The first race of the 40 days of the 155th season opens at 1:10 p.m. Thursday with a 10-race program at Saratoga Race Course. By the time the meeting reaches its conclusion on Labor Day, Sept. 4, over 400 races, including 71 stakes worth $20.8 million, will have been run. The traditional opening-day feature is the $175,000 GIII Schuylerville S. for 2-year-old fillies.

Godolphin's Cody's Wish (Curlin), quite likely the most popular horse in the country, leads the deep lineup of standouts expected to compete at Saratoga this summer. That group includes 2022 Eclipse Award winners Forte (Violence), Nest (Curlin), Elite Power (Curlin) and Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper), all of whom won over the track during their championship seasons. Unbeaten Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic) is on course for the GI Test on the Whitney Day program on Aug. 5.

Todd Pletcher, the 14-time leading trainer at Saratoga, said that Forte will prep for the GI Travers in the GII Jim Dandy on July 29, but the decision has not been made on whether Tapit Trice (Tapit) will run in the GI Haskell on July 23 at Monmouth Park or the Jim Dandy. He said his grass star Up to the Mark (Not This Time) is likely to run in the GI Arlington Million at Colonial Downs, Suburban S. winner Charge It (Tapit) is a candidate for GI Whitney S. on Aug. 5 and that Far Bridge (English Channel) will follow his Belmont Derby score with a start in the GI Saratoga Derby Invitational of Aug. 5.

Cody's Wish, the winner of six straight and nine of his last 10 starts for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, is on course for the $1 million Whitney. It will be a distance test for GI Met Mile winner; he was third in his lone try at 1 1/8 miles in 2021 at Saratoga.

Todd Pletcher will have all of his stars at Saratoga | Sarah K. Andrew

Three years after the Saratoga season was conducted without fans because of the Covid-19 pandemic and following last year's record-setting summer with remarkable weather, this Saratoga meet appears ready to settle into the familiar groove with the focus fixed squarely on the equine talent. It's business as usual at the Spa.

“I think you always think about Saratoga that way,” said Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. “The COVID year was certainly strange, because it was the first time I'd ever seen empty stalls here because some people were unable to attend. But, aside from that, I think you always come into Saratoga expecting to see the best horses in the Midwest and the East Coast and we'll probably get some California shippers. It's that time of the year when you expect to see top-class horses, running in all the big races.”

This will be the 10th season that Jason Fitch and his brothers Adam and Patrick, have operated Kings Tavern, a fixture on Union Avenue across from the main entrances to Saratoga Race Course. Jason Fitch said that in the past few weeks the track has awakened from its annual slumber.

“The vibe is hard to describe. It's because it's kind of like COVID never happened,” he said. “It's like, everything's back to normal. Everybody's happy. Everyone's excited.”

Kings has a solid year-round local clientele and Fitch said with some out-of-town track customers already making their first visits of 2023, one season flows into the next.

“It kind of felt like the track ended like yesterday,” he said. “For me, personally, it feels like, just yesterday was Labor Day.”

During the racing season Kings opens early: at 9 a.m. on Saturdays and 10 a.m., Wednesday-Friday and on Sunday.

In recent years, the New York Racing Association has unveiled a series of capital projects on the grounds. Last year, the rebuilt Wilson Chute enabled NYRA to add one-mile dirt races to its lineup. This year, the most notable addition is very important–the backstretch healthcare clinic building–but not something that the average racegoer would be aware of.

Saratoga's patrons will notice a change of admission pricing and the move to an all-access ticket. NYRA announced in March that daily tickets purchased at least 24 hours in advance will cost $7 and the day-of-the-event price is $10. Since 2019, a grandstand ticket cost $7 and clubhouse entry was $10. The new approach will allow all visitors to go into the clubhouse. General admission on Travers Day will be $30, but $25 in advance.

Some of the bigger names in sport will compete early in the meet. In Italian (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) trained by Chad Brown will go after her second-straight win in the GI Diana Saturday and Clairiere (Curlin) will try to repeat in the GII Shuvee on July 23 against Nest, who will be making her 2023 debut.

