Vekoma passing Forego for Vosburgh
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Unsurprisingly, multiple Grade 1 winner Vekoma will not make the Grade 1 Forego Stakes here Aug. 29 because he missed too much time due to a foot bruise, part-owner Randy Hill said Thursday. Instead, Vekoma will point to the Grade 2 Vosburgh on Sept. 26 at Belmont Park, where earlier this year he won the Grade 1 Carter and Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap.
“It made sense,” said Hill, who owns Vekoma with Mike Gatsas. “We had a little trouble with his foot.”
Hill said trainer George Weaver “wanted to give him a little more time.”
“Any move George has made with this horse has been the right move,” Hill said. “I’m not one that tells a trainer what to do.”
In choosing the Vosburgh with Vekoma, it could set up a showdown with Volatile, winner of the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt who has been mentioned as a likely Vosburgh starter.
“I’m not afraid to run against that horse,” Hill said.
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Hill will still have two runners in the Forego, Funny Guy and Majestic Dunhill. Funny Guy, a New York-bred son of Big Brown, is coming off New York-bred stakes wins in the Commentator at Belmont in June and the John Morrissey at Saratoga on July 30.
“You want to find out what you got,” Hill said. “If Vekoma ran in the Forego we were going to run Funny Guy in another graded stakes. We think he’s that good.”
Majestic Dunhill has not won since taking a listed stakes at Laurel Park in November 2018. He has run well in stakes on turf and dirt, finishing second in the Grade 3 General George on dirt at Laurel in 2019 and second in the First Defence Stakes on turf in June.
Others pointing to the Forego include Complexity, Everfast, Firenze Fire, Lexitonian, Mind Control, True Timber, and Win Win Win.