Chancer McPatrick wakes up in Curlin, stays unbeaten on dry tracks at the Spa
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - At the quarter pole of Thursday’s Curlin Stakes at Saratoga, after odds-on favorite Strategic Focus took the lead from the pacesetting Crudo, Chad Brown, the trainer of Strategic Focus, was already starting to think about the Travers Stakes.
Brown may still be thinking about the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers on Aug. 23, it just may be with a different horse.
Chancer McPatrick, a multiple Grade 1 winner around one turn at 2 who lost his way at 3, found his winning form, rallying in the stretch and then re-rallying after briefly losing lead to win the $135,000 Curlin by a head over So Sandy. It was a half-length back to Strategic Focus in third.
Crudo finished fourth 5 1/4 lengths further back and was followed by Fountain Lake and Hypnus. Just a Fair Shake and Uncaged both scratched.
Brown entered Chancer McPatrick - winless in three starts this year - in the 1 1/8-mile Curlin because he preferred that option over Friday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Amsterdam Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs. The Curlin was Chancer McPatrick’s first win around two turns, but his third from four starts at Saratoga. His lone defeat here came in the Woody Stephens, a race run over a sloppy track, in which Chancer McPatrick finished seventh.
“I think what’s proven is he really likes a dry Saratoga track. He’s 3 for 3 over dry tracks at Saratoga,” said Brown, who won his sixth Curlin in the race’s 16th running on Thursday. “He showed a lot of heart as he did in his previous two starts on dry tracks at Saratoga. They were courageous efforts in his maiden and the Hopeful.
“Surely our dream would be to try and get him out to a mile and a quarter” - the distance of the Travers - “and hope for dry weather on Travers Day if he’s a horse for course,” Brown added.
Chancer McPatrick was getting a sweet trip under Irad Ortiz Jr., saving all the ground down the backstretch before tipping out three wide in the stretch. Chancer McPatrick had So Sandy to his outside and the two were gradually gaining on Strategic Focus in the stretch.
So Sandy, under Jose Ortiz, put his head in front in deep stretch, but switched to his left lead and lugged in and bumped with Chancer McPatrick, serving only to embolden the latter runner strides from the wire.
“The outside horse really helped my horse to win,” said Irad Ortiz, who won four races Friday and has a meet-leading 22 victories. “He got there and when he felt [So Sandy] he loves to fight. Watching the replay, I feel like his horse changed leads, ducks in a little and we meet and when we got a little contact you can see he pinned his ears and he gave me another gear.”
Chancer McPatrick, a son of McKinzie owned by Sean Flanagan, was timed in 1:49.71 and returned $10.60 as the second choice. He gave Brown his second of what would become three wins on Thursday’s 10-race card.
Strategic Focus was hammered to 3-5 based on two solid performances, the second one being a disqualification from first in an allowance when he lugged in after making the lead.
Under Flavien Prat, Strategic Focus was getting a wide trip down the backside, he took over from Crudo outside the quarter pole, but he didn’t draw away like Brown expected.
“At the quarter pole I was making my Travers plans for that horse and then all of sudden he just flattened out,” Brown said. “He maybe moved a little soon but how long are you going to wait? He didn’t want the leader to get away from him. . . . I think [Prat] rode a fine race, it’s just that the horse didn’t cooperate today. He should have powered away from those horses and he didn’t.”
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