Two Commonwealth Cup favorites may be vulnerable
Up With the Birds and Mr Speaker have combined to win one race from seven starts in 2015, yet they still look like the principals in the Grade 2, $200,000 Commonwealth Cup on Saturday at Laurel Park.
Up With the Birds exits a fine fourth-place finish Aug. 15 in the Arlington Million, and the next afternoon, Mr Speaker ran a troubled fourth in the Sky Classic at Woodbine. Both horses have a penchant for tricky trips, and both could be victimized by a lack of pace in Saturday’s race.
The Commonwealth Cup, formerly run as the Colonial Turf Cup at Colonial Downs in Virginia, is carded for nine furlongs on turf and goes early on the Saturday card as race 4. It drew just seven entrants, with Mr Speaker installed as the 8-5 morning-line favorite over 9-5 Up With the Birds.
Commonwealth Cup, Race 4
KEY CONTENDERS
Up With the Birds (Last 3 Beyers: 98-93-89)
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◗ He rallied up the rail in the Million, a race to which he had been pointed all year by Graham Motion and Sam-Son Farm, took the lead at the stretch call, and looked for a moment like he could go on to win. But Up With the Birds might have been traveling over the worst part of a rain-soaked course and his momentum fizzled in the final furlong.
“I did for a brief instant think he was going to win, and it seemed odd that he went from having so much horse to hitting a wall,” Motion said.
◗ While the Million was a major goal, Up With the Birds has thrived since that race, Motion said. He turns back from 10 to nine furlongs, where he is 2-1-1 from four starts, and this is the distance at which Up With the Birds scored is only Grade 1 win, in the Jamaica two seasons ago.
Mr Speaker (Last 3 Beyers: 91-97-94)
◗ Won the 2014 Belmont Derby but then tried dirt in the Travers Stakes and “lost his way” after that start, according to trainer Shug McGaughey. Mr Speaker has only an allowance win from four starts this year but would have had a chance to win the Sky Classic with better luck. He was shut off while trying to rally along the rail in upper stretch and never regained his best stride thereafter.
◗ McGaughey told Laurel publicity that Mr Speaker’s recent breezes have been strong. “He had a really great turf work at Saratoga,” he said.
Legendary (Last 3 Beyers: 58-101-87)
◗ Floundered over the wet Arlington course in an excusable flop last out but won his only previous Laurel turf start and has enough pace to lead or race just off the flank of the class-rising Cut to Order.