Show Court ($30.20) upsets A.P. Smithwick

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Twenty years after winning the A.P. Smithwick as a jockey, Arch Kingsley Jr. won it as a trainer, sending Show Court out to a one-length upset Monday in the Grade 1, $175,000 steeplechase event at Saratoga.

Show Court, at 14-1 the second-longest shot in the field of seven, rallied along the inside during the half-mile flat-run following the final jump and outfinished Iranistan, the even-money favorite trained by Jonathan Sheppard. It was aboard the Sheppard-trained Romantic in 1998 that Kingsley won the then-Grade 2 Smithwick.

“Which is better? There is no better, they’re both so sweet, I couldn’t be happier, honestly, in this moment,” Kingsley said. “This is as good as it gets for me right now.”

Show Court won the Jonathan Kiser Novice Steeplechase Stakes here in 2017. He had jumped only twice since, finishing sixth in both the New York Turf Writers’ Cup last August and the Colonial Cup in March - both Grade 1 events. Kingsley said Show Court got hurt in the Colonial Cup and was out of training for two months.

After returning to training in June, Show Court raced in a flat race at Suffolk Downs, where he finished third.

“He had only been back in training for about a month before that Suffolk race and I needed something to fast-track him to get him to the race today,” Kingsley said.

On Monday, under Michael Mitchell, Show Court saved ground while in fourth before Mitchell asked the horse to run around the final turn, and he rallied by Iranistan in the stretch.

“He was filling the bridle the whole way,” Mitchell said. “It was very reassuring as a jockey to have that [much] horse under you two furlongs out. He has speed, but it’s only a finite kind of speed, you have to use it very wisely.”

Show Court, a 9-year-old Irish-bred gelding by Vinnie Roe owned by Mark Buyck Jr., covered the 2 1/16-miles in 3:49.00 and returned $30.20 to win.

The Smithwick is typically the stepping-stone to the Grade 1 New York Turf Writers’ Cup on Aug. 23. Show Court finished sixth in that race last year.