Rocketry tries Marconi again in Birdstone

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Rocketry will try to finally turn the tables on his nemesis Marconi when they take on six other long-winded older horses Thursday at Saratoga in the $100,000 Birdstone at a demanding 1 3/4 miles over the main track.

Marconi has come out on top in each of his four meetings with Rocketry this season. Those races came at distances ranging from a mile and three-sixteenths to a mile and one-half. But Marconi has yet to try 1 3/4 miles while Rocketry won the Grade 2 Marathon at that distance in his 2018 finale. Rocketry also finished fourth, beaten just two lengths, going two miles in the Grade 2 Belmont Gold Cup earlier last year.

The Marconi-Rocketry rivalry began this winter at Gulfstream Park when Marconi captured the 1 3/16-mile Skip Away with Rocketry finishing fifth as the 6-5 favorite. Rocketry continued to edge closer as the distances increased during the spring, finishing second to Marconi when beaten less than three lengths in the 11-furlong Flat Out and a half-length at 1 1/2 miles in the Grade 2 Brooklyn.

Both Marconi and Rocketry finished far back when seventh and eighth against a stellar field while shortening up to 1 1/4 miles last month in the Grade 2 Suburban. Rocketry wore blinkers for the first time in the Suburban, but trainer Jimmy Jerkens will take them off for Rocketry’s local debut on Thursday.

“It’s a concern running him back close after that last race, but I just don’t want to sit on him,” said Jerkens. “This race is here and he’s doing okay. I’m taking the blinkers off again because he just doesn’t seem to need them. In fact he might have even resented them last time.”

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Trainer Todd Pletcher said he didn’t feel Marconi got a trip conducive to his style when he had his three-race win streak snapped in the Suburban.

“He’s proven at a mile and three-eighths and a mile and one-half,” said Pletcher. “Now we’re going to try him a little further. He didn’t get exactly the trip we were hoping for in the Suburban; it never really allowed him to get into a good rhythm. But when he does, it seems like he just keeps going and going.”

Aside from Rocketry only Turco Bravo is proven at the distance, having won this race in 2016 and finished second in the Temperence Hill Invitational going a mile and three-quarters at Belmont the following fall. Now 10, Turco Bravo has proven a popular item at the claim box, having changed hands five times over the past 13 months. He is back with trainer David Cannizzo for a third time after being claimed for $25,000 last May at Belmont Park.

Pletcher’s former pupil Patch returns to Saratoga for the first time since finishing a late-running fifth here a year ago in the Grade 1 Woodward. Now in the barn of trainer Jack Sisterson, Patch finished third for Pletcher behind stablemate Tapwrit in the 2017 Belmont Stakes.

– additional reporting by David Grening