Baffert: Saratoga Gate Crew Gets An Assist In Improbable’s Whitney

Winning a prestigious race takes the work of a team. After Improbable's victory in Saturday's Grade 1, $750,000 Whitney, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert said the assistant starter and the entire NYRA gate crew were his Most Valuable Players for settling his horse in the gate, allowing him to run his race and post a two-length score in the 1 1/8 mile contest for some of the top older horses in the country.

After rearing up once in the gate and acting fractious a second time, Improbable still managed to break sharp from post 2 in the five-horse field, which put him in a better position than even-money favorite Tom's d'Etat, who stumbled leaving the outermost post.

Improbable stayed off Mr. Buff's early fractions before taking command out of the final turn and repelling By My Standards' late bid to win his second consecutive Grade 1.

“You have to thank the gate crew, the guys they had in there with him. It's like being in the gate with a bull sometimes,” Baffert said with a laugh. “He could have easily turned over, but they did a tremendous job, so I give them a big assist there because they did a great job.”

Once away, Improbable showed top-class form under jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., who captured his second Whitney in three years after also winning aboard Diversify in 2018.

“As much as he acts up in the gate, he always breaks really well,” Baffert added. “He breaks like a shot. After that, Irad got him in a nice rhythm. He followed Mr. Buff on the lead and tightened him along there and turned for home. Improbable had been working so well down here at Del Mar. It was a big effort there.”

Improbable won his third career Grade 1, joining the Los Alamitos Futurity in December 2018 as a juvenile. The son of City Zip competed in the Triple Crown trail last year but finished out of the money in four Grade 1s, placing fourth in the Kentucky Derby, running sixth in the Preakness and finishing fourth in the Pennsylvania Derby and fifth in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.

In his 4-year-old campaign, he ran second in the Oaklawn Mile in his seasonal bow in April before capturing the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup on June 6 going 1 1/4-miles at Santa Anita before earning a personal-best 106 Beyer Speed Figure for his Whitney win.

Owned by WinStar Farm, China Horse Club and SF Racing, Improbable improved to 6-3-0 in 13 career starts. Baffert said Elliott Walden, WinStar's CEO, said he had the Hollywood Gold Cup and then the Whitney route picked out for him.

“Elliott Walden does all my scouting and said this is where we need to run,” Baffert said. “We were going to run at Oaklawn but decided to scratch him there and wait for the Gold Cup. It's a team effort.”

The Whitney was just the second time Improbable won outside of California, with his second-start victory in the 2018 Street Sense at Churchill Downs marking the other.

“This is one of the few times he's won on the road, so that was a big effort,” Baffert said. “It was nice that the WinStar group was there. I didn't know they had never won the Whitney before; they had won everything else, so it was exciting for them.”

Baffert, who has won two Triple Crowns [American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018], has conditioned winners in almost every major race in the country. But until 2019, he had never trained a Whitney winner. After McKinzie won it last year and Improbable followed suit, Baffert became the first trainer to repeat in the Whitney since fellow Hall of Famer Scotty Schulhofer in 1994-95.

While Baffert has famously trained 3-year-olds, his stock of older horses this year continues to be strong, with Improbable part of a roster that also includes a still-racing McKinzie as well as Maximum Security.

“It's such a prestigious race, and to win it, it means a lot,” Baffert said. “I'm lucky enough to train for some big outfits, and when you train for them, you get a lot more chances at it. I'm excited to train older horses, because they usually go to stallion duty because they've done so well so they aren't around for the extra year. Unfortunately, the COVID situation has taken away some opportunities to run them, but I just feel blessed and fortunate that I do have these horses.”

But Baffert still has talented sophomores, including Uncle Chuck, who registered his final breeze yesterday before the Grade 1, $1 million Runhappy Travers on August 8.

The lightly raced Uncle Chuck is 2-for-2, with a seven-length score in his debut on June 12 going one mile and a four-length victory last out in his first stakes appearance in the Los Alamitos Derby at 1 1/8 miles on July 4.

Owned by Karl Watson, Michael Pegram and Paul Weitman, Uncle Chuck breezed a bullet five furlongs in 1:00.20 over Del Mar's main track, the fastest of 71 clocked at the distance.

“He worked really nice and I was really happy with the way he did it,” Baffert said. “He came out of his last race really well. We still have to ship and hopefully he doesn't get too stirred up. Hopefully, we get a good post and a good break.”

Unraced as a juvenile, Uncle Chuck has benefitted from starting his career later. A $250,000 purchase at the 2018 Keeneland September Sale, he was bred in Kentucky by Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings.

