Kupuna goes wire to wire to score nose victory in Bernard Baruch
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Kupuna came off a nearly seven-month layoff fresh and fit and took advantage of a field lacking in pace to register a game, gate-to-wire nose victory over Pass the Hat in Thursday’s $200,000 Bernard Baruch Stakes at Saratoga.
Kupuna, claimed for $100,000 by trainer Norm Casse for the Flying P Stable last fall at Churchill Downs, went to the sidelines following a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Fair Grounds Stakes on February 14. That decision was not made out of necessity but by design, according to Casse.
Owner “Jay [Provenzano] deserves probably more credit than anybody for this horse. He was adamant he wanted 90 days off for the horse to get him ready for this spot,” Casse explained. “And when an owner is adamant about something, you don’t stand in their way.”
Kupuna made 25 of his first 26 career starts on dirt prior to being claimed by his current connections, but he's now won 3 of 5 tries since switching to the turf. He was never closer than fourth at the first call in his first four starts for Casse, but he showed a new dimension coming off the bench on Thursday.
With Ricardo Santana Jr. aboard for the first time since 2022, Kupuna broke well and took command along the inside going into the clubhouse turn. He controlled the pace while stalked by Pass the Hat from the outset, edged clear briefly while coming well off the rail settling into the stretch, then dug in bravely despite continuing to drift steadily.
Pass the Hat, the very tepid 3-1 favorite, rated just off the leader for six furlongs, was sent up after that rival by jockey John Velazquez approaching the quarter pole, fell back to fourth upon settling into the stretch, then surged late near the inside to just miss.
Uncle’s Gold angled six-wide with his rally into the stretch, checked momentarily behind the drifting leader through midstretch, then continued willingly to fall another head shy in third. It was just another half-length further back to the rail-skimming Risk Tolerance, who was fourth.
Kupuna, a 7-year-old son of Hard Spun, completed the mile and one-sixteenth over a good course in 1:41.73 seconds and returned $26.22.
Casse admitted putting Kupuna back on the grass was simply a matter of circumstances that turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
“When we claimed him, there was actually only one race in the condition book he was eligible to run in, and it was a turf race, naturally,” Casse recalled. “He did have one start on the grass previously that we had noted was okay. It was more like our hands were tied where we had to run him, and we got lucky.”
Casse said he felt like Kupuna would be fresh coming into the race off the extended vacation.
“It was kind of the game plan that we might get a little bit aggressive. He got loose on the lead, his ears were forward, and you could tell he was doing everything comfortably,” Casse noted. “And he had plenty of kick home. As for him drifting down the stretch, I think it was more Ricardo doing that. You have to really respect the heart of the horse. When those other horses came to him, he ran big.”