Nest showed that she was of championship caliber last summer with GI wins in the Coaching Club American Oaks and the Alabama. Pletcher said that the Shuvee run is intended to set her up for the GI Personal Ensign on Aug. 25.

“We wanted to get started a little earlier,” Pletcher said. “Unfortunately, she got sick when she first came in and we basically missed a month. It took a little while, to get her well enough to get her back into training. Our original plan was to either run at Keeneland or Churchill and then the Ogden Phipps. It's just unfortunate that set us back to the point where she is just now getting ready.”

The Saratoga season features important off-track events, too. The Jockey Club's annual Round Table will be conducted on Thursday, Aug. 3, the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame will induct its newest members on Aug. 4 and the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale of select yearlings will take place on Aug. 7-8.

Pletcher and Chad Brown have been the kingpins on the trainer's table for 12 consecutive years and it's a very safe bet that they will be vying for the title once again. Brown has won the last two and five of the last seven. Defending champ Irad Ortiz Jr. has won the jockey's competition four times.

2023 Kentucky Derby winner Mage | Horsephotos

Though the $1.25 million Travers, first run in 1864, is always the marquee race of the season, it could be a crucial test to determine the 3-year-old male title following a spring in which three different horses won the Triple Crown races. That trio, GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic), GI Preakness S. winner National Treasure (Quality Road) and G1 Belmont S. champ Arcangelo (Arrogate), may meet in the Travers on Aug. 26. If that happens, it will be an oddity: just the fourth time in history and first since 2017. Arcangelo is already based at Saratoga and being pointed to the Travers. Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert has not announced which horses he will run at Saratoga–in his return to the track after missing 2022 due to a ban imposed by the New York Racing Association–but on Monday did not rule out National Treasure for the Travers. He said that recent Los Alamitos Derby winner Reincarnate (Good Magic) is a Travers possibility.

Mage was given a break following his third-place finish in the Preakness on May 20 and resumed training in June. After his next scheduled breeze Friday at The Thoroughbred Center a decision will be made on whether he will make his next start in the Haskell or the Jim Dandy.

“It's a special moment, for sure,” said Mage's co-owner Ramiro Restrepo. “To have all the classic winners in one spot it's lovely for the fans and lovely for the horse players. Like any athlete or representative of an athlete, you want to run against the best and compete against the best and hopefully put forth a good effort. For ourselves, as a collective, our lifelong dreams have been the Kentucky Derby and the Travers. Our dreams are those two races. It's been an incredible ride to have accomplished one and to have a decent shot to accomplish the second one would be, it's really the stuff of dreams. The Travers is our end-all, be-all. That's what we're focusing on.”

Cody's Wish | Sarah K. Andrew

Cody's Wish is a very talented 5-year-old with a distinctive backstory. He is named for Cody Dorman, of Richmond, Kentucky who was born with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome. As a result of the syndrome, Dorman uses a wheelchair and communicates with a tablet. They met in 2018 during a Make-A-Wish Foundation visit to Gainsborough Farm. The young foal interacted with Dorman and laid his head on the boy's lap, which led to his naming.

Mott's always-strong barn is especially heavy with headliners this year with Cody's Wish, Sprint champion Elite Power, and War Like Goddess (English Channel) in the lineup.

Once a seasonal visitor to Saratoga, Mott has a large part of his stable based at Saratoga for most of the warm weather months. He said he looks forward to the meet.

“It's fun. It's exciting to be a trainer here,” he said. “It's fun when there's enthusiasm around. We enjoy it.”

In the late 1950s, Saratogians feared that NYRA, then a new organization, might drop Saratoga, which was far less popular than the meets at Belmont Park and Aqueduct Racetrack. In 1957, the state legislature passed a bill guaranteeing Saratoga a 24-day season without competition at the downstate tracks. By the 1970s, Saratoga's stature had risen again and it is the most significant meeting on the NYRA calendar. Benefitting from warm, dry weather last summer, NYRA lost just 16 grass races–compared to 45 in 2021–and registered a record all-sources handle of $878,211,963, a jump of 7.7% from the previous year. Excluding fan-free 2020, NYRA reported its seventh-straight season of one million in paid attendance.

