L'Imperator, Abaan meet again in delayed A.P. Smithwick
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Abaan has defeated L’Imperator the previous two times they have met. Arch Kingsley, the trainer of L’Imperator, believes his horse could flip the script Sunday at Saratoga when the two meet again in the Grade 1, $150,000 A.P. Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase going 2 3/8 miles over National fences.
The Smithwick was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but was postponed when rain forced that card’s races off the turf.
In last October’s Foxwood Champion Hurdle at Far Hills, L’Imperator finished third, 23 lengths behind Abaan. Kingsley felt the turf was too soft for L’Imperator that day. In March, at the Carolina Cup in Camden, L’Imperator was beaten 3 1/4 lengths by Abaan in a race where Kingsley felt L’Imperator made a premature move.
“With a turn to go he got lit up and he grabbed his rider and basically joined the leaders and took him to the front and was doing too much,” Kingsley said.
L’Imperator comes into the Smithwick off a two-length victory in the Grade 1 Beverly Steinman Steeplechase at Aqueduct on June 20. That race was pushed back 11 days after being canceled on June 9 due to weather.
The extra time enabled L’Imperator to get over a foot abscess and he got a beautiful trip under Jordan Gainford to win by two lengths. Kingsley noted that L’Imperator has a somewhat unusual way of running, keeping his head very low to the ground, and Gainford heeded his trainer’s instructions on how best to ride the gelding.
“If you try to get in his mouth a little bit, he’s going to take off,” Kingsley said. “I told Jordan, ‘He’s going to try to put his head on the floor – let him – it’ll be a little bit unnerving, just don’t grab him,’ and he followed instructions beautifully.”
Abaan, like L’Imperator, has morphed from a graded stakes winner over flats to a successful jumper. Abaan won the Grade 3 William L. McKnight at Gulfstream in 2022 and was a 7 1/2-length maiden winner at Saratoga in 2021. He has won four consecutive jump races, though he’s run in two four-horse fields and one three-horse field.
Abaan had been entered in the Steinman for June 9 but didn’t enter back because trainer Kate Dalton had shipped the horse up from her base at South Carolina and didn’t want to ship home and back again before Saratoga.
Dalton isn’t sure the extra time between races necessarily benefited Abaan.
“It might have been a slightly bad thing,” she said. “We’ve ended up really training him a lot with nowhere to go. He’s a little bit over training at this point, though he’s doing all his training very well. He’s getting bored now. It’s about to get interesting, I hope.”
The Irish-bred Pickanumber makes his U.S. debut after winning four or his last five starts in Great Britain. He goes out for trainer Leslie Young.
Ziggle Pops (third), Freddy Flintshire (sixth), and West Newton (eighth) all finished behind L’Imperator in the Steinman. Freddy Flintshire was third in last year’s Smithwick for trainer Keri Brion, who also sends out Going Country, the runner-up to Snap Decision in the 2022 Grade 1 Jonathan Sheppard here.
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