Utterly Cool gets tested for class, stamina

Utterly Cool, by Smoke Glacken out of a Housebuster mare, was always bred to be fast. He just happens to be fast on turf, a surface on which champion sprinters Smoke Glacken and Housebuster never raced.

When he starts Saturday in the Grade 3 Summer Stakes, a Win and You're in prep for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf, more than his speed will receive a test. So, too, will his class and stamina.

The Summer, contested at a mile over Woodbine's vast turf course, is Utterly Cool's longest race to date, following a six-furlong maiden victory, and a seven-furlong allowance triumph, both of which came on grass.

The ease and speed of those two victories, his only starts, quickly put him on a short list of Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf prospects. His maiden victory, a five-length triumph, earned him a 76 Beyer Speed Figure, and his allowance victory came by 7o1/2 lengths, resulting in an 86 Beyer. In both cases, he chased a leader before overwhelming the opposition in the lane.

"I haven't seen too many on this turf course take the lead" into the stretch "and then pull off," said trainer Sid Attard, who trains Utterly Cool for the owner/breeder Mel Lawson's Jim Dandy Stable.

The Summer drew a top-class field, led by promising maiden winners Grand Adventure and Jess Not Jesse, plus Skipadate, who after winning his debut at Saratoga finished second to Bittel Road in the With Anticipation Stakes there.

Bittel Road, meanwhile, is expected for Sunday's Grade 3, $200,000 Woodford Reserve Bourbon Stakes at Keeneland, another Win and You're in Stakes, after being scratched from Wednesday's Pilgrim Stakes at Belmont Park due to wet course conditions.