, Gun Runner–Easy Tap, by Tapit.
1ST G1 BLACK TYPE. 'TDN Rising Star'. O/B-Winchell
Thoroughbreds LLC (KY); T-Steven M. Asmussen. $250,000.
3–Tapit Trice, 126, c, 3, Tapit–Danzatrice, by Dunkirk.
'TDN Rising Star'. ($1,300,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP). O-Whisper Hill
Farm, LLC and Gainesway Stable (Antony Beck); B-Gainesway
Thoroughbreds Ltd. (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher. $150,000.
Margins: 1, 2HF, 4HF. Odds: 2.70, 12.20, 13.50.
Also Ran: Forte, National Treasure, Scotland, Mage.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

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In Historic Showdown, Stars Collide in Travers

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – With the three winners of the Triple Crown races gathered for just the fourth time in the GI Travers S. Saturday, will history repeat itself? Will a horse that did not run in the GI Kentucky Derby, GI Preakness S. or the GI Belmont S. deliver an upset in the 154th Travers?

That is how it played out in 1918 with Sun Briar, again in 1982 with Runaway Groom and six years ago when West Coast won the 2017 running of Saratoga's oldest stakes race.

If the historical form stretching over 100 years holds, Scotland (Good Magic) will prevail. The LNJ Foxwoods homebred is the only one of the seven horses entered Tuesday that did not start in any of the Triple Crown races.

Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) is in the Travers field, as is Preakness winner National Treasure (Quality Road) and Belmont hero Arcangelo (Arrogate). So, too, is Forte (Violence), the 2-year-old champion, who was the favorite in the Derby, but was a vet scratch the morning of the race. He finished second in the Belmont and prepped for the 1 1/4 miles Travers with a nose victory in the GII Jim Dandy S. on July 29.

Also taking aim at the $1.25-million Travers purse are Disarm (Gun Runner) and Tapit Trice (Tapit).

From the rail out, the complete field for the Travers S. with morning-line odds:

1-Forte (Violence) (7-5)

2-Arcengelo (Arrogate) (5-2)

3-Tapit Trice (Tapit) (12-1)

4-Mage (Good Magic) (4-1)

5-National Treasure (Quality Road) (8-1)

6-Disarm (Gun Runner) 6-1

7-Scotland (Good Magic) 12-1

All starters will carry 126 pounds.

Jockey Javier Castellano rode Mage in the Derby and Arcangelo in the Belmont. Luis Saez will take over on Mage and Jose Ortiz will be up on Tapit Trice.

Jena Antonucci became the first woman to train the winner of a Triple Crown race when Arcangelo beat Forte by 1 1/2 lengths in the Belmont. If Arcangelo extends his winning streak to four in his first race since the June 10 Belmont, Antonucci would join trailblazer Mary Hirsch, who saddled 1938 winner Thanksgiving, in the Travers record book. Arcangelo will be Antonucci's first Travers runner.

“Having the opportunity to be able to participate in these races is obviously a blessing in itself,” she said. “It's a really cool field. As a race fan myself, to see what is coming together is pretty neat. Obviously, Forte being in the mix, as well, I don't think he can be ignored in the mentions. It makes for a great day of racing, and a great talking topic for fans and others alike. Those are things that our sport continues to need to see happen.”

In May 2022 at Belmont, Forte lived up to the buzz with a 7 3/4-length maiden victory at 1-5. He was fourth as the favorite in the GIII Sanford S., but romped in the slop to win the GI Hopeful S. Earlier this year, Forte was disqualified from the Hopeful win for a post-race drug positive, a decision that is being appealed.

Forte wrapped up the divisional title with wins in the GI Breeders' Futurity and the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile. He opened his 3-year-old season with a victory in the GII Fountain of Youth S. and then rallied in the stretch of the GI Florida Derby to beat Mage. On the morning of the Derby, he was scratched when a veterinarian had concerns about a bruised right front foot. Arcangelo topped him in the Belmont, his first start in 2 1/2 months.

