Bolshoi Ballet faces new challenge in Saratoga Derby

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Bolshoi Ballet, winner of the Grade 1 Belmont Derby last month at Belmont Park, has made a return trip from Ireland to head an 11-horse field entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Saratoga Derby Invitational.

The Saratoga Derby is run at 1 3/16 miles and around a tighter-turned course than the 1 1/4-mile Belmont Derby, run around the wide, sweeping turns of Belmont Park.

“It’s not ideal,” T.J. Comerford, assistant to trainer Aidan O’Brien, said of the different configuration of this race. “But he got the job done well the last time. He can jump a lot smarter than he did the last time. He was a bit slow into stride.”

Bolshoi Ballet will meet several new rivals in the Saratoga Derby. Belmont Derby third- and fourth-place finishers Cellist and Du Jour are the only horses entered back in this field.

Among the new faces are Cadillac, a son of Lope de Vega trained by Jessica Harrington. He outdueled the 4-year-old Dawn Patrol by a nose to win the Group 3 ARM Holding International Stakes at the Curragh on June 26 in his only start at 3. That was Cadillac’s first start since he finished fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Keeneland last November. Cadillac won the Group 2 KPMG Champions Juvenile Stakes last September.

Secret Protector, third in a Group 3 last out for Charlie Appleby, and State of Rest, trained by Joseph O’Brien, also are in from Europe. Solider Rising, who went 2 for 4 for Andre Fabre in France, has been in the barn of trainer Christophe Clement since mid-May.

Flashiest, King Fury, Palazzi, and Yes This Time complete the field.