In a well-timed announcement on Monday, the Saratoga County Industrial Development Agency said a new report it commissioned showed that the meet at Saratoga Race Course generates $371 million in economic activity and more than 2,900 jobs in the Capital Region.

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Pedigree Notes:
Perennial leading sire Into Mischief sets off fireworks all year long, so it's only fitting he should kick off the Independence Day weekend with one of the most exciting horses in training. Into Mischief is responsible for five U.S. and Canadian champions, 49 graded winners, 110 black-type winners, and more than 200 stakes performers bred in the Northern Hemisphere. Life Is Good is one of 13 stakes winners for the remarkable stallion at the halfway point of 2022. Seven of his career stakes winners–and 13 of his career stakes performers–are out of Distorted Humor mares. Distorted Humor, pensioned at WinStar Farm, is the nation's current leading living broodmare sire with 125 stakes winners out of his daughters. Only a 9-year-old, Beach Walk currently has a juvenile Blame filly named Living Good, as well as a yearling Candy Ride (Arg) colt, in the pipeline. She produced a full-brother to Life Is Good Mar. 31.

Saturday, Belmont Park
JOHN A. NERUD S.-GII, $232,500, Belmont, 7-2, 4yo/up, 7f, 1:21.70, ft.
1–LIFE IS GOOD, 124, c, 4, by Into Mischief
                1st Dam: Beach Walk, by Distorted Humor
                2nd Dam: Bonnie Blue Flag, by Mineshaft
                3rd Dam: Tap Your Feet, by Dixieland Band
($525,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-CHC Inc. & WinStar Farm LLC;
B-Gary & Mary West Stables Inc. (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher;
J-Flavien Prat. $137,500. Lifetime Record: MGISW, 9-7-1-0,
$3,551,700. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*
2–Speaker's Corner, 124, c, 4, Street Sense–Tyburn Brook, by
Bernardini. O/B-Godolphin (KY); T-William I. Mott. $50,000.
3–Repo Rocks, 118, g, 4, Tapiture–Hawaiian Love, by Not For
Love. ($35,000 Wlg '18 KEENOV; $70,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP).
O-Double B Racing Stables; B-Mrs. C. Oliver Iselin (VA);
T-Gregory DiPrima. $30,000.
Margins: 5, 2HF, 12 1/4. Odds: 0.20, 2.25, 25.75.
Also Ran: Harvard. Scratched: War Tocsin.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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Full-season ticket plans, which include admission and reserved seats for the entire 40-day meet, will be available for purchase online through NYRA.com. Fans can access the Saratoga Virtual Venue seating map to digitally preview their seat location and sight lines before purchasing. Season admission passes, which include entry to the track for all 40 days but not reserved seats, will go on sale Friday, April 1. Season passes for the grandstand will be available for $60 (daily grandstand admission is $7). Clubhouse season passes are available for $85 (daily clubhouse admission is $10).

Full group spaces will also be made available for reservation including areas such as the Paddock Suite; Stella Artois Spa Verandas; 1863 Club, including The Rail, Resorts World Legends Hall, and Luxury Suites; Big Red Spring Tent and the Festival Tent. The summer meet is highlighted by the 153rd renewal of the GI Runhappy Travers S. Aug. 27 and the Aug. 6 GI Whitney S.

For more information, visit NYRA.com/Saratoga.

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The previous handle record was set in 2019, when $705,343,949 was wagered. With fans not allowed on-track last year due to COVID-19 concerns, the 2020 handle came in at $702.5 million.

