Whitmore to stick to sprinting for now, target Phoenix Stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Whitmore's victory in the $600,000 Forego at Saratoga on Saturday was trainer Ron Moquett’s second win in a Grade 1. In 2006, he won the Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs with 90-1 Seek Gold.

Robert LaPenta, co-owner of Travers winner Catholic Boy, has been involved in both of Moquett’s Grade 1 scores. He sold Seek Gold to Moquett just prior to the Foster. Now, Moquett has returned the favor. He sold a partial interest in Whitmore to LaPenta following the gelding’s debut victory in 2015.

“Bob told me if I ever saw a horse for him, to let him know,” Moquett said. “This horse was a gelding with not much pedigree, but I thought he would be okay.”

Whitmore is now 11 of 22 with more than $1.9 million in earnings. The seven-furlong Forego oddly was a Win and You’re In for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, not the BC Sprint.

Moquett would not commit to the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Sunday morning and for the time being will concentrate on getting Whitmore to the Grade 2, $250,000 Phoenix, a six-furlong race at Keeneland on Oct. 6.

“We’re going to keep our options open and let him write the script,” Moquett said. “We’re going to look at the race at Keeneland and see what happens there.”

Moquett is confident that Whitmore, a 5-year-old son of Pleasantly Perfect, can handle a one-turn mile at Churchill. As a 3-year-old at Oaklawn Park, Whitmore finished third to eventual Belmont Stakes winner Creator in the Arkansas Derby, second to Cupid in the Rebel, and second to Suddenbreakingnews in the Southwest.

Saturday’s victory was meaningful to Moquett, who has great respect for the history of racing and its great horses, like Forego.

“To be able to one day say you had your silks painted on a jockey statue outside Saratoga is special,” Moquett said. “This is a historical race, and he is a throwback horse. There’s nothing finesse about him. He’s a take-on-all-comers, fight-it-out type of horse.”

Trainer Michael McCarthy said Sunday morning that 4-5 Forego favorite City of Light had come out of the race fine and was already on his way back to California.

While Whitmore was cutting the corner into the stretch of the Forego, City of Light was caught in the midst of a very wide trip.

“He was in no-man’s land coming into the stretch,” McCarthy said. “In Grade 1 races at seven-eighths, that’s tough to do. I thought he galloped out super, in front.

“We’ll get him home and regroup. He needed the race, and I think he’ll come forward out of it.”

McCarthy originally wanted to run City of Light in the 1 1/8-mile Whitney, but a “stubborn foot bruise” prompted him to change plans and run in the shorter Forego three weeks later.

Although McCarthy didn’t get the money with City of Light, Saturday was not a total loss. He won the Grade 3, $300,000 Smarty Jones at Parx Racing with Axelrod, who in his previous start had finished a head the best in the Grade 3 Indiana Derby.