Vanderbilt will be class test for Happy My Way

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Having proven to be more than just a Gulfstream Park horse-for-course when he won the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint Handicap at Pimlico on Preakness Day, Happy My Way will attempt to stamp himself as an elite sprinter when he runs in Saturday’s Grade 1, $350,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap at Saratoga.

Happy My Way shipped here from Monmouth late last week and attempted to get a workout in over the main track Sunday. Heavy rains forced exercise rider Stacy Prior to basically gallop Happy My Way around the track, though he was credited with a half-mile breeze in 52.02 seconds.

“We wanted to go after the break, but it was pouring, and Stacy said she couldn’t see where she was going and took a hold of him, just let him get over the track,” trainer Joe Orseno said from Monmouth. “We wanted to go in 49 or 50. If I don’t put blinkers on him or put him in company, he never works fast.”

Orseno said Happy My Way came out of that training exercise so fresh that Prior had to take him back to the track Monday to jog.

“I know he must be feeling well,” Orseno said.

Following Happy My Way’s 5 3/4-length victory at Pimlico, Orseno mapped out a plan that included two starts before a potential trip to California for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 1. When the Summit of Speed races at Calder were scrapped, Orseno targeted the Grade 1 Vanderbilt and the Grade 1 Vosburgh, likely to be run Sept. 27, as the gelding’s next two starts.

“If I was going to make the Breeders’ Cup, after that race, the timing was right to give him a break,” Orseno said of the Maryland Sprint. “I wanted to give him two months, it ended up being 2 1/2. For me, it was perfect. He got the break, he’s been training well. I breezed him three good halves, then I got a really strong open gallop into him that they put down as a mile work.”

Joe Bravo will ride Happy My Way in the Vanderbilt. Happy My Way was assigned 117 pounds, the same as Bahamian Squall, the runner-up in last year’s Vanderbilt, and two fewer than expected starting highweight Palace (119). Others expected to run include Bakken, Capo Bastone, Lemon Drop Dream, and Vyjack, all of whom carry 115 pounds. Falling Sky (116) and Dads Caps (116) are possible.