Rick Violette Stakes comes down to a tight, and appropriate, conclusion

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Practice Squad is a half-brother to Upstart. So it was a very appropriate ending when Practice Squad won Thursday’s $125,000 Rick Violette Stakes at Saratoga, a race named in honor of the late horseman who trained Upstart to five Grade 1-placings and earnings in excess of $1.7 million.

Restricted to New York-breds, the Rick Violette was carded at a mile and one-sixteenth on the turf for 3-year-olds for the first time this season after having had its first three renewals decided by 2-year-olds going six furlongs on the dirt.

Practice Squad, a former claimer, entered the Rick Violette with just one victory in eight starts and went postward the third betting choice in a field that scratched down to only five starters. Practice Squad was an obvious underdog against the likes of 1-5 favorite Dakota Gold and Coinage, both multiple stakes winners who had finished fifth and ninth, respectively, in the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

With Flavien Prat aboard for the first time, Practice Squad raced near the rear of the compact lineup within easy distance of the early leaders, Stop the Spread and Coinage. Practice Squad saved ground around the second turn, split rivals near the inside to gain command approaching the furlong marker, then dug in gamely to turn back a strong run from Dakota Gold through the final sixteenth.

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Dakota Gold was perfectly placed stalking the early leaders, angled four wide into the stretch, ducked out from a left-hand stick to briefly lose momentum upon settling for the drive, surged to engage Practice Squad near mid-stretch but hung in the closing yards and was denied to the wire. Coinage, who gained command briefly between calls entering the stretch, could not match strides with the top pair in the final furlong, finishing three lengths further back in third.

Sundaeswithsandy and the tiring Stop the Spread rounded out the complete order of finish.

Practice Squad, a son of Malibu Moon, is trained by Joe Sharp for Jordan V. Wycoff. He completed the distance over a “good” course in 1:44.69 and paid $12.60.

“We are big in aftercare and he [Violette] was at the forefront of that, obviously he was a wonderful horseman, so it’s an honor to win a race like this, especially with a New York-bred,” Sharp said.

Sharp said he felt his horse might be home free when getting away in early stretch before ultimately having to sweat out the final decision.

“It was exciting,” Sharp said. “When he kind of squeaked off near the eighth pole it looked like he was going to win and then Danny’s [Gargan] horse [Dakota Gold] came up to his outside and he dug back in and really had to fight for it. He really showed some grit and determination.

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“He’s a forwardly progressing 3-year-old, a little late-blooming, but that’s okay. He’s getting right at the right time.”

As for being a half-brother to Upstart, who had all his success on dirt, Sharp said, “he’s obviously shown to get a lot faster on the grass and I don’t think we’ll be diverting from that plan at this point. But he’s the kind of horse, as well as he works on dirt, we might not scratch if it came off.”

Gargan said Dakota Gold “ran his race, but he lost the head bob. We took a little bit of the worst of it, I don’t know if he’s particularly a soft-course horse, but it is what it is. I’m just happy he ran and showed up.”