When the $1.25 million Travers Stakes (G1) rolls around on Aug. 26, stablemates Forte and Tapit Trice will be competing against each other for the top prize in the Midsummer Derby.
On Aug. 10, they were working together at Saratoga Race Course.
The two colts breezed in company after the break at 8:45 a.m. ET. Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr, Forte’s regular rider, was in the saddle and exercise rider Fernando Rivera was with Tapit Trice. They both were clocked in 48.33 seconds for the four-furlong work.
“I was a little anxious about that,” Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher said back at the barn when asked about the two stakes caliber horses working together. “But they are both pointed to the same race and they needed similar works. It went smoothly.”
Forte, owned by Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable, has won seven of nine career starts, the latest being the Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) at Saratoga July 29. Tapit Trice won Keeneland‘s Blue Grass Stakes (G1) and was last seen finishing fifth in the Haskell Stakes (G1) at Monmouth Park July 22.
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Ortiz said Forte, a son of Violence , completed his work in his usual workmanlike way.
“He loves the competition,” Ortiz said. “It takes him a few strides to get going, but he always responds.”
Pletcher is hopeful that Tapit Trice, a son of Tapit , will get more involved early in the Travers, something he has lacked in recent races.
“He reacts well to the doors opening,” Pletcher said. “He just doesn’t get away from the gate quickly and I think that has compromised his chances in a couple of races.”
Pletcher also had his star 4-year-old filly Nest out for a work, her first since winning the Shuvee Stakes (G2) July 23. That was the first start for the daughter of Curlin in eight months.
Nest was clocked going a half-mile in 49.44 seconds while working in company with 2-year-old filly Sister Maha . Nest was ridden by exercise rider Nora McCormack. Owned by Repole Stable, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Michael House, Nest is on target for a start in the $500,000 Personal Ensign (G1) at Saratoga Aug. 25.
“That race (Shuvee) took nothing out of her,” McCormack said. “She feels really good and she has a bit of sass to her. I mean, she gets (ticked) off when she doesn’t get to breeze.”
Pletcher laughed when told of that. He wasn’t disagreeing.
“Today has been her scheduled day for a few days and I think she was hoping it was a few days ago,” Pletcher said. “She is relaxed, but competitive. She was impressive. Everything she does seems to come pretty easy to her. I am amazed the way she maintains her fitness and the way she comes out of her races.”
Lost Turf Races Continue to Mount
In a meet that has seen rain slickers become part of fashionable wardrobes, the impact of extended days of wet weather took its toll on another day of racing Aug. 10 as five scheduled turf races were moved to the main track.
Those changes brought the total of races taken off the turf courses and moved to the main track to 35 through 21 days of racing at the 40-day meet. That figure does not include a turf stakes that was postponed and two cancelled turf races as well as a cancelled steeplechase race.
Last year, only five races came off the turf in the first 21 days of the meet.
Dampening the situation even more, weather forecasts for Thursday evening are calling for thunderstorms. That could have a major impact on the Aug. 11 card which features five turf races, including the $500,000 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes (G2T), the aforementioned 3-year-old turf stakes which was cancelled due to heavy rain Aug. 4 and moved to Friday’s card.
The final four races on Aug. 4 were not contested, three of them scheduled for turf.
While mostly sunny conditions are expected for Friday, forecasts for Aug. 12 include the possibility of afternoon or evening thunderstorms. The featured race on Saturday is the $500,000 Fourstardave Handicap (G1T), a mile turf race.
Thursday’s loss of turf racing marks the fifth straight racing day some or all of the grass races were moved or cancelled.
Callie’s Passion Adds to Callie Witt’s Legacy
The memories of Callie Witt were once again rekindled in the winner’s circle Aug. 9 when another horse named after the late exercise rider prevailed in the fifth race at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
Callie’s Passion breaks her maiden Aug. 9 at Horseshoe Indianapolis
The win by the 3-year-old Callie’s Passion came on the heels of a July 29 victory by Callie’s Grit in the 12th race at Saratoga.
In paying tribute to Witt, who died in a tragic April 2022 fall, trainer Joe Sharp and owners Brad Grady and Carl Moore decided to name some fillies after her. Callie’s Grit’s win at the Spa was the first victory by one of those fillies.
