Halladay puts it all together with front-running score in Fourstardave Handicap

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Halladay gave indications in the spring that he was ready to raise his game to another level as a 4-year-old. Saturday, he gave an all-star performance winning the Grade 1, $400,000 Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga in front-running fashion.

Making the lead soon after the start under Luis Saez, Halladay was able to relax on the lead, set comfortable fractions of 47.19 seconds for a half-mile and 1:10.15 for six furlongs, then repelled the challenge of the mare Got Stormy - last year’s Fourstardave winner - to win the one mile turf race by 1 1/4 lengths.

Got Stormy finished second by 1 1/4 lengths over Casa Creed, who took third by that same margin over Emmaus.

Raging Bull finished fifth followed by Chad Brown-trained stablemates Without Parole, Uni, and Valid Point. Chewing Gum, who hit the gate at the break, finished last.

The Fourstardave was the first career graded stakes victory for Halladay, a 4-year-old son of War Front owned by the Curtis Harrell’s Harrell Ventures.

It was the first Grade 1 victory of 2020 for trainer Todd Pletcher, 53, who has now won at least one Grade 1 stakes for 23 consecutive years starting in 1998. A former assistant to D. Wayne Lukas, Pletcher began training on his own in 1996.

:: DRF's Saratoga headquarters – Stakes schedule, previews, recaps, past performances, and more

“It’s a tribute to a lot of great horses, a lot of great staff,” said Pletcher, who has won 4,960 races. “I didn’t think I was that old but apparently I am.”

Halladay ended his 3-year-old campaign with a victory in the Tropical Park Derby at Gulfstream Park. After a fourth in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Stakes, he put together two strong races at Gulfstream where he earned triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures.

Pletcher felt the key to Halladay elevating his game was getting him to relax even while racing on the lead.

“When he got to the lead he relaxed, he pricked his ears, turned off the bridle,” Pletcher said. “Before, he would go to the front he would continue to engage and wouldn’t really settle.”

In the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch last month, Halladay settled off the front-running Somelikeithotbrown, who ultimately went gate to wire while Halladay finished fourth.

Saturday, Halladay looked like the lone speed on paper and, despite .36-of-an-inch of rain falling early in the morning, he was able to carry that speed over ground labeled good.

“It was a fairly sizable downpour, it didn’t last real long,” Pletcher said. “I was hopeful by this time it would dry out. The final time suggests it’s not super soft though Luis commented to me he thought it was a little soft when he came off the turn. When he went to accelerate he slipped away from them a little bit and went back to his left lead. Luis said if it would have been firm it would have really been scary.”

Halladay, named for the former major league pitcher Roy Halladay who died in 2017, covered the mile in 1:33.32 and returned $12.60 to win.

Got Stormy, who was coming off a couple of subpar performances at Belmont, looked like she had a chance to run by Halladay in upper stretch. But her jockey, Tyler Gaffalione, said that when she got to him, Halladay re-engaged.

“I tried to keep a little bit of distance between us,” Gaffalione said. “As soon as he felt me, he went on again.”

Said Saez: “He likes to fight. He’s a game horse.”

By virtue of his Fourstardave victory, Halladay earned a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland on Nov. 7. Pletcher said he would consider using the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland on Oct. 3 as a way to get to the Breeders’ Cup.