Jimmy Jerkens has his own giants to slay

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Saratoga summer of 2014 was, in his own words, “storybook” for trainer Jimmy Jerkens. Nine wins from 28 starters capped by a memorable one-two finish in the Travers Stakes with V. E. Day nosing out Wicked Strong.

Nearly a year later, it is just a memory.

“Like anything, you can bask in it for a little while, then you got to get your [stuff] together,” Jerkens said during feed time Monday. “People forget real fast in this business. You got to keep your nose to the grindstone, keep going, keep making stuff happen or else you ain’t going to be in business.”

Spoken like a true Jerkens. One could have imagined Jimmy’s father, Allen, saying the same thing despite a Hall of Fame career that saw him win hundreds of big races. One of those memorable wins came in the 1973 Whitney, when Onion, who just four days earlier had won a sprint race, upset the mighty Secretariat.

Jimmy Jerkens, 13 at the time, said he watched the race from the backside. He remembers someone having a black-and-white television at the concession stand, but he went up to the rail to watch it. His view of the final furlong was obscured by the tote board.

“I remember him going behind the tote board three-quarters of a length in front,” Jerkens said. “You just knew by the time the wire came Secretariat would be clear. We were hoping we’d be second. Couldn’t believe it when he came from behind that tote board with just a few yards to go to the wire he was still the same three-quarters in front. Incredible.”

Jerkens hopes to make another Whitney memory Saturday when he sends out V. E. Day and Wicked Strong in what is shaping up to be a terrific field. Ten horses – seven of whom are Grade 1 winners – were entered in the Whitney, post positions for which were to be drawn Tuesday night at a downtown restaurant.

Neither V. E. Day nor Wicked Strong has won since they left Saratoga last summer. V. E. Day is 0 for 4 since then, Wicked Strong 0 for 6.

Both horses, however, are coming off solid races in their most recent outings. V. E. Day was second, beaten a neck by Coach Inge, in the Brooklyn on Belmont Stakes Day. Wicked Strong finished second in the Forbidden Apple, a one-mile turf stakes last month at Belmont.

Jerkens said V. E. Day lost a lot of weight after the Breeders’ Cup last November and took a lot of time to get ready this spring. He didn’t debut until May 2, when he finished sixth in the Fort Marcy on turf in a race Jerkens said “is better than it looks.”

“He lost a ridiculous amount of ground,” Jerkens said. “He finished up really well.”

V. E. Day came back with a solid second in the Grade 2 Brooklyn, losing to the improving Coach Inge but finishing five lengths clear of the rest of the field. Jerkens was cautious with V. E. Day, keeping him out of the Suburban on July 4 after he coughed a week or so before the race.

“I probably could have run him,” Jerkens said. “Sometimes you just get a bad feeling. It’s hard to explain.”

Jerkens believes that when a late-running horse cuts back in distance, it’s better to have a fresher horse.

“His numbers might not be quite up to snuff, but it might set up for him,” Jerkens said. “He’s got to run his absolute best, and a lot of them have to run a clunker. Let’s face it, a fact’s a fact. But especially up here, you never know.”

Wicked Strong ended his 3-year-old season in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, where he lost his jockey with about a half-mile to go. Jerkens said he hadn’t seen the same competitive fire from Wicked Strong this year that he showed last year, but he was encouraged by the way Wicked Strong persevered to be second in the Forbidden Apple.

“I thought he ran very well to come back and get second,” Jerkens said. “It looked like he was down on the inside and got crossed over and in front of in the stretch. God, I was thrilled. I thought we were going to be a bad fourth or fifth.”

While Jerkens comes to the Whitney with two solid horses, his best older male, the New York-bred Effinex, will stay in the barn. Effinex, the upset winner of the Grade 2 Suburban last out, got an infection two weeks after that race and needed some time. He is better now but will point for the Grade 1 Woodward here Sept. 5.

It has been almost five months since Allen Jerkens died. It will be hard to imagine, as the horses step into the gate Saturday, Jimmy not thinking about his father or that day in 1973 when Onion beat Secretariat. It will be hard for many not to think of the Travers of 2014, when V. E. Day ran down Wicked Strong in the final jump.

If it somehow happens again, the one thing Jimmy Jerkens will miss is a phone call from his dad.

“It was always great for him to call after you won a race,” Jerkens said. “I definitely miss that.”