Golden Ticket a go for Whitney

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Golden Ticket, whose finest hour came at Saratoga two summers ago when he dead-heated for first with Alpha in the Grade 1 Travers, will finally get a second chance to compete at the Spa in next Saturday’s Grade 1 Whitney.

Golden Ticket has yet to win another Grade 1 race since the Travers but has knocked on the door several times, most notably when second in the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and second behind Fort Larned earlier that year in the Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs. A son of Speightstown, Golden Ticket is winless in five starts this season but was a game second behind Palace Malice in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap to kick off the campaign and second behind the red-hot Moonshine Mullin in the Grade 2 Alysheba on Derby Day at Churchill Downs.

Golden Ticket finished fourth, beaten 1 1/2 lengths, in the Grade 3 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap in his most recent race.

“I think he wins that race if he doesn’t stumble at the start,” said trainer Ken McPeek. “He’s like hickory. He’s always in the thick of it, and there isn’t much separating him from some of the other big horses in the division. And he likes this racetrack. I probably should have run him here once last summer, but it just didn’t work out.”

McPeek said Golden Ticket would have his final work for the Whitney on Saturday.