A day later, Trombetta still in awe of Win Win Win's triumph

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Mike Trombetta watched the replay of Saturday’s Grade 1 Forego Stakes at home Saturday night. After seeing the race again, Trombetta was even more awed by what his Win Win Win had accomplished earlier in the day at Saratoga.

Win Win Win rallied extremely wide, after dropping nearly 20 lengths behind the leaders, in the run down the backstretch to an improbable half-length victory over Complexity in a race decided on a sloppy racetrack during a driving rainstorm.

“Remarkable,” was the word Trombetta used to describe Win Win Win’s effort after another look at the Forego.

“It was a seven-eighths-of-a-mile race and literally you only see him on the screen for about three-sixteenths of it, he was so far back,” Trombetta said. “And when you add the conditions involved and all that, it’s even more amazing he got up to win. It was really exciting stuff.”

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Trombetta said Win Win Win, who earned a 97 Beyer Speed Figure for the Forego, was looking bright and doing well when he checked in on his latest Grade 1 winner at the barn Sunday morning. Win Win Win, a Live Oak Plantation homebred, is scheduled to return to Trombetta’s main base at Fair Hill on Monday.

“I don’t know where we go from here, although the next thing on my to-do list is to start researching where we run next,” Trombetta said. “The Breeders’ Cup is an obvious consideration, the problem is I don’t see him turning back to six furlongs, he doesn’t seem that type of horse to me. So the question then becomes whether we do the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, and would we run him once more beforehand if he ends up heading in that direction.”

Complexity, who easily defeated Win Win Win when they met under high-priced optional claiming and allowance conditions going a flat mile earlier this summer at Belmont Park, turned in a huge effort in defeat. Complexity contested a torrid 44.63 opening half-mile pace with True Timber before ultimately succumbing to Win Win Win’s furious stretch bid in the closing strides of the seven-furlong Forego.

“He ran great, I was just disappointed in the trip he got,” said Chad Brown, who trains Complexity for Klaravich Stables Inc. “He broke slow and rushed up into a forty-four-and-three pace. But I’m not going to be critical, since the weather conditions were challenging for the jockeys. Unfortunately he’s a horse that doesn’t run that much, he has a lot of problems, but he was so right yesterday.”

Brown was critical, however, of the decision to rush the Forego field to post with the storm, which included tornado warnings for the local area, right on top of the track.

“The thing I was most disappointed about was the decision to run that level of race during the absolute worst part of a 15-minute storm instead of waiting,” Brown said. “Everyone could see from the radar the storm was going to pass in 15 minutes. We waited a couple of years ago before the Whitney for 45 minutes for a storm to pass. With all the radar and technology available, I just can’t make sense in my head of a decision that put all the horses and jockeys in jeopardy like that.”

Brown said he would likely consider the Breeders’ Cup as an option for Complexity, leaving the choice of whether to run him in the Sprint or Dirt Mile.

“For tweeners like him, the decision becomes whether to run at six furlongs or a mile, with the Dirt Mile around two turns at Keeneland,” Brown said. “My gut would be just to cut him back another eighth and see if the horse can rate.”