Trainer Todd Pletcher elected to keep Forte at Saratoga and prep in the Jim Dandy. That narrow victory over Saudi Crown (Always Dreaming) was in question immediately after the race as stewards decided whether Forte should be DQ'd for bumping Angel of Empire (Classic Empire) while looking for running room entering the stretch. The order of finish was not changed.

With its stature, the Travers is a prize every year, but it is especially important this year for Forte and his connections.

“It's a game of ups and downs,” said Mike Repole, who co-owns the colt with St. Elias Stable. “You had the Derby scratch and second in the Belmont. He won the Florida Derby. He won the Jim Dandy. He'll be the favorite in the Travers. And he's the 2-year-old champ. It would be real, real special, especially for him because now he's in the race. The Derby winner is in it. The Preakness winner is going to be in it. So is the Belmont winner. And the 2-year-old champion. Four champs. Real exciting.”

Pletcher said a Travers score would be satisfying in what has been a trying season.

“You're never going to make up for not getting to run in the Kentucky Derby,” he said, “but it would be, I suppose, some sort of consolation prize if we were able to win the Travers against the three classic winners.”

In 1918, the French-bred Sun Briar became the first horse to defeat the Triple Crown winners in the Travers. Sun Briar, a huge success as a 2-year-old, was withdrawn from the Derby entries when his trainer Henry McDaniel thought he was training sluggishly. In his place, owner Willis Sharpe Kilmer ran the gelding, Exterminator, who had been purchased as Sun Briar's work mate. Exterminator won by a length at 29-1.

Four days after the Derby, War Cloud, who was fourth as the favorite, won a division of the Preakness. Johren had skipped the Derby and finished fourth behind War Cloud in the Preakness then won the Belmont, two lengths ahead of War Cloud. Sun Briar was back in form in the summer and ready for the Travers. He battled Harry Payne Whitney's Johren through the stretch and won by a head to establish the Travers theme.

By the time the 1982 Travers was run on Aug. 21, the Triple Crown series had become a high-profile sporting event. Gato Del Sol won the Derby, but went back to California and did not try the Preakness, which was won by a new shooter, Aloma's Ruler. Trainer Eddie Gregson brought Gato Del Sol to the Belmont, where he was second, beaten 14 lengths by Conquistador Cielo, the Met Mile winner the previous Monday. Aloma's Ruler was ninth.

The Saratoga infield was open to spectators for the Travers and the crowd of 41,839–second-largest in track history–saw the Canadian-bred Runaway Groom come from far back to beat Aloma's Ruler by three-quarters of a length. Conquistador Cielo was rank and could not be controlled by jockey Eddie Maple and raced head to head with Aloma's Ruler from the start. Runaway Groom, the winner of two-thirds of Canada's Triple Crown that summer, pounced on the pair in the stretch. He paid $27.80.

The third edition of the Triple Crown showdown in the Travers featured Derby winner Always Dreaming (Bodemeister), Preakness victor Cloud Computing (Maclean's Music) and the Belmont standout Tapwrit (Tapit). Trainer Bob Baffert sent late-developing West Coast (Flatter) in from Del Mar and Mike Smith rode him to a gate-to-wire victory at 6-1. Tapwrit moved toward contention on the second turn, tired and ended up fourth. Cloud Computing finished eighth and Always Dreaming was ninth. West Coast captured the 3-year-old male championship.

Mage went on to Baltimore after the Derby and finished third in the Preakness. Trainer Gustalvo Delgado gave him a break and started preparing him for a summer campaign with the Travers as the target. He returned to competition on July 22 with a second in the GI Haskell S. at Monmouth Park. He shipped to Saratoga two days later and has worked three times over the main track. Assistant trainer Gustalvo Delgado Jr. said the colt was thriving and that the connections feel he will be at his best after having a month to settle in.

“He's liking it a lot,” Delgado Jr. said. “He loves Saratoga.”

Scotland advanced to the Travers from a front-running 3 1/2-length win in the Curlin S. on July 21. He is handled by Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, who has won most of the Saratoga stakes at least once, but he has yet to capture the Travers in 11 tries.

