Arrogate 2-year-old makes debut

As the late champion Arrogate’s legacy as a sire continues to grow, Saratoga Secret is set to become another of the early starters from his final crop in Friday’s second race at Ellis, a $120,000 maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies.

Saratoga Secret, trained by D. Wayne Lukas for BC Stables, was a $200,000 purchase at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale. She will have Luis Saez aboard in the field of eight first-time starters.

Arrogate, elected to the Hall of Fame this year in his first year of eligibility, died in 2020, leaving just three crops behind. His first two crops are led by this year’s Belmont Stakes winner Arcangelo, Lukas’s 2022 Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Oath, and Grade 1 winners And Tell Me Nolies, Cave Rock, and Fun to Dream.

Arrogate’s final crop has been in demand at this year’s 2-year-old sales, with multiple seven-figure lots on the season. Liberal Arts became the first starter from this crop last month, finishing third on debut at Churchill Downs.

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Friday’s card also includes a $127,000 allowance, a $134,000 allowance/optional claimer, and a $120,000 maiden special weight for older horses.

Rhyme Schemes dazzles

Rhyme Schemes dazzled with a dominant maiden victory last Thursday at Ellis, stamping himself as a potential favorite for the $225,000 Bashford Manor Stakes on July 2 at that track.

Rhyme Schemes, by Ghostzapper, was sixth on debut May 18 at Churchill Downs,but moved forward in his second start. The colt was a 9 1/2-length winner, running 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:02.82, .51 of a second off the track record set by Spycraft in 2021. His performance earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 94, a dazzling number for this point of the year.

“We’ve gone about training our 2-year-olds a little bit differently this year than previous years,” Norm Casse, who trains the colt for Pura Vida Investments, told the Ellis Park publicity staff. “This was Rhyme Schemes’s second start, and we haven’t really cranked up any of our 2-year-olds going into their debut. We’ve been using their first start to build on their fitness. So, it was extremely impressive the way this horse won. We added blinkers for his second start, and they seemed to help a lot as well.”

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