“The record-breaking handle numbers reflect the quality of racing here at Saratoga Race Course and the excellence of the summer meet, where all-sources handle has surpassed $700 million for three consecutive years,” said NYRA CEO and President David O'Rourke. “The business of Saratoga is stronger than at any point in its history, and that would simply not be possible without the support of the horseplayers and the hard work and dedication of the horsemen here in New York.

“Ultimately, these wagering dollars are critically important to sustain a robust purse account that supports hundreds of small businesses and the 19,000 good paying jobs that are directly tied to Thoroughbred racing. Beyond that, the enthusiasm that bettors have for Saratoga allows NYRA to invest in the kind of capital-improvement projects that are so important to the future of the sport. Whether it's a project like the renovation of the Oklahoma Training Track this year, or a frontside improvement like the construction of the 1863 Club, NYRA is committed to investing in our facilities for the betterment of the sport in New York and the industry as a whole. What's also clear is that Saratoga Live and our partnership with FOX Sports has been incredibly effective in reaching existing fans and developing new interest in the sport.”

O'Rourke noted that the return of the fans for this year's meet undoubtedly played a role in not just the robust handle figures, but  the economic well being of the Saratoga community.

“Beyond the gates of Saratoga Race Course, the return of fans this summer has been critically important for downtown Saratoga Springs and the entire Capital Region business,” he said. “For the sixth consecutive year, we will eclipse one million in paid attendance, and this summer will long be remembered for the return of the best fans in racing to the rightful place at Saratoga.”

The record handle was accomplished despite a number of races coming off the turf. Through the 35th day of the meet, 76 races had come off the turf. In 2020, the number was just 31.

Once again, from a handle perspective, the highlight of the meet was the GI Runhappy Travers. S. card, which accounted for $51,381,515 in handle, down just slightly from the record set in 2019 when $52,129,344 was bet. The card for the GI Whitney S. generated an all-sources record handle of $36,802,234, bettering the previous mark of $35,796,434 set in 2020.

Should business remain robust through the end of the meet, NYRA has a chance to eclipse the $800 million mark for total handle. If so, that would mean an increase of about 13% over the 2019 figures.

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The 4-year-old has already shown an affinity for the latter track and trip, having made the GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan H. the last of his half-dozen victories in a row June 5.

“He's doing great,” David Fiske, manager and bloodstock advisor to Ron Winchell, told the NYRA notes team. “He's been remarkably sound all year.”

Fiske also reported that Wicked Halo (Gun Runner), wire-to-wire winner of the GII Adirondack S. at Saratoga Aug. 8, is getting some down time.

“She's taking a little break,” Fiske said. “After the Adirondack we decided to just give her some time and get her ready for the later part of the year. [Trainer] Steve [Asmussen]'s relying on his experience with her mother [fellow Adirondack winner Just Wicked {Tapit}), and he felt that he might have rushed her a little bit, so he didn't want to make the same mistake.”

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The trouble is that whoever came up with that plot should probably never get a job in Hollywood. For if Steve Asmussen is indeed to pass Dale Baird's all-time record Saturday, then any suitably imaginative scriptwriter would surely have contrived that he did so, not in this storied, $1-million race, corroborating his enshrinement five years ago in the adjacent Hall of Fame, but in the somewhat less resonant environs of Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack and Resort.

Sure, it would be apt for such a momentous landmark to evoke one of Asmussen's masterpieces, Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}), who in 2017 became his only Whitney winner (famously carrying a fifth shoe, the “rabbit's foot”, tangled in his tail). Silver State also represents his parents' old clients Winchell Thoroughbreds–in this instance, along with Willis Horton Racing–and the patient development of his potential is similarly exemplary of his trainer's dexterity.

Even so, there would arguably have been a still more pleasing symmetry to Asmussen instead breaking the tape in the GIII West Virginia Derby, a race that has so far contributed five wins (another record) to his overall tally. As it is, the 14 runners eligible to make history Saturday are confined to four other tracks–and Asmussen leaves undisturbed, this time, soil that was for decades the fiefdom of the very man whose place in the annals of the Turf he is about to supplant.

