Revved Up still solid at age 9

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It would be most appropriate if Revved Up won Sunday's $80,000 John's Call Stakes at Saratoga.

The reason the New York Racing Association named a race for John's Call is that in 2000, at the age of 9, he became the oldest horse to win a Grade 1 flat stakes at Saratoga when he took the Sword Dancer.

Revved Up is still going strong at age 9. He has won 17 of 38 starts and earned more than $1.3 million. Last year, he won 5 of 6 starts. This year, he is winless in four starts, but twice ran against Jambalaya, who won last weekend's Arlington Million.

Revved Up, trained by Christophe Clement, is coming off a good second-place finish to a loose-on-the-lead Cosmonaut in the Grade 3 Arlington Handicap on July 21. Sunday, Revved Up will meet eight rivals - none as accomplished as Cosmonaut - in the 1 5/8-mile turf feature.

"He's an amazing horse,'' Clement said. "We, i.e., the stable and Live Oak [Plantation], looked after him. He's been turned out every winter; he's a horse you look at him and run him when you think he's doing well.

"He's only made 38 starts. It's not like he's been over-raced; that's the reason why he kept his form. He looks great, he's training well. He breezed on the 9th, had a nice work, came out of it great.''

Clement did not make an excuse for Revved Up in the Arlington Handicap, saying "he was just second best.''

Kent Desormeaux will ride Revved Up, the 121-pound highweight, from post 5.

Rousing Victory won this race in 2005, the last time it was contested on turf. Subsequently, he went winless in seven starts before taking the John Henry, a 1 3/8-mile race, last October at the Meadowlands. Trainer Phil Serpe was looking for a spot to run him at Aqueduct, but that turf course had problems and was hardly used.

As fate would have it, Rousing Victory fractured an ankle while training and was away from the races for 10 months. Rousing Victory, a 6-year-old son of Victory Gallop, returned in a difficult one-mile classified allowance race, in which he was beaten only 4 3/4 lengths by Shakespeare.

"We just kind of used that mile race as a springboard,'' Serpe said. "Those guys came home in 22 and 2, and we counted him making up four or five lengths, so he came in 21 and change. He finished fast, he didn't just follow them home.''

Leadwithyourchin and General Jumbo are also contenders in the John's Call.