Saratoga Race Course Notes 8/11

NYRA RELEASE —-

Saratoga Race Course Notes
Haskell winner Good Magic ‘outstanding’ in breeze for G1 Travers
G1 CCA Oaks heroine Monomoy Girl returns to worktab
Daddy is a Legend ‘coming along nicely’ ahead of G2 Lake Placid
King Zachary works sharp five furlongs, ‘all signs are go’ for Travers

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Reigning juvenile champion Good Magic led Saturday’s busy worktab as he turned in his first breeze since winning the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational in preparation for the Grade 1, $1.25 million Runhappy Travers on August 25 at Saratoga Race Course.

Owned by e Five Racing Thoroughbreds and Stonestreet Stable, the multiple graded stakes winner worked four furlongs solo, covering the distance in 48.09 seconds over the main track for trainer Chad Brown.

“He moved really well,” said Brown. “I thought it was an outstanding work. He looked super and I’m very happy with him.”

The July 29 Haskell was Good Magic’s first win since taking the Grade 2 Blue Grass by 1 ½ lengths in April. He was second in the Kentucky Derby and fourth in the Preakness behind Triple Crown winner Justify this spring.

Last year, the chestnut Curlin colt broke his maiden with a 4 ½-length victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar following runner-up finishes in his debut on August 26 – his only Saratoga start – and in the Grade 1 Champagne in October.

“We gave him a little breather following the Preakness, and he’s come back and really done well,” Brown said. “He came out of the Haskell in great shape.”

Engage, who finished second in the Grade 3 Amsterdam on July 28, worked four furlongs in 48.09 for the Grade 1, $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial presented by Runhappy on Travers Day. Chilean Triple Crown winner Wow Cat, who ran second in the Grade 2 Shuvee in her U.S. debut, breezed four furlongs in 48.87 ahead of her bid in the Grade 1, $700,000 Personal Ensign, also on Travers Day.

“I thought everyone worked well for us this morning, and it was nice to get everything done before the threat of rain,” said Brown.
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G1 CCA Oaks heroine Monomoy Girl returns to work tab

Multiple Grade 1 winner Monomoy Girl breezed four furlongs in 49.88 seconds on Saratoga’s main track, her first major training since winning her fourth straight Grade 1 in the Coaching Club American Oaks on July 22. The Tapizar filly is working towards a start in the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion on September 22 at Parx Racing.

With regular jockey Florent Geroux aboard, Monomoy Girl breezed in company with allowance winner Purely Lucky. Trainer Brad Cox said he was impressed with Monomoy’s Girl’s work in her first breeze since besting Midnight Bisou to win the Coaching Club American Oaks in her Spa debut.

“She breezed very well, it was just a little maintenance breeze in company. We weren’t looking to do a whole lot,” Cox said. “We’re just trying to keep her on schedule, she usually works Saturdays or Sundays. That was the plan, just get a nice, easy half-mile. She galloped out 1:03 and change. That’s all we were looking for. She looks fantastic. She was letting us know the last couple of days, the way she’s been galloping, that it’s been three weeks since she’s run and she was looking to do something.”

Owned by Michael Dubb, Monomoy Stables, The Elkstone Group and Bethlehem Stables, Monomoy Girl is the leading contender for the 3-year-old filly division after starting the year 5-for-5, including Grade 1 wins in her last four starts encompassing the Ashland on April 7 at Keeneland, Kentucky Oaks on May 4 at Churchill Downs, Acorn on Belmont Stakes Day, June 9, and the Coaching Club American Oaks on July 22.

Monomoy Girl will leave Saratoga for Churchill on Wednesday, Cox said.
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Daddy Is a Legend ‘coming along nicely’ ahead of G2 Lake Placid

Trainer George Weaver reported that multiple graded stakes winner Daddy Is a Legend exited Friday’s turf breeze in good order as she tries for the Lake George-Lake Placid double on August 18.

On Friday, the Pennsylvania-bred Scat Daddy filly worked five furlongs in 1:01.40 over the Oklahoma turf course for the Grade 2, $300,000 Lake Placid at 1 1/8 miles on the grass.

“She’s doing very good and worked really well yesterday,” said Weaver.

Daddy Is a Legend was sent off as the 8-5 favorite in the Grade 3 Lake George on July 20, where she prevailed by two lengths to pick up her first victory of the year.

“She’s been a nice filly all along, and on paper she looked she was the best horse in the race in the Lake George and she ran like it,” he said.

Daddy Is a Legend won the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante last November and began her 2018 campaign with a fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Appalachian in April at Keeneland. Following her 3-year-old debut, Daddy Is a Legend went on to finish third in the May 4 Grade 3 Edgewood at Churchill Downs and fourth in the Grade 3 Wonder Again on June 7 at Belmont Park before her win in the Lake George.

“We’re looking forward to the rest of the season with her,” said Weaver. “She’s maintained her weight coming out of the Lake George and is coming along nicely for the Lake Placid, so we’re excited.”
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King Zachary works sharp five furlongs, ‘all signs are a go’ for Travers

Thomas Conway’s King Zachary breezed five furlongs in 59.34 seconds with exercise rider Tammy Fox in the irons on the main track Saturday morning and is officially in the mix for the Grade 1 Travers, said trainer Dale Romans.

“He was super,” he said. “We can officially be considered in. All signs are a go to the Travers.”

The chestnut colt by Curlin will make his start in the Travers after finishing fourth in the Grade 3 Indiana Derby at Indiana Grand Race Course on July 14. Romans will try to capture his second Travers win after saddling fellow Curlin progeny Keen Ice to an upset victory over Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in the 2015 Mid-Summer Derby.

“It would be big,” Romans said. “It’s going to be a good race. I like that move by Mark [Casse]. I think it’s brilliant. He’s putting the filly [Wonder Gadot] in to see what she can do. I like it.”

The Kentucky-bred finished third at Churchill Downs in his only start as a 2-year-old then returned this year and broke his maiden at Gulfstream Park in March. The colt then shipped north to Aqueduct, where he finished sixth in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial on April 7. A closing victory against allowance company at Churchill Downs led to a 4 ¾-length win in the Grade 3 Matt Winn on June 16 before the Indiana Derby.

Stablemate Seven Trumpets earned the bullet for his five-furlong move on Saturday, covering the distance in 58.44 on the main track with Fox. Romans called the work – the fastest of nine – “freaky fast,” and added that he will enter the West Point Thoroughbred’s Morning Line colt to the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens on the Travers undercard. Seven Trumpets will be one of two saddled by Romans as he plans to send Grade 1 Alfred Vanderbilt winner Promises Fulfilled in the seven-furlong race.

Romans also said that he may gallop Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks winner Coach Rocks up to the Grade 1 $600,000 Alabama on August 18. By Oxbow, Coach Rocks last worked on July 29, her second local work following her runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Delaware Oaks on July 7.