The Baird era here, spanning 20 consecutive training titles, straddled the transition from Waterford Park into pioneer racino; and was only ended by his shocking loss, at 72, in an automobile accident just before Christmas 2007. Just think: his nearest pursuer at the time, Jack Van Berg, was over 3,000 career wins behind.

But Baird never won the local Derby; never won a graded stakes of any description, in fact. He plied his trade in cheap claimers, sometimes rotating as many as 200 horses in a year, the majority in his own silks. Asmussen, in contrast, has given us a Horse of the Year four times in the last 13 years, becoming a paradigm of the “super trainer” elite who have transformed the horizons of their profession. In the process, having once amassed 650 winners in a single year, he has shown how these trainers must count delegation among their key skills.

Silver State training Saturday in Whitney preparation | Sarah Andrew

Sheer volume, as such, might appear to be the only challenge shared by the hometown trainer Baird and the federal power Asmussen. Nor, seemingly, could you obviously conflate their personalities. Baird was evidently a low-key type, reserved and unassuming, given to understated humor; Asmussen, as anyone can see, is a truly “spectacular” specimen. With his flamboyant looks and expressive bearing, he commands attention whether he's grinning or glowering.

But remember that both men honed their intuition in a family of horsemen. Baird's father, brother, son and nephew all embedded their surname in a training dynasty. And I love how the latter first clocked this vivid counterfoil to his uncle, at Presque Isle Downs one day: he saw Asmussen going down the shedrow to discuss a particular horse with one of his team and, as they spoke, instinctively grabbing a brush to groom the animal's opposite side.

Nobody has to tell Asmussen that Silver State represents only the apex of a pyramid with a very wide base. In his first year he won a single race, at Ruidoso Downs, and $2,324. Through his first decade, he started two horses in graded stakes. As he recently told colleague Bill Finley, everything “goes back to my mom and dad showing me that every horse in front of you is important… [that] every single horse was just as important as the next one.”

But this outlook, in turn, complements a voraciously competitive nature. In another of the many interviews to which he has graciously submitted in anticipation of his feat, Asmussen made candid and instructive reference to the intensity of his own character. “Either everything matters,” he said, “or nothing matters.”  Not an attitude that will endear everyone, perhaps–but one you have to love, if you're an owner or indeed a racehorse.

Asmussen was joined in the Hall of Fame by a handful of privileged rivals Friday, but its doors have never admitted Baird. He instead had to settle for a Special Eclipse Award, after becoming the first to 9,000 winners. Nonetheless you suspect that he would bestow a posthumous blessing on the man who is about to efface his record; and if it can't happen in the West Virginia Derby, then Baird would certainly settle for destiny instead summoning into the record books the gelding Asmussen fields under a $5,000 claiming tag at Louisiana Downs.

Another fitting memorial could yet be carved in the West Virginia Derby, by one of the latest Hall of Fame inductees–and surely among the most automatic ever. Because Todd Pletcher's runner Bourbonic, as a son of Bernardini, represents what has suddenly become a still more precious genetic resource.

The mighty Maxfield | Sarah Andrew

The silver lining to the loss of this most beautiful of stallions is that his precocious achievements as a broodmare sire already guarantee that his legacy will continue to evolve for many years yet. The Whitney, indeed, could well yield another garland for his daughter Velvety, the dam of Maxfield (Street Sense).

She's a half-sister to Sky Mesa (Pulpit), their Storm Cat dam in turn a sister to Bernstein, and this is the branch of the La Troienne dynasty that goes through Buckpasser's dam Busanda. It has corresponding seeding all the way through–next dams are by Affirmed, Round Table, Nasrullah and War Admiral–and Maxfield's Whitney performance will simply help to determine how affordable he may be as a truly aristocratic stud prospect.

