Annapolis brings big promise and undefeated record into Penn Mile
Annapolis, unbeaten from two starts last year for trainer Todd Pletcher, makes his seasonal debut Friday in Penn National’s Grade 2, $400,000 Penn Mile for 3-year-olds on turf.
The Penn Mile is the marquee race on a strong card that includes five other stakes, including the $150,000 Penn Oaks for 3-year-old fillies.
A homebred owned by Bass Stables, Annapolis is by War Front out of Grade 2 winner My Miss Sophia. He captured his debut on Sept. 4 at Saratoga before gamely scoring in the Grade 2 Pilgrim on Oct. 3 at Belmont.
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“We expected good things from him,” Pletcher said Tuesday morning. “He’s impeccably bred, and both of his starts were promising.”
Annapolis was considered one of the favorites for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, but missed the race due to a hind ankle chip that required surgery.
“It needed a little cleanup,” Pletcher said. “He responded perfectly and hasn’t missed a beat since he’s come back.”
Pletcher is hoping that jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. can “secure a good spot from the inside, hopefully save a little ground, and find a little seam when he needs it.”
Red Danger, a multiple stakes winner at 2 for trainer Brian Lynch, enters the Penn Mile after a seventh-place finish in the Grade 2 American Turf going 1 1/16 miles at Churchill.
“I think 1 1/16 miles is a bit of a stretch,” Lynch admitted. “I think the mile hits him right between the eyes.”
Red Danger was close to a fast pace in the American Turf, but Lynch believes “there’s enough pace where he can sit in the second tier of horses and make one run at them.”
Fort Washington earned stakes placings in both of his 2022 starts, the Columbia on March 12 at Tampa Bay and the Woodhaven on April 23 at Aqueduct.
“He just needed to learn,” trainer Shug McGaughey said. “He’s come along. He’s not all the way there, but I liked the way he breezed [Sunday] and this looks like a good spot for him.”
McGaughey believes Fort Washington might thrive at longer distances in the future.
Witty, a multiple stakes winner sprinting on dirt for trainer McLane Hendriks, makes his turf debut with a strong pedigree. He is a half-brother to Grade 3-winning turf sprinter Caravel. The Penn Mile will be Witty’s first race since he captured the Spectacular Bid on Jan. 29 at Laurel by 7 3/4 lengths.
“We just gave him a little break,” Hendriks said. “He was a big 2-year-old, kind of overdeveloped. He’s a gelding, so we want him to have a long career and didn’t want to keep pounding on him. I think he’s as good as he’s ever been.”
The potential speed of the race is Uncaptured Spirit, who was involved in an enervating pace duel before finishing fourth in the James W. Murphy on May 21 at Pimlico.
“I thought we would have an easy lead that day,” trainer Mark Shuman said. “But that other horse shot after us. When it was happening, I might have been saying a few choice words.”
Wow Whata Summer, Ohtwoohthreefive, and Noneedtoworry also entered.