Bernard Baruch matches promising Good Governance against razor-sharp Halladay

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Good Governance has star quality. Halladay is in career form. Sunday, the two 4-year-olds offer each other a stern test in the Grade 2, $200,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap, scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on turf at Saratoga.

Good Governance, a 4-year-old Great Britain-bred son of Kingman, has run only three times. He debuted last Aug. 4 here, winning a maiden race despite breaking from post 10 in an 11-horse field and getting floated extremely wide into the first turn.

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Trainer Chad Brown wheeled him back 27 days later in the Grade 3 Saranac where he got outfinished by Global Access, losing by a neck. Global Access came back to win the Grade 3 Ontario Derby at Woodbine but has not raced since.

A foot injury sidelined Good Governance and he didn’t make his 4-year-old debut until June 26 at Belmont Park, where he won a first-level allowance race as easy as he pleased.

“He couldn’t have possibly run better,” said Brown, who trains Good Governance for Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables. “I thought it was a terrific race. It should set him up well for this.”

Good Governance, who will be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., seems versatile enough to adapt to any type of pace scenario.

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Halladay, however, does his best running when forwardly placed. A son of War Front trained by Todd Pletcher, Halladay is coming off two victories at Gulfstream Park, an allowance and the Sunshine Forever Stakes, in which he earned the first two triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures of his career.

“I think he really found himself the last couple of starts,” Pletcher said. “He seems to be improving all the time. He’s trained every bit as well for this race as he has for those. I guess my main concern at this point is the turf course doesn’t seem like it’s playing particularly kind to horses that are on the lead or close to it.”

Luis Saez rides Halladay from post 6.

Halladay may have to spar with Somelikeithotbrown on the lead. Since winning a 1 1/8-mile maiden race here from off the pace as a 2-year-old, Somelikeithotbrown seems to have done his better running close to the pace.

Somelikeithotbrown is trained by Mike Maker, who also sends out Mr Dumas, a third-level allowance winner two back.

Last year, Brown sent out Olympico as the favorite in the Bernard Baruch. A closer, he had no pace to run at and simply didn’t fire, finishing fifth. Olympico runs Sunday for the first time since finishing second to Lucullan in last October’s Grade 2 Knickerbocker Stakes at Belmont.

“He’s been ready to run for a while, just trying to find the right race for him,” Brown said. “On paper, it looks a tick short. He ran in this race last year, no pace and it was also soft turf. He seems to run better on the firm.”

Seismic Wave, second to Social Paranoia in the Grade 3 Poker at Belmont on July 4, was only beaten a length behind Good Governance when finishing third in last summer’s Saranac.

The Bernard Baruch goes as race 9 on a 10-race card that begins at 1:10 p.m. Eastern.