Keen Ice may face Gun Runner in Whitney Stakes

ELMONT, N.Y. - Keen Ice, winner of Saturday’s Grade 2, $750,000 Suburban Stakes, will most likely make his next start in the Grade 1, $1.2 million Whitney Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 5, trainer Todd Pletcher said Sunday.

It was at Saratoga two years ago that Keen Ice upset Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes.

In the Whitney, Keen Ice will have to take on Gun Runner, who on Sunday worked five furlongs in 1:01.67 over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga. In the move, Gun Runner got his final quarter in 24.21 seconds. He galloped out six furlongs in 1:14.40 and pulled up seven furlongs in 1:27.60.

“The horse is doing really well,” trainer Steve Asmussen said of Gun Runner. “I really like how he’s training over the racetrack at Saratoga. We gave him a gallop over the main track and we breezed him on the Oklahoma.”

Asmussen said that Gun Runner would likely work next week on the Oklahoma, but will get one breeze over the main track before the Whitney.

Before Saturday, Keen Ice had gone winless in 10 starts since he won the Travers. In the Suburban, he lay close to a relatively slow pace before running past heavily favored Shaman Ghost just outside the eighth pole.

“The one thing he did yesterday is he broke really well and right away he was into it a little more,” Pletcher said. “It’s counterintuitive that a closer would benefit from a slow pace, but it kind of kept him in the race a little bit and he was able to secure a good spot and keep himself in striking range. He came home in 23-and-4, which is a pretty solid closing quarter going that far even if the fractions are that slow.”

Keen Ice ran the 1 1/4 miles in 2:02.02 and earned a 106 Beyer Speed Figure for the performance, equaling the career-best number he first got in the 2015 Travers. Despite having only won three races from 22 starts, Keen Ice has earned $3,037,245.

Shaman Ghost, runner-up in the Suburban, will likely make his next start at Saratoga, but he could possibly wait for the Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward on Sept. 2. Shaman Ghost won the Woodward last year.

Jimmy Jerkens said Shaman Ghost came out of the Suburban in good order and didn’t have any real excuse for Saturday’s loss.

_ additional reporting by Mike Vesce