Aqueduct: Samraat likely to skip Gotham Stakes after Withers win

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The rematch will have to wait.

Trainer Rick Violette said Sunday that Withers Stakes winner Samraat most likely will skip the Grade 3, $500,000 Gotham here on March 1 and have just one more race between now and the May 3 Kentucky Derby. Among the options are the Louisiana Derby and Florida Derby – both on March 29 – or the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 5. Samraat, who spent most of the fall at Aqueduct, did win an allowance race over the main track.

Meanwhile, trainer Gary Contessa said Withers runner-up Uncle Sigh will be pointed to the Gotham. The Gotham, like the Withers, is run over the inner track at 1 1/16 miles.

Both trainers felt the Withers proved that their New York-breds belong on the Triple Crown trail after a 1 1/16-mile-long battle in the Withers, in which Samraat edged away late to beat Uncle Sigh by a length. It was 10 1/4 lengths back to third-place finisher Scotland.

Samraat received a 94 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort, with Uncle Sigh getting a 92.

Violette, who noted that Samraat did not change leads in the stretch, said Samraat “came out of it tired. He deserved to be.”

[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]

Samraat will be flown to south Florida midweek and train at the Palm Meadows training center leading up to his next start. Violette shipped Samraat to Palm Meadows following his 16 3/4-length victory in the Damon Runyon here Dec. 18.

Violette said he would nominate Samraat to the Gotham, but, unless the colt was “kicking the walls down,” he didn’t expect to run him back in four weeks off “a gut-wrenching victory.”

He did say the Withers was a performance that “nice horses are supposed to move forward from.”

At Belmont on Sunday, Contessa said Uncle Sigh was “at the front of the stall looking for people to play with.” Uncle Sigh entered the Withers off just two races, including a 14 1/2-length maiden victory Dec. 27. Contessa called the Withers “a good experience-builder for him.”

Contessa said he felt Uncle Sigh was waiting on Samraat a little bit, noting that jockey Pablo Morales was tapping him with the whip at the three-eighths pole and again at the quarter pole.

“If I had any guts, I’d put blinkers on that horse, but I don’t – I’m getting too old,” Contessa said. “[If] I put blinkers on him and he gets beat 20 in the Gotham, I’ll never hear the end of it.

“He kept waiting on that horse, kept waiting on that horse, and when that horse gets to him, he digs in and runs,” Contessa added. “He really is a wannabe racehorse, and we’re going to have some fun with him as he matures a little bit.”