Deauville will shoot for Million rather than Secretariat

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Trainer Aidan O’Brien has won the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes for 3-year-olds the last two years and in three of the last five seasons, and while he might win it again this year, it won’t be with Deauville. That’s because the 3-year-old Deauville, who won the Grade 1 Belmont Derby in his last start, will try to beat older horses in the Arlington Million on Aug. 13.

According to the International Racing Bureau, which helps recruit European runners for the Million Day races and coordinates shipping and logistics for overseas participants, Deauville, with a Grade 1 win already on his résumé, will start in the Million and make way for Long Island Sound and perhaps Shogun in the Secretariat. Long Island Sound actually went off as a shorter price at 5-2 than Deauville in the Belmont Derby but could only finish sixth. Shogun has just one win from 11 starts and was 10th last fall in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

Deauville is not all that accomplished himself, and the Belmont Derby, his third victory, marked the high point of his career. He will get a six-pound weight break from older rivals while trying to become the first 3-year-old to win the Million since Tolomeo in 1983.

Deauville is one of four Europeans expected to be pre-entered by midnight Friday, along with Tryster, Mondialiste, and Decorated Knight. Tryster, who was shipping from England on Wednesday for Godolphin, is the top-rated horse of the quartet this year, having finished third in the $6 million Dubai Turf in March and a decent fifth in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot. The Prince of Wales’s was run over soft ground, and Tryster is best suited to firm going.

Highland Sky staying home

Deauville held off a charging Highland Sky to win the Belmont Derby, and shortly after that race, trainer Barclay Tagg mentioned the Secretariat as an upcoming goal for Highland Sky. But on Wednesday, Tagg said he was passing on a trip to Chicago in favor of a start in the Grade 3 Saranac Stakes at Saratoga, where Highland Sky is based.

“He’s a Grade 1 horse, and we were planning on that, but it’s a long, hot summer, and we didn’t want to beat him up with a long trip in the heat of summer right now,” said Tagg. “If he’s doing well, we can always go out to the [Grade 1] Hollywood Derby.”

Brown’s Million Day runners

Chad Brown still intends to start three horses in the Arlington Million, which he won in 2013 when The Apache was disqualified and Real Solution placed first. Brown on Wednesday said he intends to run Wake Forest, Big Blue Kitten, and Takeover Target at Arlington. Brown also trains the leading male turf horse in North America, Flintshire, who won the Bowling Green last weekend and starts next in the Sword Dancer at Saratoga.

Brown and owner Martin Schwartz have long pointed Sea Calisi to the Beverly D., and off a troubled second to subsequent Grade 1 Diana Stakes winner Dacita in the New York Stakes, she might well be favored in the Grade 1 race for older fillies. Brown won the Beverly D. last year with Watsdachances and in 2011 with Stacelita for Schwartz, who also campaigned Beverly D. winners Angara and Gorella.

Brown said he plans to start Beach Patrol, who was third in the Belmont Derby, in the Secretariat, and he has Noble Beauty for the Grade 3 Pucker Up for 3-year-old fillies.