Fast Falcon could have rematch with Alpha in Jockey Club Gold Cup

Fast Falcon could have rematch with Alpha in Jockey Club
Gold Cup

Fast Falcon was flying to just miss by a neck in the Travers (NYRA/Adam Coglianese Photography) Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito was his usual philosophical self the morning after Fast Falcon finished a fast-closing third to the dead-heating tandem of Alpha and Golden Ticket in Saturday’s Grade 1 Travers at Saratoga. “You can see (the photo finish) and the dead-heat, and you see our horse, Fast Falcon, right in the picture,” Zito said. “The good thing is that he’ll be part of history. That was good.” In the Travers, Fast Falcon left from the outside post and trailed in 11th through the first six furlongs of the race, had his momentum briefly stymied behind the faltering Street Life on the far turn, and closed with a rush down the center of the home stretch to miss by a neck. “A great race. We’re very, very proud, very happy, very elated,” stated Zito, who trains Fast Falcon for Richard C. Pell. “The bittersweet thing is you know he could have won it. The horse who got hurt stopped in front of him, Street Life. “Eddie (Fountaine of the New York Post) just reminded me that was the third (close loss) we had in the Travers. We had Albert the Great (in 2000), we had Fly Down (in 2010), and now we have this one.” While Zito was pleased with Fast Falcon’s performance, he said the outcome of the race might have been different had some of the circumstances been different.

“There are three factors,” Zito explained. “Post position. (Fast Falcon) draws 11.
Maybe he draws 7. You already save some ground, right? Then, the horse,
Street Life, stops in front of him. And then (speed horse) Hansen wasn’t in
there.”

The trainer added that he would love to have a rematch with Alpha, preferably in
the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup on September 29 at Belmont Park.

“I think if Alpha were to show up in the Gold Cup, we would give it a whirl,
just to see if we’re better than him, to keep pace with him, see how good we
are,” Zito admitted. “That’s the way I like to do things. I’m not going for this
Derby or Indiana or that. That doesn’t do no good for us. This is what we like
to do, right?”

Jackson Bend, also trained by Zito for LaPenta, remains tentatively on target
for a title defense in next Saturday’s Grade 1 Forego, two weeks after he
collided with a horse while galloping on the Oklahoma training track. Zito said
the five-year-old will breeze Monday, his first work since the incident.

“Like I say, that would be a miracle (if Jackson Bend won the Forego),” Zito
remarked. “There would be a lot of people believing in God, including me. So that’s
what we’re going to do. We’ll see what happens.

“He’s fit. The workout he had (on
August 16) was amazing. It was (four furlongs in :49 1/5), but it was in a
gallop. He’s really ready. He likes it up here.”

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