Zivo streaks into Woodward
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It’s hard enough to get one horse to win six consecutive races. In the last 22 months, Chad Brown has had three horses pull off the feat.
On Saturday at Saratoga, Zivo will bring a six-race winning streak into the Grade 1, $600,000 Woodward Stakes, where he will face Whitney one-two finishers Moreno and Itsmyluckyday in the 1 1/8-mile dirt race. The Woodward is one of four stakes on a 12-race card that includes the return of two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan in the Grade 2, $250,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap on turf.
Zivo, a New York-bred son of True Direction, enters the Woodward off a three-length victory over Moreno in the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park on July 5. It was his ninth win from 15 career starts and his sixth straight, a streak that began in an open-company, first-level allowance race at Aqueduct last Dec. 14.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 6 Zivo. Trainer Chad Brown is 6 for 17 with a $2.56 ROI over the past two years in dirt routes with last-out winners following a layoff of between 45 and 60 days. Click for more details. – Dan Illman
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“You got to put them in spots where they can do well,” said Brown, who also won six consecutive races with Woodward starter Last Gunfighter and Readtheprospectus. “You get on a run with these horses, they’re getting more confident, overachieving. It helps the development of a horse. You get in a rhythm where you just don’t know how far up the ladder they’ll go. You just give them every chance. This is getting towards the top.”
Brown and owner Thomas Coleman gave some consideration to running Zivo in the Whitney but opted to give him a brief freshening for the late summer and fall.
“You can’t run in them all,” said Brown. “We thought the Whitney was a good one to skip out of all of them. Come in here fresh at a mile and an eighth, slight cutback off the Suburban, and hope we get some pace.”
Zivo will break from post 7 under Jose Lezcano.
Brown also will send out Last Gunfighter, whose six-race winning streak from October 2012 to May 2013 included the Excelsior, Pimlico Special, and Philip Iselin – all Grade 3 stakes. Last Gunfighter finished fifth in the Whitney.
Moreno, who won the Whitney in front-running fashion, will once again be the main pace of the race. His trainer, Eric Guillot, thought that despite losing to Zivo in the Suburban, Moreno ran his best race because he was forced to run fast fractions early on.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 4 Moreno. Trainer Eric Guillot is 3 for 24 with a $0.94 ROI over the past five years in dirt routes with a last-out winner. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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There does not appear to be many horses in the Woodward who can run early with Moreno, who will break from post 4 under Junior Alvarado.
Itsmyluckyday, beaten 1 1/4 lengths by Moreno in the Whitney, adds blinkers for this race. Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. said he’s not looking for more speed from Itsmyluckyday. Instead, he just wants the colt to be more focused in the stretch. He drew the rail and will be ridden by Paco Lopez.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 2 Itsmyluckyday. Trainer Edward Plesa Jr. is 8 for 33 with a $4.15 ROI over the past five years adding blinkers in route races; however, all of those wins came with maidens (0 for 10 with non-maidens). Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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Others entered in the Woodward are Long River and Romansh, who are a coupled entry from Godolphin Racing, Micromanage, Prayer for Relief, Norumbega, and Stephanoatsee.