The first to race was the 3-year-old Callie’s Passion, a daughter of Outwork who was claimed May 19 by owner Matthew Leander Lampe and trainer Lance Rutledge for $30,000 in her third career start. Wednesday’s 7 1/2-length win in a maiden special weight race at 14-1 odds was the filly’s third start under the banner of Full Circle 2020.
Just like the victory by Callie’s Grit, Wednesday’s race was originally scheduled for turf and moved to the main track.
“It’s been a good two weeks for (Callie’s) string of horses,” said Tim Witt, Callie’s father.
Played Hard Gets Serious in Latest Work
It has been a little bit of a rocky road for trainer Phil Bauer’s 5-year-old mare Played Hard .
First, the daughter of Into Mischief missed the Shuvee Stakes (G2) after spiking a temperature. Bauer has been pointing Played Hard to the $500,000 Personal Ensign (G1) at the Spa on Aug. 25.
Last week, Played Hard’s work had to be aborted when a rider on another horse on the main track fell near the wire and Bauer’s horse and exercise rider Santos Rivera had to pull up at the eighth-pole.
On Aug. 10, things got back to normal as Played Hard and Santos worked five furlongs in 1:00.05. She was working with stablemate Warrior Johny , a 4-year-old gelding who got the distance in 1:01.14.
“We intended the breeze today to be a serious one,” Bauer said while watching Played Hard cool out at his barn at the Oklahoma Training Track. “I needed to figure out where we were after the missed time last week.”
Bauer figured this work would determine whether or not he felt Played Hard would remain on target for the Personal Ensign.
“I think so,” Bauer said. “I will talk with the owners (Richard and Tammy Rigney), send them a video of the work, and we’ll go from there. I think we got plenty out of this.”
Bauer said he wanted Played Hard to have to work hard and that’s why he put her with Warrior Johny.
“We set her off a good horse that we knew could work well,” Bauer said. “We needed to get a gauge on her fitness level. She is doing great.”
Played Hard has won six of 16 career starts. This year, she won the La Troienne Stakes (G1) at Churchill Downs on May 5 and then was third in the Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park on June 10.
Played Hard and John Velazquez after winning the La Troienne at Churchill Downs
In the Phipps, Played Hard could not hold off the hard charge of Clairiere , who won the race.
Bauer was hoping for a big effort in the Shuvee, which was won by Nest . Then, Played Hard’s temperature spiked.
“It was disappointing, especially the way the race was setting up with her being the controlling pace,” he said. “It’s always dejecting when plans don’t go to fruition, but it’s horse racing and it seems like there is always a moving target. We have a lot of year ahead of us.”
2021 Schuylerville Stakes Winner Pretty Birdie Retired
Marylou Whitney Stables’ graded stakes winning Kentucky homebred Pretty Birdie has been retired, trainer Norm Casse told New York Racing Association publicity.
The 4-year-old Bird Song gray or roan filly captured the 2021 Schuylerville Stakes (G3) as the highlight of a 13-race career in which she posted a record of 4-3-1 for purse earnings of $521,488. Her ledger includes a pair of stakes wins last year at Oaklawn Park in the Purple Martin Stakes and Poinsettia Stakes along with a strong second in the Eight Belles Stakes (G2) at Churchill Downs.
Pretty Birdie wins the Schuylerville Stakes at Saratoga
Pretty Birdie made four starts this year, hitting the board twice before a last-out seventh in her turf debut June 16 at Ellis Park.
“We tried her on turf one time and it seemed like she didn’t appreciate that, so we decided it’s time for her to be a mom. She doesn’t owe us anything and we’re proud of what we were able to accomplish with her,” Casse told the NYRA publicity team.
Casse said he is already looking forward to seeing Pretty Birdie’s progeny take flight. She is out of the Street Sense mare Bird Sense , a half-sister to the graded stakes-placed Bird Maker and stakes-placed Cheechako .
“One of the coolest things about training for the Marylou Whitney Stable is that they breed to race,” Casse added track publicity. “Now, two or three years down the line, I’ll be training the babies of the horses that I’ve trained. Not too many ownership groups are doing it like that anymore and I’m proud of that.”
The NYRA Press Office contributed the item on Pretty Birdie.
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