Talented trio could turn Champagne into Pletcher party
ELMONT, N.Y. – In his quest to win a seventh Champagne, trainer Todd Pletcher is coming to Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 stakes for juveniles from three different angles.
In Wit, a son of 2016 Champagne winner Practical Joke, Pletcher has a proven stakes performer coming off a tough-trip second in the Grade 1 Hopeful.
In My Prankster, Pletcher has a brilliant debut winner stepping into stakes company with hopes of duplicating what Uncle Mo (2010), Havana (2013) and Daredevil (2014) did for him.
In Commandperformance, Pletcher sends out a maiden who ran well enough in his debut to take a swing at the Champagne.
The Pletcher trio takes on Hopeful winner Gunite, impressive first-out winner Jack Christopher, and longshot Kavod in the Champagne, a one-turn mile race that offers the winner a fees-paid berth into the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar on Nov. 5.
After winning his debut at Belmont Park by five lengths in June and the Grade 3 Sanford by eight in Saratoga in July, Wit stumbled at the break and finished second to Gunite in the Hopeful at Saratoga on Sept. 6.
“He’s notoriously been a little slow away from the gate,” Pletcher said. “I don’t think he was as slow in the Hopeful as much as it was just a product of a stumble. Then he had to make a long drive on a track that was playing to speed. He put in a long, sustained run. He couldn’t keep closing the last sixteenth. Hopefully, we can get a little smoother trip this time.”
Irad Ortiz Jr. rides Wit from the rail.
My Prankster, a son of Into Mischief, won his debut by 10 lengths after stalking a modest pace.
“He’s a little bit of an unassuming horse,” Pletcher said. “The one time that he did catch our attention was in one of his gate works just prior to his debut. He showed good speed that day so we weren’t surprised that he won, but a little bit surprised he was able to win as impressively as he did.”
Luis Saez rides My Prankster from post 2.
Commandperformance, a son of 2011 Champagne winner Union Rags, finished second after a troubled start in his only race. Pletcher felt Commandperformance ran a winning race, and had he won this would have been his next start.
He is drawn in post 6 with Tyler Gaffalione named.
It took Gunite three tries to win his first race, which he did on June 26 at Churchill Downs. Despite the win, trainer Steve Asmussen added blinkers to the colt’s equipment and he finished second after perhaps going too fast early in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special. He bounced back with a dominant Hopeful victory.
“I have confidence that he’s better than he’s ever been,” Asmussen said.
Chad Brown won this race in 2016 with Practical Joke and 2018 with Complexity. Complexity was coming off just a maiden victory, the same thing Jack Christopher is doing Saturday. Jack Christopher, a son 2008 Champagne runner-up Munnings, won his debut by 8 3/4 lengths going six furlongs on Travers Day, Aug. 28.
“Just off one race he’s going to have to take another step forward, but he was so brilliant off his debut,” Brown said. “The way he’s trained I don’t think he’s going to have any difficulty getting the mile at least.”
Kavod is 1 for 5 and is coming off fifth-place finishes in the Sanford on dirt and With Anticipation on turf.