Attractive matchup looming in Hopeful

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Following I Spent It’s victory in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special on Aug. 10, trainer Tony Dutrow’s initial inclination was to skip the Hopeful Stakes and give the colt more time ahead of the Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont Park on Oct. 4.

But in the three weeks since the Saratoga Special, Dutrow has gradually changed his mind. On Friday, he sounded as though I Spent It would indeed run in Monday’s Grade 1, $350,000 Hopeful, setting up a closing-day showdown with the impressive maiden winner Competitive Edge.

“It’s looking like right now we’re running,” Dutrow said Friday as I Spent It jogged once around the Oklahoma training track. “There’s nothing in this horse’s way of racing. After witnessing his workout, after seeing the field – not that I don’t respect [Competitive Edge and Requite] – but I’m reconsidering and thinking of running.”

I Spent It, a son of Super Saver, is 2 for 2, having won a maiden race at Belmont on July 2 and then the Saratoga Special, squeezing through a narrow opening along the rail and drawing clear to win by 2 3/4 lengths.

I Spent It came back and worked an effortless five furlongs in 59.91 seconds Tuesday.

“I don’t want to give him another three or four workouts getting him ready for the Champagne,” Dutrow said. “I don’t want to breeze the horse every eight or 10 days in 59.”

Dutrow, the son of the late trainer Richard Dutrow Sr., noted that different horsemen would have different philosophies about running a horse back in three weeks.

“If Bobby Frankel were training this horse, he’d wait for the Champagne,” Dutrow said. “If my dad were running the horse, I think my dad would run in the Hopeful.”

I Spent It would vie for favoritism in the Hopeful with Competitive Edge, a Todd Pletcher-trained son of Super Saver who won his debut by 10 1/4 lengths on July 26.

Pletcher complimented I Spent It, whom he called, “a really good horse.”

“I was very impressed by his Saratoga Special,” Pletcher said. “Overcame some adversity and ran like a seasoned pro. I wish he weren’t in there, but I like our horse, too.”

Competitive Edge drew post 7, while I Spent It will break from post 5. Others entered were Requite, a sharp debut winner here; Dekabrist, a minor stakes winner who is coupled with the maiden Maratik; and maidens Sharm and Signature Cat.