Angel of Empire off for remainder of the year, will return in 2024
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Angel of Empire, the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby winner who finished third as the favorite in the Kentucky Derby, will get the remainder of the year off and point to a 4-year-old campaign, trainer Brad Cox said Friday.
Cox said that after training Angel of Empire for a week following his third-place finish in the Jim Dandy, the horse gave indications he was in need of a freshening.
“He’s a horse that’s asking for time and he’s going to get it,” Cox said. “He’s been very good to us, we’re going to be good to him. This gives us an opportunity to hit the reset button and get him ready for a 2024 campaign.”
Cox said Angel of Empire would head to WinStar Farm on Saturday for his break.
Angel of Empire, a son of Classic Empire owned by the Albaugh Family Stable, has been going strong since last November, when he won an allowance at Horseshoe Indianapolis. He was second in the Smarty Jones, won the Risen Star and Arkansas Derby before finishing third in the Kentucky Derby, in a dead-heat for fourth with stablemate Hit Show in the Belmont Stakes, and third in the Jim Dandy.
“He’s danced a lot of dances, played in two-thirds of the Triple Crown, and came up here and I thought ran a tremendous race in the Jim Dandy,” Cox said.
Cox said Hit Show, who finished fifth in the Jim Dandy after his fifth in the Kentucky Derby and fourth in the Belmont, is under consideration for the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby on Sept. 24 at Remington Park.
Gaffalione to serve suspension
Tyler Gaffalione, in the midst of a super Saratoga season, will sit out Wednesday through Friday, after dropping an appeal of a careless riding suspension handed him by the stewards.
Gaffalione was cited for his ride on Hero’s Medal in the second race on July 14. That horse bumped two foes in the stretch, and the stewards disqualified Hero’s Medal from fourth and placed him sixth.
Gaffalione, who rode three winners on Thursday, has 19 wins from 102 mounts at the meet, good enough for fourth in the standings. He surpassed his win total (17) from last year’s meet. In 2021, he won 33 races from 220 mounts here, good enough for sixth in the standings.
Gaffalione was named on 10 horses Friday – coincidentally Hero’s Medal being one of them – and was scheduled to ride at Colonial Downs on Saturday before returning Sunday to Saratoga, where he is named on five horses.
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