Abaan brings four-race win streak to Beverly R. Steinman Hurdle Handicap

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Abaan has made the transition from a multiple stakes winner on the flat to one over jumps. Sunday, the 7-year-old gelding takes on his toughest challenge to date in the Grade 1, $150,000 Beverly R. Steinman Hurdle Handicap at Saratoga.

The Steinman, at 2 3/8 miles over National fences, honors the longtime owner who had successful runners over both jumps and on the flat. Steeplechaser Dark Equation won the Grade 1 New York Turf Writers’ Cup. Colstar was a multiple graded stakes-winning filly who earned more than $1 million.

Abaan, a Grade 3 winner on the flat, has won 4 of 5 starts over the jumps and is on a four-race win streak for trainer Kate Dalton.

“He’s really enjoying jumping, he’s thriving with it,” Dalton said. “He’s a very smart horse and jumping keeps him thinking.”

Unfortunately, Abaan’s success has led him to be the 158-pound highweight in this eight-horse field. He is conceding from 6 to 14 pounds to the field.

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“Being highweight is kind of a big deal for a relatively inexperienced horse and giving weight to runners with more jump experience,” Dalton said. “It’s a big challenge, but we’re hoping he can rise to it.”

Abaan’s flat success should serve him well as the last half-mile of the race is run without a fence.

“If being highweight dulls his turn of foot, it works against us,” Dalton said.

Freddy Flintshire has not run since he finished third in the Grade 1 A.P. Smithwick here last July. Trainer Keri Brion said the horse had a chip removed from an ankle shortly thereafter.

When it was announced in March that the New York Racing Association was adding this race to the steeplechase schedule, Brion said she wanted to point Freddy Flintshire to it because of his previous solid runs over the course.

Brion got Freddy Flintshire a point-to-point race – a non NSA-sanctioned flat race a few weeks ago – to help with fitness.

“He’s a real serious horse,” Brion said. “He won that point-to-point race by open lengths. It’s not as hard up here coming off a layoff because you’re not running up and down hills.”

Brion also starts Jimmy P, who finished second to Awakened in the Grade 1 Jonathan Sheppard here last summer. His lone start this year came in the Grade 1 Iroquois, where he finished last of six.

“I would draw a line through the Iroquois, it was a three-mile race at level weights,” Brion said.

Brion ran Jimmy P in that race after having to scratch from a different race owing to visa problems with the rider she had named for that spot.

Rampoldi Plan, trained by Leslie Young, comes in off a win in the Grade 1 Commonwealth Cup at Great Meadows. Sheppard winner Awakened finished fourth as the favorite in the Commonwealth and is in this field Sunday.

West Newton, Proven Innocent, and Gordon’s Jet complete the field.

The Steinman goes as the first race on a 12-race card that begins at 12:50 p.m. and brings to a conclusion the four-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival.

Following Sunday’s card, racing returns to Aqueduct on Friday for four weeks through July 7.

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