Fourstardave runners in for a fight in ultra-classy bout
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – You know a race is difficult when the trainer of a horse who has won 8 of 11 starts, seven stakes, and two Grade 1s calls it “his toughest test to date.”
That’s what Chad Brown said awaits his Zulu Kingdom in Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Fourstardave at Saratoga, a race worthy of its designation as a Win and You’re In for the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Oct. 31 at Keeneland.
Led by Deterministic, the seven horses entered in the Fourstardave at one mile have combined to win 35 stakes, eight Grade 1s, and earned $10,998,110.
So, in reality, this is going to be everyone’s toughest test to date.
Deterministic, a 5-year-old son of Liam’s Map, has won five consecutive races and six straight turf races – all graded stakes – dating back to November 2024. He won this race last year from a stalking-type position, a style that jockey Kendrick Carmouche may have to employ again Saturday with speed types such as Mi Bago and/or Classic Q, as well as Rhetorical in the field.
Drawn in post 5, Deterministic is outside of the other speed horses, which trainer Miguel Clement said should aid Carmouche in how he wants to ride the race.
“Kendrick always breaks and thinks about going forward,” Clement said. “My horse does have tactical speed. I think he’s been the best turf horse the last two years, and he’s doing great.”
Rhetorical has won Grade 1 stakes in two of his last five starts, including the Turf Classic on May 2 at Churchill Downs. In the Grade 1 Manhattan, Rhetorical set the pace and ultimately gave way, finishing fourth, 1 1/4 lengths behind Deterministic. Rhetorical ran in that race with an aluminum pad as he was dealing with a foot fungus that took away some of his foot. Though the foot has grown back since the Manhattan, he will wear that aluminum pad again Saturday, trainer Will Walden said.
“We allowed it to try and fully [grow out] and let it go the right away afterwards because we had plenty of spacing into this race,” Walden said of the two-months between starts.
While the 1 3/16-mile distance of the Manhattan may have proved too far, Walden said Rhetorical ran a quick third quarter, which may have taken away his starch at the finish.
“I think he used what he needed at the end going into that turn and then the rest of the turn taxed him,” Walden said. “He was pretty much going from the five-eighths pole to the wire, which was a lot.”
Trainer Mark Casse has entered the filly Classic Q, a three-time stakes winner, and the New York-bred Mi Bago, a six-time stakes winner, in the Fourstardave. Both horses have the same front-running style, and Casse reiterated Thursday that he most likely will run just one, though as of Thursday morning, he still wasn’t sure which one.
Casse said Mi Bago likes “a rock hard” turf course and there was some rain in the forecast. Classic Q is coming off a front-running victory in the Grade 1 Just a Game five weeks after she won the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill.
Like Deterministic, Lagynos brings a five-race winning streak into the Fourstardave, a race in which he finished seventh last year. With the likelihood of a rapid early pace, the Fourstardave would appear to set up nicely for this 5-year-old son of Kantharos, who is seeking his first Grade 1 victory after posting two Grade 2 and two Grade 3 victories this year.
“This year, his confidence level is where you want it,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “He’s drawn 7 of 7, looks like there’s plenty of pace. . . . He’s never won a race at this level before. He competed well at 3 and 4, he’s picked it up a little bit, and he’s figured it out, when to be in front.”
Zulu Kingdom has crossed the finish line first in six of his last seven starts, though he was disqualified from first in last year’s Grade 2 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Stakes. He is coming off a dead heat with Mi Bago in the Grade 3 Kelso, a race in which he came from off the pace.
“The horse seems like he’s doing good, his last work was quite good,” Brown said. “He’s always struck me as a horse that’s better at a mile when he gets pace in front of him. There should be plenty of pace in here, but it’s good horses.”
Capitol Hill is the only horse in the field without a stakes win. He did finish a good second to his Bill Mott-trained stablemate Pass the Hat in the Grade 3 Poker in June before finishing fourth, three lengths behind dead-heat winners Mi Bago and Zulu Kingdom, in the Grade 3 Kelso.
Capitol Hill’s best attribute may be that he’s a closer in a race that figures to have ample speed in it. But he’s going to have to run the best race of his career to have a chance.
That may actually be the case for all of them.
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