Good Night Shirt, Preemptive Strike face-off in Carolina
Cup
The battle lines drawn last fall will play out again Saturday at the 77th
annual Carolina Cup Races, when two-time steeplechase champion GOOD NIGHT SHIRT
(Concern) and speedball PREEMPTIVE STRIKE (Roanoke) renew a budding rivalry in
the day’s featured $75,000 Carolina Cup (NSA-G2). Historic Springdale Race
Course hosts six races totaling $170,000 but none more important than the 2
1/4-mile feature, an open stakes for the first time since 2005.
Last fall, Good Night Shirt and Preemptive Strike hooked up in a memorable
running of the Colonial Cup (NSA-G1), with the former needing every inch of the
2 3/4 miles to wear down a stubborn and tenacious Preemptive Strike and score by
a neck. The victory capped off an undefeated season for Sonny Via’s Good Night
Shirt, and cemented his second consecutive Eclipse Award as champion
steeplechaser.
Trained by Jack Fisher, Good Night Shirt continued to raise the bar in 2008.
The chestnut broke the single-season earnings record he set in 2007 with
$485,520. All five of his victories — the Georgia Cup, Iroquois, Lonesome
Glory, Grand National and Colonial Cup — came in Grade 1 stakes, and prior to
the Colonial Cup he had won his four races by 13 3/4 lengths.
Good Night Shirt embarks on his path to a three-peat on Saturday, and will
carry 158 pounds under allowance conditions. Last fall he carried level weights
(156) with Preemptive Strike in the Colonial Cup. This year, the latter gets in
at 150 pounds, and that spread is one of the many things that Good Night Shirt’s
regular jockey Willie Dowling will have to think about.
“The weight is a little bit of a worry, but really the half-mile shorter is
the big advantage Preemptive Strike will have,” Dowling admitted. “Obviously
I’ll be more aware of Preemptive Strike this time around and I won’t let him get
away again early; I’ll be right beside him. But I watched the Colonial Cup about
100 times this week and we were going pretty good too a half-mile from home, so
I think we’ll be fine. Jack and I also think that the shorter trip helps with
Good Night Shirt’s first run of the year, as it has him pretty keen.”
Like the Colonial Cup last fall, the Carolina Cup is run over Springdale’s
larger brush fences that Preemptive Strike has excelled over in the past. Fisher
enters knowing it won’t be easy.
“Preemptive Strike’s my biggest threat,” Fisher said. “He ran a great race
last fall, and he’s a good enough horse to make you think. He’s better over the
Cup fences and he’s even tougher at a shorter distance. I don’t worry about a
lot of things, but he’s one of them.”
Polaris Stable’s Preemptive Strike, who will have Jody Petty in the saddle
for the Carolina Cup, brings a dangerous blend of speed and stamina every time
he meets the starter. Now 11, the chestnut gelding did little wrong in 2008,
finishing in the money in all four starts, including a win in the Imperial Cup
to open the season.
Trainer Sanna Hendriks has gotten Preemptive Strike — once known as a
runaway who would open 20 to 30 lengths on the field — to settle early in his
races and leave more starch for the stretch run. The style worked to perfection
in the 2008 Imperial Cup, where Preemptive Strike set a measured pace and drew
off in the lane, and it almost worked in the Colonial Cup, where he held a
sensible three to four length lead over Good Night Shirt for much of the
running.
“We’ve worked hard at harnessing his speed since he came into our program and
it helped him have a really good year in 2008,” Hendriks said. “He missed all of
2006 with an injury and I just feel like in 2007 it took some time to get to
know him, and for him to get to know us and our program.”
While Preemptive Strike enters as the elder statesman in the Carolina Cup he
does have a distinct advantage over his younger rivals: a confirmed liking for
the taller brush fences, as opposed to the standard National Fence, employed for
both the Carolina Cup and the Colonial Cup.
“He handles those bigger fences better than he does other ones, which helps,”
Hendriks said. “That’s a big, galloping course down there and he uses that to
his advantage and it fits his style. I know he’s 11 now, but it’s just a number
because he’s not over-raced and is very enthusiastic in his training, so his age
doesn’t show. Certainly you can’t feel too confident facing Good Night Shirt,
but at the same time we gave him his biggest scare last year so hopefully we can
do that again.”
Sally Radcliffe’s BEST ATTACK (Bahri) tried Good Night Shirt four times last
season and was hardly disgraced while compiling a second and two thirds. The
Bruce Miller-trained eight-year-old made a bold move in the Colonial Cup,
drawing within a half-length of Preemptive Strike and Good Night Shirt, before
finishing third and 6 3/4 lengths behind that pair. Miller sees Saturday as a
good starting point for a 2009 campaign but knows he faces the division’s best.
“He’s doing really well, but I don’t know if he can beat Good Night Shirt,”
Miller said. “I don’t have that many places to run my horse and the race he ran
(at Camden) last fall was the best race he’s run. That’s a big reason why I’m
going. Good Night Shirt is the horse to beat, but they’ll have a hard time
catching Preemptive Strike too.”
Xavier Aizpuru will guide Best Attack over the fences.
Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard will give a leg up to Robbie Walsh on
Calvin Houghland’s DR. BLOOMER (Fantastic Fellow), who won the Marcellus Frost
(NSA-G3) over open company in May at Nashville and then returned to novice
company and scored in the AFLAC Championship (NSA-G1) in November at Callaway
Gardens. Dr. Bloomer went flag-to-wire in the AFLAC and his early speed could
have him tangling with Preemptive Strike on the front end.
ISTI BEE (NZ) (Istidaad) and jockey Paddy Young rounds out the field for the
Carolina Cup for Maggie Bryant and trainer Doug Fout.
The NSA and Carolina Cup Races will conduct live streaming video of the
Carolina Cup Races on their websites Saturday. Viewers will be able to see all
the live action with post time for the first race at 1:30 p.m. (EDT). To view
the races, go to the NSA’s website, www.nationalsteeplechase.com, or Carolina
Cup’s website, www.carolina-cup.org, and click on the link on the homepage.