Absence of back-to-back winner leaves Sheppard wide open
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – With Jimmy P, the two-time winner of the Grade 1 Jonathan Sheppard Steeplechase at Saratoga, sidelined by injury, Wednesday’s running of the $150,000 Sheppard at 2 3/8 miles appears to be a wide-open affair.
Trainer Ricky Hendriks has a solid one-two punch in Coutach and Little Trilby, the third- and fourth-place finishers, respectively, from the Grade 1 Beverly Steinman Steeplechase run here in June.
Coutach, who had won the Green Pastures from off the pace at Percy Warner in May, got a bit headstrong early in the Steinman and opened a 16-length advantage before ultimately getting passed and finishing 18 lengths back of Jimmy P.
“It’s one of those things that didn’t go to plan,” Hendriks said. “He got bounced around at the first fence and he just took off. We’re going to try different tactics, take him back this time and make a run with him.”
In the Steinman, Coutach was running back in four weeks. Now, he has three months between races.
“We gave him a little bit of a rest; he’s had a couple of nice works on the farm,” said Hendriks, who has won this race as a jockey and twice as a trainer when it was known as the New York Turf Writers Cup. “Conor [Tierney] worked him on Saturday and he worked very well.”
Tierney rides Little Trilby for Hendriks in the Sheppard. Dan Nevin will ride Coutach.
Little Trilby won the Grade 1 Commonwealth Cup at Great Meadows on May 2 but ran fourth all the way around the course in the Steinman.
“He ran a huge race the first time out this spring, maybe it took more out of him than we thought it did,” Hendriks said. “If he runs his race, he should be tough. Last year, he ran a real big race when he won the [Michael Walsh] Novice Stakes up there.”
Keri Brion, the trainer of Jimmy P, said the two-time Sheppard winner had a minor setback that will force him to miss the remainder of this year, but she said the plan is to bring him back as a 9-year-old in 2027.
Brion, who is winless with 26 starters this meet, sends out Siennois, a 5-year-old gelding who has won two of three steeplechase races. He is running back in 20 days off a 5 1/4-length allowance win at Colonial Downs.
When Siennois got beat at Fair Hill in May, he was found to have a sarcoid, a non-malignant tumor, on his stifle that burst open. He had to have that removed.
“That’s why he had a bit of time between Fair Hill and Colonial,” Brion said. “He’s definitely good.”
Siennois was purchased out of a digital sale for $65,000 in December. Prior to that, he was racing over the flats at Del Mar for Phil D’Amato. Flat form is key to steeplechase racing at Saratoga as the last three furlongs of the race are run without a fence.
Smart Uncle, trained by Jack Fisher, took advantage of a 16-pound weight concession to beat Fil Dor by a half-length in the Smithwick. Wednesday, Smart Uncle picks up eight pounds and carries 150 pounds. He is only conceding weight to two of his six rivals.
L’Imperator, trained by Arch Kingsley, is the 156-pound highweight. He won the Grade 1 Steinman here in 2024 for his lone win from seven starts that year. In his only race over the last two years, L’Imperator finished last in a flat turf allowance just 10 days ago. Kingsley also sends out Sweet Will, the field’s low weight at 140. He finished fifth of seventh in the Leo O’Brien here on July 5.
Mr Percy comes into the Sheppard off a win in the Jonathan Kiser Memorial Steeplechase on July 16.
◗ There are a pair of third-level/optional $110,000 claiming races that serve as the flat co-features on Wednesday’s nine-race card.
In the third, for males at seven furlongs, Pentathlon drops in class after finishing sixth to Hymn in the De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel Park in June. Hymn came back to win Saturday’s Grade 1 Forego.
Pentathlon should get a nice setup. He will be ridden by Samuel Marin who is preparing for a move to New York when Belmont Park opens on Sept. 18. Marin won aboard Pentathlon at Tampa Bay Downs earlier in the year.
In race 4, for females at six furlongs, Senza Parole comes in off a runner-up finish behind Beauty Reigns in this same condition on July 23. Before that, Senza Parole was third behind Ways and Means in the Grade 2 Bed o’ Roses. Ways and Means was first and Beauty Reigns third in last Saturday’s Grade 1 Ballerina.
Strong State seeks her fourth win at Saratoga for trainer Al Stall Jr.
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