Swiss Skydiver shifts sights from Shuvee to Whitney

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Swiss Skydiver, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2020 and winner of the Preakness and Alabama, will be pointed to the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney Stakes on Aug. 7, trainer Ken McPeek said Wednesday.

Swiss Skydiver was being pointed to Sunday’s Grade 3 Shuvee here, but she and the rest of McPeek’s horses are not permitted to run until Aug. 1 due to the quarantine of Barn 86 where they are stabled. The 21-day quarantine, which began July 11, was due to a horse trained by Jorge Abreu testing positive for equine herpesvirus. That unnamed, unraced horse is recovering on a nearby farm, according to the New York Racing Association.

“If I wasn’t pushed around by this quarantine, I’d run in the Shuvee,” McPeek said by phone from Kentucky. “But she’s doing really well, she’s thriving up there right now. She’s beaten the boys before. Maybe this happened for a reason. Who knows?”

News of Swiss Skydiver targeting the Whitney was first reported by the Thoroughbred Daily News.

Swiss Skydiver, who began her 4-year-old campaign with a victory in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita in March, has not run since finishing third behind Letruska and Monomoy Girl in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap on April 17 at Oaklawn. Swiss Skydiver was scratched from the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps at Belmont Park on June 5 due to a fever.

“It’s not the ideal choice,” McPeek said of the Whitney. “I thought the Shuvee was going to be a great spot for her get her back in winning ways. But she’s doing really well and she is there, and it is a great race and I think she gets some weight breaks.”

The Whitney is expected to attract Maxfield, the Stephen Foster winner; Knicks Go, the Pegasus World Cup winner; Silver State, the Metropolitan Handicap winner; and Country Grammer, the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup winner.

McPeek said he is trying to work with the New York Racing Association to get permission to run King Fury in the Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy on July 31. McPeek said he would put the horse in a nearby quarantine barn and offer to have the horse tested daily. So far, he has not heard back from NYRA or the state.

McPeek said Crazy Beautiful will train up to the Alabama on Aug. 21 and Tabor Hall will be turned back in distance to the Grade 1 Test on Aug. 7. Both 3-year-old fillies were going to run this Saturday in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks.