Whitney could be payback time for Palace Malice

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher has enjoyed too much success at Saratoga to lament the ones that got away. One can forgive him, however, for still agonizing over last year’s Travers, in which Palace Malice stumbled at the start, was last early, and rallied to finish fourth, beaten three-quarters of a length by Will Take Charge.

“You don’t want to take anything away from the winner, [but] I always felt we ran the best horse that day,” Pletcher said. “He missed the break, was last going by the stands the first time, and had a lot to do. He was steadily gaining and just came up a length short. Yeah, that’s one we felt like we let slip away from us.”

Palace Malice can avenge that loss in Saturday’s $1.5 million Whitney Invitational, which features four of the top five finishers from last year’s Travers.

Will Take Charge and Moreno – who were separated by a nose – Palace Malice, and fifth-place finisher Romansh will comprise about half the field for the Whitney. Post positions for the Whitney were to be drawn Wednesday, and the field was expected to include 2012 Travers dead-heat winner Golden Ticket, Departing, Itsmyluckyday, Prayer for Relief, and possibly Zivo.

One can only hope the Whitney is half as entertaining as last year’s Travers.

Moreno, who had finished third in the Jim Dandy, was discarded by the bettors at 31-1 in the Travers. But when Palace Malice didn’t break well, Moreno, ridden by Jose Ortiz, found himself loose on the lead through a half-mile in 48.88 seconds, six furlongs in 1:13.43, and a mile in 1:37.47. Moreno had his Type A-personality trainer, Eric Guillot, thinking upset.

“When I saw the 48-and-change, I said, ‘It’s going to be hard to catch him,’ ” Guillot said.

Orb, the Kentucky Derby winner who hadn’t run since the Belmont Stakes, made an inside run at a drifting-out Moreno in the stretch, but Moreno turned him back.

“When I put Orb away inside the eighth pole, I thought, ‘I might be home free, I might win this thing at 30-1,’ ” Guillot said. “The horse surged and beat me by a nose. It was heart-wrenching. It took something out of me. It was brutal.”

The horse was Will Take Charge, a statuesque chestnut with a big white face, who was coming off a good second to Palace Malice in the Jim Dandy. That result followed a Triple Crown campaign in which Will Take Charge was beaten a combined 45 1/4 lengths. The combination of him thriving at Saratoga and a decision by trainer D. Wayne Lukas to remove blinkers helped Will Take Charge rebound.

“I thought we came up to it in top form,” Lukas said. “We got our great effort on the day we needed it. We needed every foot of the racetrack. [Moreno] had a dream trip. He was on the lead, and I think he probably ran his career best, too.”

A few days after the Travers, Guillot was shown a video that convinced him that Luis Saez, the rider of Will Take Charge, used an electronic device, known as a battery, on Will Take Charge to help him run faster. Guillot filed an official complaint with the New York State Gaming Commission, which, after a five-week investigation, dismissed it.

Though Guillot did apologize to Lukas and attempted to apologize to Saez, he said, “I’d do it all over again. I showed it to 100 adults, and 99 of them saw the same thing. I would do it all over again. Isn’t that what the complaint department is for?”

Lukas said he never worried about it because he knew neither he nor Saez did anything wrong.

“If you know you’re not guilty of anything, it never has bothered me,” Lukas said. “If I have done something wrong, I’d straighten it out and correct it. I was never worried about that. Little Luis took it harder than anyone. It bothered his whole family.”

The one thing Lukas and Guillot do concur with is that Palace Malice likely ran the best race in the Travers.

“Palace Malice ran huge – there’s no question about it,” Lukas said.

“I think Palace Malice was the best horse,” Guillot said. “Palace Malice proved he’s the real deal.”

This year, Palace Malice is 4 for 4 and is coming off a victory in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, making him a leading contender for champion older male and potentially Horse of the Year.

On Saturday in the Whitney, Palace Malice gets another shot at Grade 1 glory at Saratoga. He doesn’t intend to let this one slip away.