Baffert is seeking his fourth Travers win with National Treasure, who has not raced since he was sixth after setting the pace in the Belmont. He will race without blinkers.

After running fourth in the Kentucky Derby in a troubled trip, Disarm won the GIII Matt Winn S. and was fourth in the Jim Dandy. Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen is putting blinkers on Disarm for the first time in a race.

Pletcher ran Forte in blinkers in the Jim Dandy and has made that equipment change for his other Travers horse, Tapit Trice. He galloped the horse with blinkers last week and had them on again for a breeze Saturday morning. Pletcher is hoping the blinkers will get Tapit Trice into a competitive position in the race. He felt that Forte lost focus at times in the Florida Derby and the Belmont, but has liked what he saw in the Jim Dandy and in training. He knows that Forte is game.

“You could see it in, well, almost all of his wins, but particularly in the Florida Derby,” Pletcher said. “He seemed to salvage victory from what looked like a sure defeat coming by me at the eighth pole, to accelerate like you did and make up that much ground on the eventual Derby winner. I was proud of him in the Belmont. He was taking all the worst of it got a bit of a wide trip around the turn, coming off a 10-week layoff and still gaining on the winner at the end. In the Jim Dandy had a lot to do with a sixteenth of a mile to go. He's got that personality that he wants to wants to get there first.”

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The Week in Review: When Derby, Preakness, Belmont Winners Meet at Spa, History Says Someone Else Will Steal Travers

As Tuesday's entry time looms, the GI Travers S. is shaping up as a rare showdown of the three winners of this season's Triple Crown races. That's happened only five times since 1978, and on no occasion during the last 45 years when the winners of those spring Classics all graced the starting gate for Saratoga's “Midsummer Derby” has any one of them emerged victorious.

That's a fairly daunting stat considering how the match-up of the GI Kentucky Derby, GI Preakness S. and GI Belmont S. winners is essentially what the public wants to see.

It's also a little surprising because of the presence of several high-profile horses on that list of Travers losers: Two of them had even swept the Triple Crown before getting derailed at the Spa–one crossed the wire first but was disqualified for interference, while the other endured the roughest trip of his career in his only loss at age three.

Adding to this year's intrigue, none of the winners of this spring's Triple Crown races are likely to be favored in the Travers. Derby upsetter Mage (Good Magic), Preakness victor National Treasure (Quality Road), and Belmont bloomer Arcangelo (Arrogate) all figure to be eclipsed in the betting by last year's 2-year-old champ, Forte (Violence).

Turn the clock back to 2017 to find the last Travers that lured all three Triple Crown race winners. Always Dreaming, first in the Derby, finished ninth in Saratoga's showcase race. Cloud Computing, the Preakness winner, ran eighth. Tapwrit, the Belmont winner, finished fourth, eight lengths behind the 6-1, wire-to-wire Travers outsider West Coast, who had broken his maiden in March, passed on the Triple Crown, and prepped with a score in the GIII Los Alamitos Derby.

In 2015, American Pharoah looked like a Travers slam dunk at .35-1 odds after dominating the division with powerhouse performances in the Derby, Preakness, Belmont, and GI Haskell Invitational. But the champ was boxed in, bounced around, and knocked off stride by 7-1 pace-presser Frosted in the Travers, softening him up just enough for the 16-1 Keen Ice to prevail by three-quarters of a length.

Before that, there had been a 33-year gap back to the last Travers that featured all three winners of that year's Triple Crown races.

The 1982 renewal only drew five entrants, but it was headlined by speedy Belmont stayer Conquistador Cielo, the 2-5 chalk who was looking to extend a seven-race win streak. Derby winner Gato Del Sol and Preakness upsetter Aloma's Ruler were the second and third favorites. But Aloma's Ruler and Conquistador Cielo dueled themselves into defeat, allowing the overlooked Canadian-bred gray Runaway Groom to eke out a half-length victory at 12-1 after prepping for the Travers with a score in Fort Erie's Prince of Wales S. Behind him, the Preakness, Belmont and Derby winners had to settle for second, third, and fifth, respectively.

