Unbeaten Hopeful favorites Wit and High Oak square off
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher started thinking about the Hopeful three months ago. Bill Mott started to consider it about a week ago. Regardless of which Hall of Fame trainer’s timeline proves correct, the showdown between Pletcher’s Wit and Mott’s High Oak will put quite the bow on what has been a sensational summer in Saratoga.
The $300,000 Hopeful, the 20th and final Grade 1 race of the meet, brings to a conclusion Saratoga’s 40-day meet, one that has already seen record business and some sensational performances, including one by last year’s Hopeful winner, Jackie’s Warrior, in this year’s Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens and Grade 2 Amsterdam.
Wit is a son of Practical Joke who in 2010 won his debut here Aug. 6 and then the Grade 1 Hopeful. Wit is one of 10 2-year-old winners – and the first to win a stakes – in Practical Joke’s first crop of runners.
Wit has been a bit tardy from the gates in his first two starts, but in both his maiden win on Belmont Stakes Day and his eight-length score in the Grade 3 Sanford here July 17, he came with an eye-catching move under Irad Ortiz Jr.
“The one thing that he did [in the Sanford] that surprised Irad is that he had such a quick turn of foot, he went from five or six off of it to all of a sudden ‘Wham!’ he made the lead,” Pletcher said. “I think Irad has a little better sense of timing his move now.”
Wit has had five works in between the Sanford and the seven-furlong Hopeful.
“He hasn’t missed a work despite dodging some weather here,” said Pletcher, a three-time Hopeful winner. “Everything’s gone pretty much according to plan.”
Pletcher also will run Powerful Agenda, a front-running debut winner Aug. 14.
“He ran well first time out, feel like he deserves a chance,” Pletcher said.
High Oak, a son of Gormley, rallied from off the pace to win his June 26 debut going 5 1/2 furlongs on June 26 at Belmont Park. He had seven weeks to the Grade 2 Saratoga Special, in which he rolled to a 4 1/4-length victory over Gunite, who also is back in this field.
Mott was initially planning on waiting for the Grade 1 Champagne on Oct. 2 at Belmont. But the horse has been very strong in the mornings, prompting Mott to wheel the horse back in 23 days.
“He’s been kind of breathing fire around the barn, and I said you know that he’s doing well enough we’re probably going to be better off running him than making him wait too long to run,” Mott said. “Sometimes you’re better off giving them something to do, and I think that’s the case with him.”
High Oak blew out three furlongs in 35.47 seconds on Friday over Saratoga’s Oklahoma training track.
Junior Alvarado rides High Oak from post 8.
Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen won the 2019 Hopeful with Basin and last year with Jackie’s Warrior. Monday, he sends out Gunite, a son of Gun Runner who won his maiden third time out at Churchill Downs before, with blinkers added, running second to High Oak in the Saratoga Special in his fourth career race.
“I like him in that he’s battle-tested and he is so impressive in the fact that we’ve been hard on him and he’s done better and gotten faster with every race,” said Asmussen, who noted that he added blinkers off a win because Gunite had been looking around when he first went to the main track.
Ricardo Santana Jr. rides Gunite from post 3.
Defend, a son of American Freedom, was an eight-length debut winner at Delaware Park for trainer Cal Lynch. He showed good speed out of the gate, widened his advantage at each point of call, and came to the wire in hand under Charlie Marquez. Monday, he gets a switch to Luis Saez, Saratoga’s leading rider.
“He trained like a decent horse, but we were pleasantly surprised when he ran that well,” Lynch said. “You’re going into the den and taking on the lions, but the owners are game, they never had a horse in Saratoga in a Grade 1. His numbers say he belongs there, he should like the added distance. If he improves a little bit that should make him competitive.”
Headline Report, beaten eight lengths when second to Wit in the Sanford, maiden winners, Kevin’s Folly, Big Scully, and Kitodan, as well as maidens Volcanic and Street Fight complete the field.
The Hopeful goes as race 10 on a 12-race card beginning at 12:35 p.m.
Following Monday’s card, racing on this circuit is dark until Belmont Park opens its fall meet on Sept. 16.