Horse Racing News is the source of thoroughbred racing information with horse racing odds, betting tips, racing picks, race results, and handicapping. Latest news and articles on top horse racing contenders, jockeys, trainers, three-year-olds, race tracks, and major stakes races such as the Triple Crown races: the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes as well as the Breeders' Cup races.Breeders’ Cup Challenge: Whitney Handicap at Saratoga on Saturday, July 26
Posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008
Saturday afternoon, on a day when Saratoga Race Course will offer a record of more than $1.7 million in purses, Tracy Farmer’s Commentator enters the starting gate against 10 rivals for the 81st running of the $750,000 Whitney Handicap (G1) for 3-year-olds and up at 9 furlongs.
The Whitney Handicap is 1 of 4 graded stakes on Saturday’s card that is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In” series. The Whitney Handicap winner will be one of the Breeders’ Cup horses for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on October 25 at Santa Anita Park.
Saratoga’s Whitney Handicap field of horses with jockeys and weight:
- Commentator under jockey John Velazquez carries 120 lbs.
- Solar Flare (ARG) under jockey Gabriel Saez, 115 lbs.
- Notional under jockey Edgar Prado, 116 lbs.
- Cowtown Cat under jockey Rafael Bejarano, 114 lbs.
- Merchant Marine under jockey Rajiv Maragh, 113 lbs.
- Tasteyville under jockey Michael Luzzi, 115 lbs.
- Rising Moon under jockey Cornelio Velasquez, 115 lbs.
- Grasshopper under jockey Robby Albarado, 116 lbs.
- A. P. Arrow under jockey Ramon Dominguez, 116 lbs.
- Student Council under jockey Shaun Bridgmohan, 117 lbs.
- Timber Reserve under jockey Javier Castellano, 115 lbs.
Commentator, who will be making his 20th career start in the Whitney Handicap, is a credit to Hall of Fame race horse trainer Nick Zito’s ability to manage a horse. A seven-year-old Distorted Humor gelding, the New York-bred Commentator has thrived on having his races spaced out and always shows up fresh and ready for a fight.
At Saratoga, Commentator has won 3 of 5 starts, including the 2005 Whitney Handicap, in which defeated eventual Horse of the Year Saint Liam by a neck. This year, a Whitney Handicap victory would be extra special. Should he win, he would stand alone as the second-oldest horse to take this important horse race. Five-time Horse of the Year Kelso is the oldest horse to win the Whitney Handicap and he did that in 1965, when at the age of 8, he won the horse race for the second time.
“Commentator is like (former heavyweight boxing champion) George Foreman,” race horse trainer Nick Zito said. “He gets older but keeps coming up at a high level. He has his issues, but we have learned to space out his races and give him the time he needs. When he gets the time he needs, he usually comes up with his race. That’s all we ever ask: for Commentator to be Commentator.”
If Commentator is the old man of Saturday’s Whitney Handicap, the youngster is Fox Hill Farms Inc.’s Solar Flare, an Argentina-bred son of 1991 Hopeful winner Salt Lake. Trained in his native country by Juan Carlos Etchechoury, Solar Flare joined race horse trainer Larry Jones’ stable earlier this year.
“It took him so long to come to my barn, I thought they rode him up from Argentina,” race horse trainer Larry Jones said. “He had to clear quarantine in Florida and all that stuff before I got him at the Fair Grounds.”
“It took him a while to get used to the North American way of doing things,” Larry Jones continued, “but you can see that he turned out to be a very good student, and he is not quite a full 4-year-old.”
Solar Flare’s American debut in this country was a victory at Delaware Park on June 3 at a mile and seventy yards. Jones was so impressed with that effort that he ran him back in the 1 1/4-mile Suburban Handicap (G1) at Belmont Park on June 28. There, he fought hard and ran second by a half-length to Frost Giant.
“He doesn’t train the way he races,” Jones said. “You see him in the mornings, and there is nothing he does that turns your head. But in his first race, we saw how tough he was and then he came back in the Suburban.”
“I haven’t run all the numbers yet, but off his last race, he seems to be a horse that belongs with these other ones.”
Race horse trainer John Kimmel is running an extremely fresh Timber Reserve, who will be making his first start since he beat one horse in the Hal’s Hope (G3) at Gulfstream Park on January 6.
“He had a problem with his frog, the base of his frog, which kept splitting open,” said race horse trainer John Kimmel, referring to the V-shaped pliable support structure on the bottom of the hoof. “It wasn’t perfect when he ran in the Pennsylvania Derby. In the winner’s circle, I was like, ‘Where’s that blood coming from?’ He had torn the rest of it off. Every time it grew out, which took two months, it would split again, so it was very frustrating.”
“So I called Dr. Scott Morrison from Rood and Riddle (Equine Hospital) in Kentucky, and he came down (to Florida) in January after he had run that clunky race.” John Kimmel continued. “It looked okay, but it was still bothering him. He cauterized it and designed a shoe for him; basically, he’s been taking care of it on a monthly basis. Now, it looks perfect.”
Timber Reserve has been training very well at Belmont Park and could be a factor on the lead, along with wet-weather specialist Tasteyville.
“Unfortunately, everyone thinks of the division as being a little bit on the soft side,” John Kimmel said. “Sure, we would have liked to have had a prep, but we figure we’ll use this, maybe get a race under his belt, and maybe come back in the Woodward. This horse runs very good fresh. He’s a beautiful horse, very impressive looking. I think he’s a horse that’s capable of taking it up a notch from where he was last year whether it’s this Saturday or some Saturday in the future.”
Grade 1 winner Student Council, third-place Suburban finisher Rising Moon, Donn Handicap (G1) runner-up A.P. Arrow and stablemate, Cowtown Cal, a Grade 2 winner; Grade 3 Salvator Mile winner Notional and Grasshopper, runner-up to Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense in last year’s Travers Stakes are all dangerous players, especially if the pace becomes too hot up front.
And, finally, Hall of Fame race horse trainer H. Allen Jerkens, the “Giant Killer” whose most famous upset was with Onion in the 1973 Whitney, when he beat Triple Crown winner Secretariat, has entered Merchant Marine. A 4-year-old Tiznow gelding, Merchant Marine will carry 113 pounds, getting a seven-pound break from Commentator.
The Whitney Handicap is the 10th of 11 horse races in Saratoga’s July 26 card. Whitney Handicap post time is 5:46 pm Eastern.
Horse racing news edited from www.nyra.com.
Horse racing tags: A. P. Arrow, Commentator, Cowtown Cat, Grasshopper, Merchant Marine, Notional, Rising Moon, Solar Flare, Student Council, Tasteyville, Timber Reserve
"Breeders’ Cup Challenge: Whitney Handicap at Saratoga on Saturday, July 26" was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 8:22 pm and is filed under Horse Racing Industry, Horses, Race Tracks News, Saratoga, Stakes Races, USA Horse Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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