The 1981 Travers also featured a Triple Crown triumvirate, consisting of Derby and Preakness winner Pleasant Colony, sent postward as the 8-5 fave, and Summing, who had beaten him in the Belmont. They were second and ninth, respectively, behind the 24-1 Travers party crasher Willow Hour, who splashed home by a head after refusing to get hooked into running too fast too early by a rabbit entrymate of Pleasant Colony's.

You have to go all the way back to 1978 to find the last time the Travers drew the winners of all three spring Classics and the first horse across the line was a winner of one of those races. But even that apparent victory was fleeting.

In this case it was the Triple Crown champ Affirmed, who was sent off the 7-10 favorite over the even-money Alydar, whom he had defeated in Louisville, Baltimore and New York. Yet in one of the most dramatic renewals in Travers history, Affirmed's 1 3/4-length victory was erased by a disqualification because he had dropped down near the rail nearing the far turn, cutting off his arch-rival and forcing Alydar into the fence. The stewards' reversal of the order of finish based on the foul elevated Alydar to the win.

Big effort from 'Cody's' Lil Bro

Hunt Ball (Into Mischief), the 2-year-old little brother of multiple Grade I-winning miler Cody's Wish (Curlin), didn't win his sprint debut Saturday at Saratoga. But his second-place effort in the first race Aug. 19 behind wire-to-wire favorite Risk It (Gun Runner) stamps him as a horse of interest moving forward.

The Godolphin homebred for trainer Bill Mott got pinballed at the break then rushed up into contention, losing momentum several times while trying to find a comfortable stalking spot chasing a well-meant winner over six furlongs. He leveled off with purpose under coaxing and was drawing a bead on Risk It in upper stretch before the favorite kicked clear by 4 1/2 lengths.

Keep an eye on Hunt Ball with a little bit more real estate to work with in start No. 2, whenever and wherever it comes.

Hunt Ball's dam, Dance Card, lost her sprint debut back in 2012 before racking up four straight wins over 1 1/16 miles and nine furlongs, including a Grade I win in that year's Gazelle S.

And Cody's Wish himself required four initial starts to find winning form in 2021, including twice being a beaten favorite as a juvenile at Saratoga before blasting through with three straight wins over one-turn miles at Churchill Downs.

Axel on a roll

If you have the drive and the talent, the mid-Atlantic region is a great region to launch a racing career as an up-and-coming jockey, because it affords opportunities to ride at both day and evening tracks.

Right now the 18-year-old apprentice Axel Concepcion is making the most of the roughly 75-mile commute between Laurel Park and Charles Town Races. In a span of just under 48 hours between Friday night and Sunday afternoon, he rode nine combined winners at those two tracks.

The weekend spree included the first stakes score for Concepcion, who turned pro Jan. 1 in his native Puerto Rico. He won 21 races there before earning his first mainland U.S. victory Feb. 19 at Fair Grounds. He shifted his tack to Laurel a week later. Riding with a five-pound allowance, he's currently Maryland's leading apprentice this year and is represented by agent Tom Stift.

Concepcion rode two winners at Charles Town Friday, Aug. 18. The next afternoon at Laurel he scored in four, including one aboard an 11-1 shot and another on the 4-1 Field Pass (Lemon Drop Kid) in the $75,000 Find S. for owner Three Diamonds Farm and trainer Mike Maker. Back at Charles Town under the lights Aug. 19, Concepcion made two more visits to the winner's circle. On Sunday, Aug. 20, he rode one winner at Laurel.

In between, he's at Laurel for morning training, honing his skills while trying to get noticed and pick up business on an ultra- competitive circuit.

“He's got to be there in the morning at 6 a.m.,” Stift said. “He's been doing it for months now. He's on a mission. Obviously, Mike [Maker]'s been watching the races and watching Axel ride. You don't put a bug boy on a [stakes] horse like that unless you've been paying attention.”

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