Artorius comfortable winner of Curlin Stakes, will move on to Travers
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Chad Brown on Friday kicked off what he hopes is a successful 24-hour period with his 3-year-old dirt horses at Saratoga when Artorius drew away from seven rivals in the stretch to win the $135,000 Curlin Stakes by 4 3/4 lengths.
Gilded Age, second-to-last for the opening half-mile, rallied to get second, 1 1/2 lengths clear of favored Creative Minister.
A. P.’s Secret, the pacesetter, finished fourth and was followed, in order, by Western River, Golden Glider, Make It Big, and Be Better. Wolfe County scratched to run in a starter allowance here on Saturday.
The win for Artorius came a day before Brown sends out Preakness winner Early Voting and Kentucky Derby third-place finisher Zandon in Saturday’s Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy. Both races lead to the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes here on Aug. 27.
V. E. Day, in 2014, is the only one of 12 previous Curlin Stakes winners to come back and win the Travers.
This year’s Travers will be run six years to the day that Arrogate set a track record for 1 1/4 miles winning the race by 13 1/2 lengths. Artorius is a son of Arrogate and the first foal out of the nine-time stakes-winning mare Paulassilverlining.
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“I know the mother was a seven-furlong horse, what a brilliant mating to the great Arrogate by Juddmonte to put some speed into a really classic distance horse like Arrogate and I think we have a really special one here as the result of it,” Brown said.
Brown also tipped his hat to jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., who maneuvered Artorius from the outside post to the rail by the time the field was on the clubhouse turn. Ortiz kept his inside position down the backstretch while steadily advancing to the leaders. Approaching the quarter pole, Ortiz maneuvered Artorius to the outside of A. P.’s Secret, overtook that one at the three-sixteenths pole, and drew off for the convincing score.
“I blinked and he was on the rail already,” Brown said. “Hats off to him, brilliant ride by him. When he made it to the fence on the first turn and he grabbed the bit and got comfortable, honestly, I knew the race was over at that point.”
Artorius covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:50.34 and returned $7.40 as the second choice.
Ortiz said Brown told him to save as much ground as he could on both turns and “I just followed instructions,” Ortiz said.
“My horse broke okay, so I was able to come over fast,” said Ortiz, who said he knew the inside two horses, Western River and Gilded Age, didn’t have much speed. “The other horses went out ahead of me and I was able to drop in that quick,” Ortiz added. “From there, I got a perfect trip.”
While Brown said Artorius will be pointed to the Travers, Bill Mott said he will strongly consider it with Gilded Age, who was four wide down the backstretch and six wide in the lane but kept persevering to get second.
“You’ve got to consider where would you go or could you go, so I guess you’d have to consider it,” Mott said. “He ran a super good race. We had no excuse. He made a good run, wasn’t any threat to the winner, but he got by the rest of them and he was still coming, coming, coming.”
Ken McPeek, the trainer of favored Creative Minister, felt his horse would “show a little more punch late.” He seemed to discount the Travers for his next start.
“We’ll find him a spot,” McPeek said. “Maybe not the Travers.”