“He wasn't ready and I remember buying him as a yearling, and Barry Eisaman, who broke him, said 'take your time with him. Don't break him right away,'” Baffert said. “We took our time with him. I didn't want to run him as a 2-year-old. [Eisaman] just took his time with him and sent him to me when he's ready. He then showed up and said he's ready. I can see he's just starting to mature now and figure it out. His work yesterday was probably one of his better works. He was focused the whole way around there. We've been tempted to put blinkers on him but I was afraid it might get him a little too rank, but we'll see how he does in the Travers.”

Baffert is a three-time Travers winner with Point Given in 2001, Arrogate,who set the 1 1/4-mile track record of 1:59.36 in 2016 and West Coast in 2017.

Another talented Baffert 3-year-old looking to make a mark on Travers Day is Michael Petersen's Gamine, who enters the Grade 1, $300,000 Longines Test for sophomore fillies off a dominating 18 ¾-length win in the Grade 1 Acorn on Belmont Stakes Day June 20.

Gamine earned a 110 Beyer for her win in the one-mile Acorn and will now cut back to seven furlongs. The $1.8 million purchase at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds-In-Training Sale breezed six furlongs in 1:12.80 at Del Mar on Sunday.

“She just breezed today and looked great,” Baffert said. “It looked nice. She's coming into the race really well.”

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Record $35.8 Million Wagered On Whitney Day Card At Saratoga

Saturday's 12-race Whitney Day card, featuring four graded stakes and highlighted by Improbable's victory in the 93rd running of the Grade 1, $750,000 Whitney, generated an all-sources handle record of $35,796,435, eclipsing the previous Whitney Day record of $31,835,863 set in 2019.

2019 Whitney Day, which was held on August 3, saw paid attendance of 40,791 with fans on the grounds of Saratoga wagering $4,658,622.

Live racing resumes at the Spa on Sunday at 1:10 p.m. ET with a 10-race card highlighted by the $100,000 Birdstone for 4-year-olds and up going 1 3/4 miles on the dirt.

Saratoga Live presents daily television coverage of the 40-day summer meet on FOX Sports and MSG Networks. For the complete Saratoga Live broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule

NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Saratoga Race Course, and the best way to bet every race of the 40-day summer meet. Available to horseplayers nationwide, NYRA Bets is currently offering a $200 new member bonus in addition to a host of special weekly offers. The NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at NYRABets.com.

The 2020 summer meet at Saratoga Race Course continues through Labor Day, Monday, September 7. Racing at Saratoga is conducted five days a week, Wednesdays through Sundays. Closing week will run Wednesday, September 2 through Labor Day, Monday, September 7.

Under New York state guidelines, Saratoga Race Course is currently operating without spectators in attendance.

For more information about Saratoga Race Course, visit NYRA.com

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Whitney Day Generates Record All-Sources Handle

Saturday’s 12-race GI Whitney S. Day card generated an all-sources handle record of $35,796,435, eclipsing the previous Whitney Day record of $31,835,863 set in 2019.
2019 Whitney Day, which was held Aug. 3, saw paid attendance of 40,791 with fans on the grounds of Saratoga wagering $4,658,622.

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Improbable Takes Whitney After Stumbling Start By Favored Tom’s D’Etat

Improbable notched his second consecutive Grade 1 on Saturday, taking advantage of a bad stumble at the start by favorite Tom's d'Etat to win the $750,000 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Under Irad Ortiz, Jr., the 4-year-old City Zip colt sat off pacesetter Mr. Buff, took took command into the stretch and won easily by about two lengths over By My Standards. After his bad start, Tom's d'Etat rallied to be third, with Code of Honor and Mr. Buff rounding out the field of five.

Improbable, trained by Bob Baffert and owned by WinStar Farm, China Horse Club and SF Racing, covered 1 1/8 miles on a fast track in 1:48.65 and paid $8.50 for the win — his sixth in 13 career starts. A G1 winner at two of the Los Alamitos Futurity, Improbable was the beaten favorite in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 2019, concluding his year with a fifth-place finish behind Spun to Run in the G1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.

He came back in 2020 with a close second behind Tom's d'Etat in the Oaklawn Mile and then returned to Southern California to win the G1 Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita on June 6.

Plagued by gate problems throughout his career, Improbable was fractious while waiting for the gates to open but broke smoothly. Tom's d'Etat, however, went to his knees at the start under Joel Rosario and was several lengths behind the field by the time he recovered.

Mr. Buff led the way through slow fractions of :25.12, :49.74 and 1:13.36, with Improbable his closest pursuer in the run down the backstretch. Tom's d'Etat trailed.

Approaching the far turn, Ortiz asked Improbable for run, and the colt responded. He led into the stretch, the mile in 1:36.53 and was geared down in the final yards.

Produced from the A.P. Indy mare, Rare Event, Improbable was bred in Kentucky by St George Farm LLC and G. Watts Humphrey Jr.

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