Good Samaritan confirmed for Whitney

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Good Samaritan, last year’s Jim Dandy Stakes winner, will make his next start in the Grade 1, $1.2 million Whitney Stakes next Saturday, according to Elliott Walden, president and CEO of WinStar Farm, which heads the group that owns the 4-year-old.

Meanwhile, Yoshida, a Grade 1 winner on turf who also was nominated to the Whitney, will make his next start in the Grade 1 Fourstardave, a mile turf race Aug. 11, Walden said. Both horses are trained by Bill Mott.

“Good Samaritan has run very well over the racetrack winning the Jim Dandy last year, and he’s doing really well,” Walden said.

Jose Ortiz will ride Good Samaritan in the Whitney. Joel Rosario, who has ridden Good Samaritan in all 13 of his starts, is committed to ride Mind Your Biscuits in the Whitney.

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Ortiz, who had been the regular rider of Tapwrit, has been taken off that horse in favor of John Velazquez for the Whitney.

On Friday, Mind Your Biscuits completed preparations for the Whitney by working a half-mile in 49.88 seconds over Saratoga’s main track.

In California, Dalmore worked at Del Mar. Though clockers credited Dalmore with a half-mile move in 46.80 – the fastest of 73 moves at the distance – trainer Bob Hess Jr. said the horse went a half-mile in 49 seconds under Kent Desormeaux.

“He did it really well,” Hess said by phone from California. “Desormeaux worked the horse for us, he knows him better than anyone and he said the horse has never been better.”

Javier Castellano is scheduled to ride Dalmore, who was expected to be flown from California to New York on Sunday.

Others pointing to the Whitney, a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, are Backyard Heaven, Discreet Lover, and McCraken.