Uni tighter for Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Never underestimate a champion.
That’s the sentiment trainer Chad Brown was expressing Thursday morning as he discussed Saturday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga, where Brown runs four of the nine horses entered in the one-mile grass stakes.
Uni, last year’s female turf champion after winning the Breeders’ Cup Mile, is coming off a third-place finish behind Newspaperofrecord and Beau Recall in the Grade 1 Just a Game at Belmont on June 27. Not only was that Uni’s first race in nearly nine months, but the 6-year-old mare had missed some training time due to a popped splint suffered earlier in the year.
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“Uni’s doing really well,” Brown said. “She’s finally coming back around. Her last work was her best work of the year so far, and I think she’s coming into the race good and if the ground is firm we’ll run.”
With dry conditions expected from Thursday through the weekend, Saratoga’s turf should firm up as compared to Wednesday, when a rainstorm right before first post put some moisture in the ground.
“I know she shows in her form she’s handled give in the ground before, but she’s just not as good,” Brown said. “Proof of that was her two fastest numbers were on firm ground.”
Uni finished third in this race last year behind Got Stormy and Raging Bull, both of whom are back in this field. Got Stormy is winless in her last four starts. Raging Bull, also trained by Brown, won the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on May 25, thanks in part to firm ground and a fast pace. Most recently, he finished third, beaten a neck by War of Will in the Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland.
“He likes firm ground and he likes a fast pace and that really helped him” in the Shoemaker, Brown said. “At Keeneland, there was a little moisture in the ground, and he just didn’t handle it as well as he does firm ground.”
Joel Rosario has been the regular rider of Uni, but he chose to ride Raging Bull on Saturday. Raging Bull will carry co-high weight of 123 pounds leaving from post 1. Jose Ortiz rides Uni under 120 pounds from post 6.
Brown also runs Without Parole and Valid Point. Without Parole came off a long layoff to run third behind Uni and Got Stormy in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile. This year, Without Parole had a difficult trip when 11th in the Grade 1 Pegasus Turf at Gulfstream, was third to Raging Bull in the Shoemaker Mile, and was fourth, beaten just three-quarters of a length for it all, in the Makers Mark Mile.
“I think he’s a funny horse. If the conditions are right and the turf is firm, we’ll see the best of him,” Brown said. “The key is he needs to be in better position out of the gate. If he’s sitting back there with Uni and Raging Bull trying to outsprint them turning for home, it’ll be difficult.”
Valid Point is still in search of the form that made him a Grade 1 winner in last year’s Secretariat at Arlington Park.
If Brown has a concern entering the Fourstardave, it’s the apparent lack of speed in the race.
Halladay, trained by Todd Pletcher, looks like he could control the pace. Halladay won his first two starts of the year in front-running fashion at Gulfstream Park. Concerned that the Saratoga turf wasn’t kind to front-running types earlier in the meet, trainer Todd Pletcher had Luis Saez take Halladay off the pace in the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch. Naturally, Somelikeithotbrown went gate to wire and Halladay finished fourth.
“I think up until that race no one had won wire to wire on the turf,” Pletcher said. “We drew a favorable post and have been trying to get the horse to relax pretty much his whole career, so we played it on the break, he settled nicely, and I thought we had a good trip. To the winner’s credit, he kept going.”
Pletcher believes Halladay has taken a step forward since then, “which in a race like this he would need to, but we’re happy the way he’s coming into it,” Pletcher said.
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Luis Saez rides Halladay, who gets in at 118 pounds, from post 5.
Trainer Mark Casse is seeking firm turf for Got Stormy, who won this race from well off the pace last year.
Trainer Bill Mott sends out the uncoupled entry of Casa Creed and Chewing Gum. Casa Creed won the Grade 2 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Stakes here last summer, but is 0 for 2 this year. Chewing Gum stretches out to a mile just two weeks after finishing fourth going 5 1/2 furlongs in the Grade 3 Troy.
Emmaus, beaten just a length when fifth in the Maker’s Mark Mile, completes the field.
The Fourstardave, which goes as race 9 on Saturday’s 10-race card, offers a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Mile, to be held Nov. 7 at Keeneland.