Hymn targeting Phoenix Stakes, Breeders’ Cup Sprint
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Ron Moquett said he always felt Hymn had the ability to be a stakes-caliber sprinter. But it wasn’t until a suggestion jockey John Velazquez made following a fourth-place finish in an allowance race last winter at Oaklawn Park that Hymn was finally able to reach his full potential.
“That was a pretty tough allowance race at Oaklawn, Senior Officer finished second that day. Johnny came back and said if he just tried, he could beat those horses,” Moquett recalled Sunday. “He did have a habit of drifting over to other horses and trying to Firenze Fire them and had kind of shown us he wasn’t going to be consistent enough to put it all together and still be intact. We really didn’t want to geld him, but it has certainly proved to be the right decision.”
The change in Hymn after being gelded was nearly instantaneous. The 4-year-old son of McKinzie has won four of his five starts since, culminating with his game, three-quarter-length victory Saturday in the Grade 1 Forego. His lone setback during that stretch was a second-place finish behind favored Built last month in the Grade 2 Alfred G. Vanderbilt.
“He just keeps getting better and better, ever since he’s learned to focus on what he’s doing rather than agitating riders and trainers,” Moquett said. “Although obviously we understand taking a key horse out of the race yesterday like Book’em Danno changed the race and, selfishly, affected us positively.”
Hymn’s victory was the second for Moquett in the prestigious Forego, his first coming eight years earlier with Whitmore, who would go on to upset the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland two years later off a prep in the Grade 2 Phoenix. That’s a path Hymn also will likely be taking in the months ahead, despite the fact winning the Forego earned him an automatic, fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
“It takes a special trainer to pull of that ’18 to ’26 Forego double with nothing in the middle,” Moquett said with a laugh. “Right now, the plan is to send him back to Churchill Downs on Thursday and likely point for the Sprint with a possible prep in the Phoenix so we can get a Win and You’re In for that race. I really don’t quite understand the Forego being a Win and You’re In for the Dirt Mile. I always considered seven furlongs to be a sprint, so it doesn’t make sense it would qualify you for a two-turn race like the Dirt Mile is at Keeneland.”
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