Demonstrative, Divine Fortune meet again in Smithwick

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Divine Fortune will be the sentimental favorite, but Demonstrative will be the post-time favorite and the horse to beat when the last two Eclipse Award-winning steeplechasers meet in Thursday’s Grade 1, $125,000 A.P. Smithwick at Saratoga.

The Smithwick, run at 2 1/16 miles, is the prep for the Grade 1, $150,000 New York Turf Writers Cup on Aug. 27. Demonstrative, 8, won last year’s Turf Writers after losing the Smithwick by a nose at a robust 15-1.

Demonstrative, a gelding by Royal Anthem, won three Grade 1 steeplechase events to earn his Eclipse Award.

Demonstrative began his 2015 campaign in May with a neck victory in the Group 1 Iroquois in Nashville, Tenn. In between that race and the Smithwick, Demonstrative won a 1 1/2-mile flat race at Parx on July 12.

“He’s just a big horse that carries a lot of condition,” trainer Richard Valentine said. “He takes a lot of work to get fit, and I just wanted to make sure because of the weight he was carrying that we had him as well as we could going into this. I was particularly impressed with the way he picked up and quickened. I didn’t think he had that extra gear.”

At 158 pounds, Demonstrative is the starting highweight. He is conceding four pounds to Divine Fortune and 16 pounds to many others in here.

Divine Fortune is a 12-year-old who is starting in the Smithwick for the sixth straight year. He won this race in 2010 and 2011 and has a second and a third but did not complete the course last year. To start this year, he finished fourth, eight lengths behind Demonstrative, in the Iroquois.

“I think he’s better over a little bit longer distance,” trainer Jonathan Sheppard said. “He’s probably lost a little bit of his speed, but he still has got the stamina. He did run a tad disappointing this spring, but the race wasn’t run to suit him.”

Sheppard has two other entrants in the field. Martini Brother won the Jonathan Kiser Novice Stakes here in 2013 and was beaten a length in the New York Turf Writers. He missed a year due to a leg injury and did get one race under his belt over the flats at Parx. He gets in with 142 pounds.

“He does have quality; he’s training well,” Sheppard said. “I wouldn’t throw him out.”

Parker’s Project, Sheppard said, likely will need one of the contenders to “stub their toe a little bit” to win.

Of the remaining runners, Bob Le Beau has a win over the flats and a win over jumps this year.