Essential Quality bucking two recent trends in Jim Dandy
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – In 2013, Palace Malice won the Belmont Stakes and came back seven weeks later to kick off the second half of his 3-year-old campaign by winning the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga. Since then, however, winners of Triple Crown races – and favorites – have faltered in the Jim Dandy.
Favorites are winless in the last seven runnings of the Jim Dandy. During that span, five winners of Triple Crown races have all been beaten in the 1 1/8-mile race that serves as the local stepping-stone to the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers on Aug. 28.
Saturday, Belmont Stakes winner Essential Quality will likely be an odds-on choice in the Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy. While the three-time Grade 1-winning colt – and last year’s 2-year-old champion – is the most likely winner, there are alternatives to consider among his five rivals.
In 2014, trainer Jimmy Jerkens sent out Wicked Strong to a 6-1 upset of Belmont Stakes winner Tonalist (4-5) in the Jim Dandy. Saturday, Jerkens will try to slay Essential Quality with Weyburn, an enigmatic colt who just may be on the verge of a breakthrough in the Jim Dandy.
Weyburn, a Canadian-bred son of Pioneerof the Nile, has had a star-crossed season. Infirmities and injuries have interrupted his campaign, which began with a victory at 46-1 in the Grade 3 Gotham at Aqueduct. In his first start around two turns, Weyburn finished fourth in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial. Following an illness that kept him out of the Peter Pan, Weyburn ran within a neck of Mandaloun in the Pegasus Stakes on June 13 at Monmouth Park.
Mandaloun came back to run a solid race in the Grade 1 Haskell – getting elevated to first by the stewards after falling a neck short to Belmont Stakes runner-up Hot Rod Charlie. Jerkens said he was encouraged to see Mandaloun come back and run well in the Haskell and has been equally pleased with how Weyburn has done over the last seven weeks.
“He’s gotten stronger looking, more muscle in his hindquarters,” Jerkens said. “We worked him pretty hard since the Pegasus, and it looks like he’s handled it well.”
During the early part of the year, Jerkens spoke about Weyburn’s mental immaturity. But he’s seen some improvement in that area with how well the horse performed after shipping to Monmouth for the Pegasus.
“He seems to be getting better about the gate, although race day will be different with a lot of people making a lot noise, just hope he doesn’t get too rattled,” Jerkens said.
Weyburn, who will be ridden for the first time by Irad Ortiz Jr., has the speed to be a forward factor in the Jim Dandy.
Masqueparade brings a two-race winning streak into the Jim Dandy for trainer Al Stall Jr. He won a first-level allowance race by 11 3/4 lengths at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day and followed that with a half-length victory in the Grade 3 Ohio Derby.
Stall believes if Essential Quality runs his race, the rest of the field is running for second. But if Essential Quality doesn’t fire, Stall believes his horse can be right there.
“If he runs anywhere near his last two races, he should be a factor,” Stall said. “I feel like we did everything we can do to get to this race the way we want to be.”
Stall expects Miguel Mena to put Masqueparade into the race from post 2.
Essential Quality brings a sparkling résumé into the Jim Dandy. He is 6 for 7 with a troubled fourth in the Kentucky Derby. He is coming off a superlative effort in the Belmont Stakes where he dueled the final three furlongs with Hot Rod Charlie, before prevailing by 1 1/4 lengths.
Trainer Brad Cox had Essential Quality back on the work tab three weeks after the Belmont Stakes, and he’s had three breezes in Saratoga.
Cox is not viewing the Jim Dandy as a mere prep for the Travers in four weeks.
“We want to win the race,” said Cox, who trains Essential Quality for Godolphin Racing. “We’re pretty confident that he could win the race and rebound and come back in four weeks and move forward again.
Keepmeinmind was a late-running third to Masqueparade in the Ohio Derby following a seventh in the Kentucky Derby and fourth in the Preakness. At 2, he was second to Essential Quality in the Breeders’ Futurity and third to him in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
Keepmeinmind has been lighting up the Saratoga main track in the mornings and will get a rider switch to Joel Rosario.
Dr Jack, third in the Pegasus, and Risk Taking, the Grade 3 Withers winner who finished eighth in the Preakness, round out the field.
Essential Quality is one of three champions scheduled to run here Saturday. Whitmore, last year’s sprint champion, runs in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt, while Channel Maker, the 2020 male turf champion, starts in the Grade 2, $250,000 Bowling Green Stakes.