Bernardini himself had suffered the indignity of a fee slide from $100,000 as recently as 2017 to $35,000 for his final spring. Yet his stature as broodmare sire had meanwhile redressed a couple of fallow campaigns for his own foals. To some of us, compounded distaff influences will always provide a sturdier foothold in a pedigree than the putative alchemies between sire lines. His Grade I-winning dam Cara Rafaela, for instance, was one of the markers laid down in a debut crop of just 32 named foals by her sire Quiet American, alongside two other significant females in champion Hidden Lake and the remarkable broodmare Quiet Dance, dam of one Horse of the Year and second dam of another.

Her grandson, of course, was none other than Gun Runner. And it so happens that Asmussen starts this momentous day by saddling a member of that horse's first crop, the Winchell homebred Under the Gun, in the opener at Saratoga. Later he gives a debut to Vodka Mardini, a son of Bernardini, who also features as sire of the barn's final runner on the card, Miner's Queen. So, actually, you know what? Maybe there is a decent scriptwriter up there after all.

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Korean Racing Authority's Knicks Go (Paynter) has been pegged as the 6-5 morning-line favorite for trainer Brad Cox and jockey Joel Rosario. The 5-year-old is perfect in his last five starts around two turns, including a latest blow-out, big-figure success in the GIII Cornhusker H. at Prairie Meadows July 2. Cox attributes his losses in the Saudi Cup in February and in the GI Met Mile to a one-turn route configuration

“There was no hangover with him [out of the Saudi Cup] with how he was training, but back of my mind that one turn isn't his thing,” Cox told NYRA's Andy Serling after Knicks Go drew gate four, before telegraphing an unsurprising race strategy.

“Once the gate opens, it's up to Joel. Speed is his weapon and we'll try to utilize it,” Cox said.

Cox won last weekend's GII Jim Dandy S. for Godolphin with champion Essential Quality (Tapit), and Maxfield (Street Sense) will look to keep the ball rolling for the 'boys in blue.' Defeated into third in the GI Santa Anita H. in March, the homebred has since rolled to easy victories in the GII Alysheba S. and GII Stephen Foster S. at Churchill Downs. The 8-5 morning-line second choice departs the five hole with regular rider Jose Ortiz.

“He like the rest of us has enjoyed the weather. He's had a great preparation and he's ready to go,” Godolphin USA President Jimmy Bell said post-draw.

Silver State (Hard Spun) carries an imposing six-race winning streak into the Whitney, capped by a one-length defeat of the re-opposing By My Standards (Goldencents) in the Met June 5. Ricardo Santana, Jr. rides the 4-1 chance from the two hole, while By My Standards, runner-up to Improbable (City Zip) last year, has regular partner Gabriel Saez in gate one.

Swiss Skydiver (Dardevil) has already beaten the boys once in her career, taking down the colors of eventual Horse of the Year Authentic (Into Mischief) in last year's GI Preakness S. She will look to join the likes of Personal Ensign and Lady's Secret as female winners of the Whitney.

“The way the ball bounced, we really wanted to get her back into the game,” said trainer Ken McPeek, whose barn has only recently emerged from quarantine. “She's doing super. We're excited, she's won here before and it's going to be a fun weekend. We try to get her in a nice rhythm out there and let her make a run.”

Irad Ortiz, Jr. has the call on the 6-1 gamble from post position three.

Saturday, Saratoga

WHITNEY S.-GI, $1,000,000, 3yo/up, 1 1/8m

1 By My Standards (Goldencents), Calhoun, G Saez, 10-1

2 Silver State (Hard Spun), Asmussen, Santana Jr, 4-1

3 Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil), McPeek, Ortiz Jr, 6-1

4 Knicks Go (Paynter), Cox, Rosario, 6-5

5 Maxfield (Street Sense), Walsh, Ortiz, 8-5

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Working in the company of the commonly owned Churchill maiden winner Business Model (Candy Ride {Arg}), Maxfield covered his opening quarter-mile in :24 3/5 and the half in :48 2/5 and pulled up six furlongs in a shade over 1:13, according to trainer Brendan Walsh.

“I just wanted the company to take him to the wire,” Walsh said. “I think the best part of it was the gallop out from the wire to an eighth out. He's doing good. I couldn't ask for more than that.”

