McPeek hoping Twinkle Town can cap roller-coaster summer in Hopeful
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Professionally, it’s been a good summer for trainer Kenny McPeek who has won seven races from 37 starters at the Saratoga meet, including victories by a couple of promising 2-year-old colts.
Personally, it’s been a difficult summer for McPeek, who lost his friend and employee Robby Albarado, the former jockey who died on Aug. 4 at McPeek’s home after suffering a heart attack that hospitalized him a few days earlier.
“For me, he was between a kid brother and a son,” McPeek said Friday at Saratoga. “Sometimes, you had to kick him in the butt like a son. Sometimes, I could have a good time with him like a brother. It’s been tough.”
Three days before Albarado’s passing, McPeek won the Grade 2 Saratoga Special with Twinkle Town, a colt Albarado had been working in Kentucky and his reason for being in Saratoga at the beginning of the month. Twinkle Town sped off to a six-length victory in the Saratoga Special at 6 1/2 furlongs, earning a solid 88 Beyer Speed Figure. That win followed a 6 1/4-length maiden victory at Churchill Downs five weeks earlier.
Twinkle Town, a homebred son of Take Charge Indy, will look to put a cap on McPeek’s solid summer here when he runs in the Grade 1, $300,000 Hopeful on Sept. 6. Twinkle Town, who has worked twice since the Special, was due to have one more breeze over the weekend.
“He’s shown a whole lot of talent,” McPeek said.
He’s also shown a whole lot of speed, the type of precocious 2-year-old with which McPeek isn’t typically associated.
“He just has natural speed, it’s not anything we’ve put into him, he’s just got it,” McPeek said. “When I buy yearlings, I tend to buy young horses that go longer.”
One of those purchases was Admiralty, a son of Midshipman who brought $170,000 at auction and won his debut by a head at Saratoga going 6 1/2 furlongs on Aug. 8. McPeek plans to run him in the Grade 3, $300,000 Iroquois Stakes going a mile at Churchill Downs.
The field for the Hopeful will be drawn on Wednesday. Those expected to run include Booked, the Grade 3 Sanford winner who was second in the Saratoga Special, maiden winners Constant Force, Flight Command, Lifesong, Midnight Still, The Good Life, and possibly Tatters, who was placed first after finishing second in the Dover Stakes at Delaware Park on Aug. 8
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