Old Forester Turf Classic: Integration overdue to break through with a Grade 1 win
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Integration, by rights, is out to win the Grade 1, $1 million Old Forester Turf Classic. Six of his last nine starts, most competitive performances, came at the Grade 1 level, and no one else in Saturday’s race can boast such a résumé.
The Turf Classic’s 1 1/8 miles might be the horse’s best distance. Integration enters on a good pattern – second start following a layoff – after being pointed toward this race for months by Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey. He’s well drawn in post 1 with legendary jockey Frankie Dettori at the controls.
Yet Integration stands as the most tepid of morning-line favorites, 4-1, and after winning his first three starts, looking like a brightening star, he has only won two of his last nine. And each time Integration looks poised to win his Grade 1, he doesn’t.
McGaughey hasn’t lost confidence.
“I’m not disappointed in him. He’s run some good races. His race in Florida, he was unlucky to lose. His race at Keeneland last month he caught maybe the best miler in the country. He wants to run farther than that and the turf was soft,” McGaughey said.
All accurate. In the Pegasus World Cup Turf in January, Integration probably got too much of a strong pace and was nailed on the wire by Turf Classic entrant Spirit of St Louis. Last month, in the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile, Integration finished a distant second to Carl Spackler, who turned in a world-class performance.
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McGaughey said his horse has trained well into the Turf Classic and that Integration just needs firm footing. Alas, a rainy forecast hints at a course less than firm, and since something always seems to stand between Integration and a top-level win, in the final reckoning he’s just one among several plausible winners.
A dozen were entered, but Brilliant Bertie starts Thursday if the Opening Verse stays on turf. His trainer, Cherie DeVaux, still has Taking Candy, whose Keeneland allowance prep for the Turf Classic last month got rained out, leaving Taking Candy unraced since capturing the Fair Grounds Stakes on Feb. 15.
“He has shown he runs really well fresh,” DeVaux said.
Chad Brown has won this race four of the last six years and has three chances Saturday, including Spirit of St Louis, who beat Integration in the Pegasus, and Redistricting. Both exit disappointing performances March 22 in the Muniz Memorial at Fair Grounds, where they finished fourth and sixth, respectively, as the favorite and second choice.
Idratherbeblessed, a Turf Classic entrant for Chris Hartman, won the Muniz wire to wire after setting a slow pace at odds of 86-1. Runner-up Gigante tracked the leader, also benefiting from race shape. He drew post 12 for the Turf Classic.
“I have no idea what to make of [the Muniz]. I have confidence to draw a line through it because they weren’t the only two horses that have talent not to fire,” Brown said.
Spirit of St Louis goes well over softer turf, but Brown said the horse, a more natural miler, will struggle to stay nine furlongs on such a course. Lightly raced Redistricting, who also probably wants firm going, finished brilliantly for second in the Seabiscuit last fall but remains a two-time winner lacking a stakes win.
“He trains like he could be a Grade 1 horse,” Brown said.
Running Bee, who Brown calls an overachiever, exits a solid score in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Stakes, and on the surface, this looks like a Grade 3 horse. But Running Bee is a lightly raced 6-year-old by English Channel, and believe it or not might just be hitting his peak. North America’s hottest jockey, Flavien Prat, has a return call.
Cameo Performance came home fastest in the Muniz, closing from sixth at the stretch call to finish third, beaten less than a length, a career-best showing in his 4-year-old debut.
“I think he’s made a big step up from last year,” trainer Brendan Walsh said. “He’s been working really good – really good.”
California-based 7-year-old Gold Phoenix makes his first Kentucky start since a 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Turf three falls ago at Keeneland. Highway Robber, wintering in Florida, took a trip to Dubai and ran poorly March 1 in the Dubai City of Gold. He’s more naturally a 1 1/2-mile horse.
Mercante, who returned in November from a 15-month layoff, won the Kentucky Cup Classic over Turfway Tapeta last out. He’s faster than Idratherbeblessed, but Brian Knippenberg, who trains the horse at the Trackside Training Center in Louisville and manages owner Carl Pollard’s Hermitage Farm, wants a target for his longshot.
“It’s 20 minutes from home and at our home track,” he said. “For a million, we’ll take a swing.”
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