Having tasted defeat for the first time when third behind Idol (Curlin) in the GI Santa Anita H. in March, the son of Velvety (Bernardini) has since posted facile scores in the GII Alysheba S. Apr. 30 and in the GII Stephen Foster S. June 26, securing a spot in the field for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. The Whitney also serves as a 'Win and You're In' qualifier for that championship event.

A veteran of just eight racetrack appearances, the 4-year-old Maxfield will be making his Saratoga debut next weekend and for his part, Walsh believes his charge is enjoying his time at the Spa.

“He's doing as well as he's ever done right now,” Walsh said. “I hope he can run at least as well as he's done these last couple times and maybe even a little bit better. He likes it up here and is in a great frame of mind.”

Whitney hopeful Maxfield (outside) with @jose93_ortiz up preps on the main this morning at #Saratoga for @brenpwalsh pic.twitter.com/YhRYmNIgPt

— NYRA () (@TheNYRA) July 31, 2021

Happy Saver Gearing Up…

Wertheimer et Frere's 'TDN Rising Star' Happy Saver (Super Saver), who defeated Godolphin 'Rising Star' Mystic Guide (Ghostzapper) in last year's GI Jockey Club Gold Cup last fall, could contest the Whitney after drilling a half-mile in :49.25 in the company of last-out GIII Monmouth Cup hero Dr Post (Quality Road).

Trainer Todd Pletcher indicated that both 4-year-old colts are also being considered for the GI TVG Pacific Classic Aug. 21 as he tries to keep the pair separated.

“I thought the work was solid,” Pletcher said. “We'll see how he [Happy Saver] bounces out of it. I haven't quite decided on the Whitney yet.

“There's also the Pacific Classic in-between,” he continued. “I just have to weigh my options. It might give me an opportunity to split the two of them up if I don't run Happy Saver in the Whitney.”

Winner of a one-mile Belmont allowance on seasonal debut May 28, Happy Saver is exiting an even third to Max Player (Honor Code) in a sloppy-track renewal of the GII Suburban S. downstate July 3.

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Working in the company of stablemate Longpants Required (New Year's Day), the son of Velvety (Bernardini) covered his first two furlongs in :25.3 and was out five-eighths of a mile in 1:01.1 according to NYRA clockers.

“I just wanted them to start out nice and easy and pick it up as they went,” Walsh said. “It was a good work. I just wanted to get him back in the swing of things again. He looks like he's doing great. I was delighted with him yesterday when I got up here. He looked as good if not better than ever.”

Walsh told the NYRA notes team that he was pleased with what he saw from his charge in his first work since the Foster.

“It's three weeks since he ran and it worked out fine,” Walsh said. “I wasn't in a rush to work him back with the shipping. It's just a question of keeping him happy and keeping him healthy.”

Masqueparade Works For Jim Dandy…

Masqueparade (Upstart) was also among those on the Friday worktab at the Spa, covering four furlongs in a steady :49.23 (28/98). Recent winner of the GIII Ohio Derby, the bay is slated to make his next start in the GII Jim Dandy S. at Saratoga July 31.

“He's an improving 3-year-old mentally, physically and figure wise and that's why we're taking our chance in a race like the Jim Dandy,” said the conditioner, who added that his colt was also under consideration for this weekend's GI TVG.com Haskell S. and the Aug. 7 GII West Virginia Derby. “He's easy on himself. He won't grab the bit and go down there in :47 and change and gallop out in a minute, which is good at this point in time. It might help his longevity.”

Hendrickson, Casse Reflect on Schuylerville Win…

One day following Pretty Birdie (Bird Song)'s front-running success in the GIII Schuylerville S., trainer Norm Casse and John Hendrickson, the husband of the late Marylou Whitney, were still on cloud nine.

