Litfin's preview: Four stakes on card

Saturday, Oct. 4, preview

Saturday’s 11-race card includes four stakes worth a combined $1.7 million. The three graded stakes – the Champagne, Frizette, and Hill Prince – are worth $500,000 each. The stakes action begins in race 4 with the $200,000 Temperence Hill, a 1 5/8-mile marathon on the main track that drew a field of six long-winded older males.

The Frizette (race 6) and the Champagne (race 8) are the final Grade 1 races at the fall meet. The Champagne begins a late pick four with a $300,000-guaranteed pool at 4:29 p.m. Eastern.

PLETCHER EYES BIG DAY

Todd Pletcher has contenders in all three stakes scheduled for the main track, beginning with likely pacesetter Village Warrior in the inaugural running of the Temperence Hill. Village Warrior makes his stakes debut and gets a class check after front-running wins against two softer fields at Saratoga for which he earned career-high Beyer Speed Figures of 92.

Pletcher also sends out the last-out maiden graduates Feathered and Daredevil in the Frizette and Champagne. Pletcher has won three of the last four renewals of the Champagne, including with Uncle Mo (2010) and Havana (2013), who were also facing winners for the first time.

“We’ve had success a couple of times running horses out of a maiden race in the Champagne,” said Pletcher. “It’s always an advantage to have maybe another start or two under your belt … but hopefully what [Daredevil] lacks in experience he’ll make up for in talent.”

CAVORTING, CONDO COMMANDO CLASH

Something has to give in the Frizette between Cavorting and Condo Commando, who each come into the one-mile race 2 for 2 after taking the Adirondack and Spinaway at Saratoga.

Cavorting is the more rested of the two, as it’s been nearly eight weeks since she rallied from off the pace to take the Adirondack over Angela Renee, who won last week’s Grade 1 Chandelier at Santa Anita. Angela Renee’s win “certainly flatters our form,” said trainer Kiaran McLaughlin. She is by Bernardini, and so is Cavorting.

As Tom Durkin put it in the final call of his illustrious career, Condo Commando was “splash-tastic” in taking a sloppy Spinaway by better than 13 lengths for Rudy Rodriguez, earning a 92 Beyer.
By the Moon, who bested Angela Renee for second in the Spinaway, is back for another try for Michelle Nevin.

EL KABEIR STREAKS INTO CHAMPAGNE

Coming off a maiden win by nearly 11 lengths on the last Saturday at Saratoga, El Kabeir likely will go favored from the rail in the Champagne for John Terranova. El Kabeir was running back 16 days after a troubled-trip third in his debut and set a strong pace to widen at every call.

“He’s a high-energy colt, and it focused him and put him on the right track,” said Terranova, who has since given the gray colt three solid workouts over Belmont’s main track. “We haven’t had a bad day with him since he won.”

Upstart, a New York-bred who won twice in 10 days in August, including a 95 Beyer in the Funny Cide Stakes, looks as though he may be another Samraat in the making for Rick Violette Jr.

I Spent It, the Saratoga Special winner, looks to rebound after being outdueled in the Hopeful by Competitive Edge.

RAIN-SOFTENED TURF FOR HILL PRINCE?

According to the forecast, there’s a good chance that the Hill Prince, scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the inner turf, will be run on a course something other than firm. That would be fine with Mr Speaker and Ring Weekend, who respectively won the Belmont Derby and the Saranac on good ground.

However, it would be something new for Tourist, who has made all four of his grass starts – three wins and a second in the Secretariat – on firm footing.

In something of an oddity, the three horses who have shipped in from Europe – Blacktype, Cabral, and Sloane Avenue – are winless from nine combined starts on turf, but they are 6 for 10 on all-weather tracks.

HORSE TO WATCH

FULMER
Trainer: Christophe Clement
Last race: Oct. 2, 6th
Finish: 2nd by 7 1/4
Beyer: 66
Away awkwardly in his debut going 1 1/16 miles on the inner turf, the 2-year-old colt by Kitten’s Joy found his best stride late to clearly best the rest behind odds-on Kerjillion.