Pletcher Hopes to Make a Haul in Saratoga Special

The Triple Crown season is fun. The Breeders’ Cup, well that’s a blast, too.

Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher gets jazzed up for those, of course.

Perhaps the best time of the year for him and his barn is right now. That’s because the babies, the 2-year-olds, are starting to show their stuff. And, when they’re good, it makes for a hot town in the summer in the city.

“To me, it’s the most exciting part of our job,” Pletcher said outside his barn at the Oklahoma Training Track on the morning of Aug. 9. “Just trying to figure out which 2-year-olds will turn out to be good … when you are starting to develop some of them and it always keeps you hopeful for good things down the road.”

Pletcher might be an excitable man come Aug. 12 when the $200,000 Saratoga Special Stakes (G2) is run as the eighth race on the 11-race card at Saratoga Race Course.

A field of six 2-year-old colts have been entered for the 6 1/2-furlong race, the second graded stakes race for the baby boys of the Spa meet.

Pletcher saddles Haul , a son ofArmy Mule , and he hopes he can take the second step.

He passed the first one when he broke his maiden at first asking July 9 at Belmont Park, winning by three lengths with Irad Ortiz Jr., who will be back on board.

“This has been the plan since the maiden win,” Pletcher said. “He trained very professionally before his debut and ran very professionally. Yes, we expected a good effort from him.”

Haul is owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and St. Elias Stable. When he won his debut, he did it at 5 1/2 furlongs.

“I don’t know if he is a mile and a quarter horse, per se, but I don’t see him having trouble with 6 1/2,” Pletcher said.

Pletcher’s mentor, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, is also bullish on a 2-year-old of his own in Les Wagner’s Market Street . A son of Street Sense , Market Street broke his maiden at Ellis Park by 3 3/4 lengths June 29 but then was sixth in the Sanford Stakes (G3) July 15.

Market Street, a $275,000 purchase at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, will be ridden by apprentice Jaime Torres.

“He did not have the trip he probably needed in that race,” Lukas said, sitting behind his desk in his office at the Oklahoma.

Market Street stumbled out of the gate in the Sanford but was prominent until fading late.

“He got a little tired,” Lukas said. “I am just trying to find out a little about him.”

Also entered are Lasso , who won his debut at Gulfstream Park by 3 1/2 lengths June 3 for trainer Juan Alvarado and jockey Edgard Zayas; Woodcourt , who will be making his first start for Brendan Walsh after breaking his maiden at Ellis by 1 1/4 lengths for trainer John Ennis; Edified , who will go for Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen after breaking his maiden at Ellis by 3 1/2 lengths July 1 and the Norm Casse-trained Rhyme Schemes , a snappy 9 1/2-length maiden winner at Ellis in his second start June 15.