Improving Ry's the Guy to face tough company in Secretariat

Even when he gets away from Saratoga, Ian Wilkes can’t seem to get away from fellow trainer Chad Brown.

Wilkes is dispatching the promising 3-year-old colt Ry’s the Guy to the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes on Saturday at Arlington Park, where Brown will be front and center with two of the likely favorites, Fog of War and Valid Point. The Secretariat is being run at one mile for the first time in a significant reduction from its traditional distance of 1 1/4 miles.

“I really like our horse,” Wilkes said early this week from Saratoga, his main summer base. “I’ve always believed in him.”

Ry’s the Guy won a June 9 off-the-turf maiden race over the Churchill Downs slop in his fifth start, earning an 89 Beyer Speed Figure, then came back 20 days later to win a first-level allowance over the Churchill turf, getting an 88.

“It took him a while to turn the corner, but the switch in surfaces made a big difference,” said Wilkes. “He’s got a grass pedigree,” being by Distorted Humor out of a Royal Academy mare, “and he’s really trained great since his last race. We feel like he deserves a chance in a race like this.”

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Ry’s the Guy, owned by Lothenbach Stables, was scheduled to ship Thursday from the Skylight training center just east of Louisville into the Patti Miller barn at Arlington, said Wilkes, who plans to fly to Chicago early Saturday after flying Wednesday night to Louisville from New York.

Brown, who has dominated recent runnings of the other two Grade 1 races at Arlington on Saturday, the Arlington Million and Beverly D., won his only Secretariat two years ago with Beach Patrol. He has the heavy favorites for the other two races this year in Bricks and Mortar for the Million and Sistercharlie for the Beverly D.

Besides Ry’s the Guy and the Brown duo, eight other 3-year-olds are pre-entered in the Secretariat, including the Aidan O’Brien pair of Never No More and Van Beethoven. O’Brien has won three of the last eight runnings of the Secretariat with Treasure Beach (2011), Adelaide (2014), and Highland Reel (2015).