The 2020 Saratoga thoroughbred season reached its midpoint on Wednesday. Twenty cards down and 20 to go until Labor Day, and the usual suspects are doing the damage at the historic racetrack.
Todd Pletcher has slowly but steadily climbed up the trainer standings. Pletcher won six consecutive titles from 2010-15, and he was back in the catbird seat when Spinoff won Sunday’s Alydar Stakes. It was Pletcher’s 16th win and moved him ahead of Christophe Clement and Michael Maker, who have 15 and 14 wins, respectively.
Not many would have picked Clement and Maker to be ahead of two-time defending champion Chad Brown at this point. Brown has started 70 horses — more than anyone — and has 13 wins. A Cornell graduate and the pride of Mechanicville, Brown won 41 races last year and 46 in 2018. He considers Saratoga his domain, and those writing him off are doing so at their own risk.
Others who’ve surprised at this point include Orlando Noda and Jorge Abreu. The former has six wins from 15 starts, and the latter has notched five from 13.
One or the other Ortiz brothers, Irad Jr. or Jose, has won the Saratoga riding title every year since 2016. At this writing Irad had 32 wins to his brother’s 31, and Joel Rosario was lurking in third place with 28. Rosario wins at a 24 percent clip, best of anyone.
Jockeys and trainers who plan to race in the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5 will need to be in Louisville by Aug. 24 in order to meet restrictions imposed by Churchill Downs regarding COVID-19.
NYRA’s Greg Wolf reported that several riders have said they’d rather stay at the Spa. Indeed, it has been an idyllic first four weeks and no one wants it to end. It only rains on Tuesdays, or so it seems, and the crowds have been ahem, quite manageable.
Trainers can station themselves in the empty grandstand and focus their binoculars unperturbed, and riders can walk back to the jockey quarters without being bothered for a selfie or hectored by bettors.
Three Diamonds Farm named a horse for Andy Serling, the petulant NYRA handicapper who’s often at odds with his colleagues. The horse’s name is Mr. Annoying. Serling plays bad guy to trainer Tom Amoss’s good guy, and calls Jonathan Kinchen a “chalk-eating weasel.”
For those who don’t follow racing, that means Kinchen likes to bet favorites.
After his romp in Saturday’s Travers Stakes, Tiz the Law became the odds-on favorite in the futures pools to win next month’s Kentucky Derby. Art Collector and Honor A.P. are both 8-1 to beat Tiz the Law or hope he doesn’t race. The former horse won Sunday’s Ellis Park Derby at 2-5 odds, and the latter won the Santa Anita Derby at 2-1 odds in June.
Trained by 80-year-old Barclay Tagg, Tiz the Law is the even-money favorite and the sentimental choice because he was bred in New York and is owned by a blue collar outfit called the Sackatoga Stable.
The jockey, Manny Franco, grew up in Puerto Rico idolizing Derek Jeter. His dream was to play shortstop for the New York Yankees, but winning the Kentucky Derby wouldn’t be so bad either.
NOTES: All it took was Bob Baffert comparing lightly-raced Uncle Chuck to his 2016 Travers winner Arrogate for bettors to move off of heavily favored Tiz the Law, but the 5-2 second choice spit the bit and finished next-to-last. His $25,000 in sixth-place purse money was enough to cover travel expenses back to SoCal. … Hunch players who watch Game of Thrones got burned on Friday when Sandor Clegane ran next-to-last in maidens. … There’s hot-and-cold everything, including post positions. According to Equibase, the eight post has accounted for one winner in 62 sprint races. … On Wednesday, Steve Asmussen’s talented but star-crossed Gun It tried to atone for prior shortcomings when Jose Ortiz rode him at 5-1 in the second race. The 4-year-old gray cost $2.8 million but has earned only $175,580 in a dozen races.