McTigue suitable replacement for Smithwick winner in Jonathan Sheppard

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – An injury to A.P. Smithwick winner Belfast Banter will keep him out of Wednesday’s Grade 1, $150,000 Jonathan Sheppard Steeplechase, but trainer Cyril Murphy hopes he has a suitable back-up in recent novice stakes winner McTigue.

McTigue is one of 10 runners entered in a seemingly wide-open Sheppard, pushed back one week by rains that have wreaked havoc with turf racing this summer in Saratoga. The Sheppard, named after the Hall of Fame trainer, was previously known as the New York Turf Writers Cup, a race Sheppard won 15 times.

Two weeks after Belfast Banter upset the July 19 Smithwick at 16-1, Murphy sent out McTigue to an 8-1 score in the Jonathan Kiser Novice Stakes. McTigue was making just his second start in the U.S. In the first one he finished second in the Speedy Smithwick Memorial but was elevated to first when the 20-length winner, Hoffman, was deemed to have briefly left the course at some point in the race.

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In the Speedy Smithwick, Murphy said it took McTigue a few jumps to get accustomed to the U.S. steeplechase game, but noted McTigue, aside from Hoffman “was 10 lengths better than everybody else on the day.”

In the Kiser, Murphy said McTigue showed signs of the horse he watched run last fall in Europe where he won a couple of listed jump races that made Murphy want to acquire him in the first place.

“He traveled strongly, he jumped well, we had a very good trip, he was much the best,” Murphy said.

Though McTigue is coming out of a novice stakes win, Murphy noted the Sheppard field has more novice jumpers than open horses.

Awakened, trained by Jack Fisher, is one of those novice runners. He finished second by 3 3/4 lengths to McTigue in the Kiser. That day, McTigue was in receipt of six pounds from Awakened. Wednesday, McTigue is conceding four pounds to Awakened, who will be ridden by Thomas Garner, winner of three of the last four runnings of this race.

“He’s a legitimate horse in the right company, he deserves to be in there,” Murphy said of McTigue. “If we can finish in front of Awakened, we’ll be very close to winning.”

Murphy seems confident in McTigue’s ability to get the 2 3/8 miles of the Sheppard.

“I don’t think that will be an issue, the bigger issue is working out a good trip with 10 runners in there,” Murphy said. “There’s going to be a little bit of shuffling, elbowing. I don’t know if there’s going to be a lot of pace.”

At 158 pounds, Noah And the Ark is the starting highweight in the Sheppard. He earned highweight status based on his 41-1 upset in the Grade 1 Lonesome Glory Steeplechase at Aqueduct last fall.

Noah And The Ark, trained by Todd McKenna, is coming out of a fourth-place finish in the Smithwick.

“He finished up strong in the A.P., I can’t complain about that,” McKenna said. “He came out of the race great. The weights are something to really think about – 14 pounds to a couple of those horses is a lot. The plan is to stay closer, not give away any lengths.”

Harrison Beswick rides Noah And The Ark.

L’Imperator, a graded stakes winner on the flat just two years ago, has won his last two steeplechase races ,including an allowance win here July 26. He is trained by Arch Kingsley, who also sends out Merry Maker, third in the Kiser.

Leslie Young’s 22 wins lead all trainers on the National Steeplechase Association circuit this year. Wednesday, she sends out Redicean, who has run in this race the last three years with a second in 2020 and a third last year, and Caramelised, a well-beaten fifth in the Kiser.

Keri Brion, winner of this race in 2021, has the in-form Theocrat and Jimmy P in the Sheppard. West Newton, fifth in the Smithwick, completes the field.

The Sheppard goes as the first race on a 10-race card that includes the $150,000 John’s Call scheduled for 1 5/8 miles over the flat.

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