Walden excited to stretch Minaret Station out in Bowling Green
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What could have been a memorable Fourth of July weekend instead turned into one trainer Will Walden would prefer to forget. Walden ran just two horses, enduring a nose loss with West End Kid in Saturday’s Grade 1 Belmont Derby at Saratoga and a head defeat with Bank Heist in the Pea Patch Stakes at Ellis Park.
“That will stick with me for a while,” Walden said. “But we’re moving on.”
Walden will be back in stakes action Saturday at Saratoga when he sends out Minaret Station in the Grade 2, $250,000 Bowling Green Stakes. This will be Minaret Station’s first start at 1 3/8 miles, and Walden is confident it’s a distance the 4-year-old son of Instilled Regard will relish. Thus far, Minaret Station has won 3 of 6 starts at mile or 1 1/16 miles.
“I’m really excited to get him around three turns, get him out to 11 furlongs,” Walden said. “I feel like he’s been begging for it for a while now.”
Minaret Station has had his share of ailments. At 2, he won 2 of 3 starts, including the Grade 2 Bourbon at 1 1/16 miles. In his lone start at 3, he won the American Derby at Churchill Downs. Minaret Station was entered in but scratched from the Saratoga Derby last summer and didn’t run again until this spring.
In two starts this year, Minaret Station finished fourth, beaten one length by Lagynos, in the Opening Verse going one mile at Churchill in April. He came back one month later to finish second, beaten three-quarters of a length again by Lagynos, in the Grade 3 Arlington at 1 1/16 miles. Lagynos has won five consecutive stakes, including the Grade 2 Wise Dan in his most recent start.
For Walden, Minaret Station’s efforts against Lagynos were proof enough to convince him the horse is heading the right way.
“He’s a very methodical, one-paced individual,” Walden said. “He has an electric turn of foot. The mile and three furlongs allow him to be a little more in the race than he would at a mile and a sixteenth. His two runs [this year] have been really awesome. I’m really proud of the way he’s run. If the efforts he’s put forth have been at distances he doesn’t prefer, then what’s he going to do when he gets his preferred distance?”
Jose Ortiz will ride Minaret Station for the first time, replacing Cristian Torres.
The Bowling Green, the local prep for the Grade 1 Christophe Clement (formerly the Sword Dancer) drew seven but is expected to lose Carcano, who is entered on Sunday at Colonial, but may not be running in either spot, according to trainer Vicki Oliver.
Fort George, bred and based in Great Britain, is in for this race, having been freshened following a busy winter campaign in Dubai for trainer Ed Walker. Fort George put in three solid runs from Jan. 9 to Feb. 28, sandwiching a win in the Group 3 Dubai Millennium between runner-up finishes in an overnight handicap and the Grade 2 Dubai City of Gold, the latter being to the ageless wonder Rebel’s Romance.
Walker had planned to bring Fort George back to England before the conflict between the United States and Iran began, causing havoc for travel in the Middle East. Walker ran Fort George in the Grade 1 Dubai Turf, where he pushed the early pace before fading to ninth behind superstar Ombudsman, who came back to win the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.
“The tempo of the race at that level was very strong,” Walker told NYRA publicity. “He’d been on the go for a little while, so he’s had a break and a freshen up. We’re looking forward to seeing him back on the racecourse.”
Ole Crazy Bone, who won the Kentucky Downs Turf Cup at 1 1/2 miles last September, stretches back out in distance after finishing second in a 1 1/16-mile allowance at Churchill in May his lone start this year.
Carson’s Run is a two-time Grade 1 winner but has been off form for a little while. Trainer Miguel Clement is looking forward to getting him back out to 1 3/8 miles.
“He should appreciate the distance and more importantly, I think he’s training very, very well here at Saratoga with us,” Clement said. “It took us a little time to get him back into form. At the moment, he’s given us every indication that he’s back to his best.”
Soleil Volant, an allowance winner going 1 3/8 miles at Churchill in May, finished second to Just a Touch in the Cape Henlopen Stakes. Desvio, who upset the Grade 2 Sycamore Stakes at Keeneland at odds of 34-1 last October, completes the field.
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