Moreno scores front-running upset in Whitney Handicap

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Midway through Saturday afternoon’s card at Saratoga, the effervescent and brash trainer Eric Guillot was in tears. Sir William Bruce, a 2-year-old colt he had run for the first time, suffered from cardiovascular collapse and died shortly after being unsaddled following a fifth-place finish in a maiden race.

Guillot, his eyes red, was visibly shaken, and he had two hours with nothing to do.

“I tried to go by myself a little bit, walk around,” Guillot said. “It was rough. I didn’t want to explain the story over and over again for two hours.”

Two hours and 45 minutes later, Guillot had a different story to tell after his enigmatic gelding, Moreno, pulled off a front-running upset in the Grade 1, $1.5 million Whitney Stakes before a crowd of 36,318 at Saratoga.

The Whitney was a Win and You're In race, giving Moreno a fees paid berth into the Breeders' Cup Classic.

“You talk about highs and lows in this game, all in one day, all in two hours in fact,” Guillot, hardly recognizable out of his traditional T-shirt and shorts and dressed in a white-button shirt and slacks, said in the winner’s circle.

Making the front entering the first turn under Junior Alvarado, Moreno maintained a clear advantage throughout while setting comfortable fractions and was never threatened in the stretch, defeating Itsmyluckyday by 1 1/4 lengths. It was three lengths back to Will Take Charge, who 49 weeks ago defeated Moreno by a nose in the $1 million Travers Stakes on this same track.

Prayer for Relief, the longest shot on the board at 48-1, finished fourth and was followed, in order, by Last Gunfighter, Palace Malice – the 3-5 favorite – Romansh, Departing, and Golden Ticket.

The win was just the third from 20 starts for Moreno, a gelding by Ghostzapper, and his first since July 6, 2013, when he took the Grade 2 Dwyer at Belmont.

“This horse has got serious talent in the morning,” said Guillot, who trains Moreno for Mike Moreno’s Southern Equine Stable. “Unless he has everything his own way, he doesn’t try that hard.”

Guillot had simple instructions for Alvarado, who was riding Moreno for just the second time. Get to the front and try to grab a two-length lead.

After a slow first step out of the gate, Moreno did get to the front entering the first turn and opened up a 1 1/2-length advantage through a quarter-mile in 23.67 seconds.

Down the backstretch, Moreno, while kept in the three-path by Alvarado, maintained a one-length advantage over Golden Ticket through a half-mile in 47.50 seconds and six furlongs in 1:11.31. John Velazquez had Palace Malice four to five wide down the backstretch, but he wasn’t confident he had horse.

“He was drifting a little bit, looking around, never really paid attention,” Velazquez said. “I tried to engage him down the backstretch and then said let me wait to the half-mile pole, maybe get into him again. He went through the motions, never put in an effort.”

With Golden Ticket retreating and Palace Malice not firing, Moreno came into the stretch in the clear. Alvarado asked his colt for more run at the three-sixteenths pole, and he had more than enough to hold Itsmyluckyday at bay.

“As soon as I turn for home, even before I hit him, he switched leads, went to the right, and he took two big jumps,” Alvarado said. “I said, ‘There is no way anybody can pass me.’ ”

Moreno covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.05 and returned $22 to win.

For Palace Malice, the loss was his first in five starts this year.

“It’s disappointing,” said Todd Pletcher, the trainer of Palace Malice. “I thought turning up the backside we got into the position we wanted, but he was never really taking him anywhere.”