“Everyone assumes I love horse racing because of who my family is and who my father is, but Smarty Jones (Elusive Quality) is the reason I fell in love with horse racing,” said Casse. “I think we all know the story on how that one ends with Marylou beating him [with Birdstone with the Triple Crown on the line in 2004], and now I train for her. It's just surreal. I thank her and John [Hendrickson] so much. They've really given me everything and I really appreciate everything they've done.”

Added Hendrickson of the late owner/breeder, “This is where she felt the most alive. This is the way she is alive and she has a win on Opening Day. It's pretty special. This is a dream come true for me and Marylou. Things getting back to normal and winning on Opening Day, she's throwing a party. She said, 'I want to race, get back to work.'”

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But according to Gainesway’s Director of Stallion Sales and Recruitment Sean Tugel, the son of Street Sense had the attention of nearly every top stud farm in the country.

“He was on everybody’s radar from the very beginning,” he said. “Any time you see one win first time out from Bob Baffert’s barn, you have to recognize it.”

McKinzie’s resume only improved from there over the next three years before he retired in October of this year, cementing his place on the Gainesway stallion roster.

A $170,000 Keeneland September purchase by Karl Watson, Michael Pegram and Paul Weitman, McKinzie was named in honor of Brad McKinzie, an executive at Los Alamitos and longtime friend of Baffert.

Following his maiden victory, a disqualification elevated the colt as the winner of the GI Los Alamitos Cash Call Futurity S., leaving him undefeated as a juvenile.

While he continued the winning streak in his next start in the GIII Sham S. at three, the bay was later shelved and forced off the Classic trail, but then returned with a vengeance for the second half of his sophomore season in the GI Pennsylvania Derby, and later a near five-length win in the GI Malibu S.

“He showed his extreme ability when he won the Pennsylvania Derby at a mile and an eighth, and then came back and won the Malibu at seven furlongs, showing that versatility,” Tugel said. “The Malibu was certainly one of his marquee victories. He exploded down the lane at the eighth pole and separated himself from a deep group of horses. You see very few horses able to separate themselves from a field going seven furlongs like that, and it just showed his brilliance.”

McKinzie got his signature win as an older horse last year in the GI Whitney, earning a 111 Beyer Figure and defeating the likes of eventual Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Vino Rosso (Curlin) and Grade I winner Yoshida (Jpn) (Heart’s Cry {Jpn}).

“He ran 11 triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures, but his Whitney victory was his career best. He defeated multiple Grade I winners, and he did it easily,” Tugel said.

With Grade I wins at two through four, McKinzie came back this year at five and added the GII Triple Bend S. to his resume. He retired with earnings of well over $3 million, running either first or second in all but two of his 10 Grade I starts and retiring as a seven-time graded stakes winner.

“I think in today’s world, we’re so quick to put horses up on a pedestal,” Tugel observed. “This is a great opportunity for our industry to breed to a horse that maintained the highest level of performance over three full racing years.”

Bred by Jane Lyon’s Summer Wind Farm, McKinzie is out of Runway Model (Petionville), a dual Grade II winner and $2.7 million Keeneland November purchase.

Tugel said he believes McKinzie’s pedigree will give the new sire every chance at success.

“He is the fastest son of Street Sense, and to be the best of a sire line is something special,” he said. “He has the bottom side to make us believe that he’s going to have fast, precocious 2-year-olds. He brings that soundness, that size, that scope and versatility. And that’s something we need in this breed. I think it sets him up for a big chance to be a very successful stallion in the future. He’s certainly one of the most exciting stallion prospects we’ve had at Gainesway in a long time, and we’re very excited to see what he can produce for us.”

Breeders are now getting their first looks at the new stallion, and Tugel said he’s been well received.

“He’s an elegant horse. He comes out and shows all the class he showed on the racetrack. He stands there like an absolute picture. You can see in his movement when he walks across the ground, it’s the same movement he had to make him a multiple Grade I winner. Even though he is a big-framed horse, that athleticism and lightness of his feet is a great attribute. He’s extremely popular and we’re very excited for the book of mares he’s going to get this year.”

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