Modified blinkers help Wicked Strong take Jim Dandy

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - In the end, it was a change of a change of equipment that might have made the difference for Wicked Strong in Saturday’s Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes before a crowd of 31,812 at Saratoga.

Equipped with blinkers for the first time in a race, Wicked Strong showed a new dimension by pressing the pace and, to his trainer Jimmy Jerkens’s delight, he ran straight and true for the entire race, defeating Belmont Stakes winner Tonalist by 2 1/4 lengths. It was 3 3/4 lengths back to Kid Cruz in third. He was followed, in order, by Commanding Curve, Ulanbator, and Legend.

It was always Jerkens’s desire to put blinkers on Wicked Strong for the Jim Dandy, hoping for a better performance than he got when the horse finished fourth in the Kentucky Derby and dead-heated for fourth in the Belmont Stakes. But after talking to his father, the Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens, Friday night, Jimmy Jerkens changed from a full-cup blinker he had used in training to a thinner-cupped blinker with a cut in the back so the horse could see out of them.

“He only had a very small cup,” Jerkens said in the winner’s circle. “I was talking to my father last night and he said ‘Boy, why would you [use blinkers]?’ So it made me think, maybe I’ll split the difference, cut most of the cup off … Probably more of a cup than he had in the blinkers probably would have made him more rank.”

The blinkers definitely made Wicked Strong more aggressive, according to jockey Rajiv Maragh, who had Wicked Strong right on the pace with Legend. Those two were head and head through six furlongs in 1:11.36 before Wicked Strong put that horse away.

“We talked about if he’s giving it to me good early I don’t want to take it away from him,” Maragh said. “He was very aggressive today, which I was happy about.”

Tonalist, who was wide into the first turn and down the backside under Joel Rosario, moved into contention around the far turn. Coming into the stretch, Maragh allowed Wicked Strong to drift a path or two, carrying Tonalist out a little bit. But Maragh quickly straightened Wicked Strong out and he kicked away from the Belmont winner down the lane.

Wicked Strong, a son of Hard Spun owned by the Centennial Farms headed by Donald Little Jr., covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.16 and returned $6.40 as the second choice.

“Rajiv took him a couple of horse widths out when he saw Tonalist coming, which that discourages a horse coming up from behind you,” Jerkens said. “That’s race riding. That’s what you have to do.”

Christophe Clement, the trainer of Tonalist, noted that move might have cost Tonalist some momentum.

“Second-best today,” Clement said. “He came with a good run top of the stretch, the winner pushed him out as you saw at the quarter pole and he lost his momentum. He came back and he just got a bit tired in the last eighth of a mile.”

The win was the third from nine starts for Wicked Strong and the first-place purse pushed his earnings to $1,244,610. It was also particularly gratifying for Jerkens, who has always held Wicked Strong in high regard.

“I don’t think Secretariat worked any better than this horse does in the morning so I know the talent’s there,” Jerkens said. “He’s just getting to put it all together.”

It was the second win in 24 hours in a stakes for 3-year-olds for Jerkens. He won Friday’s $100,000 Curlin Stakes with V. E. Day. Both horses are expected to run back in the Travers as are Tonalist and Kid Cruz.

The Jim Dandy has produced the Travers winner in seven of the last nine years.