Wise Dan lights up rain-soaked Firecracker

A drenching downpour was the least of Wise Dan’s problems in Saturday night’s Firecracker (Churchill Downs/Reed Palmer Photography) Reigning Horse of the Year Wise Dan overcame the soggy, yielding turf course at Churchill Downs, a drenching downpour, a rough trip and the highweight of 128 pounds in Saturday’s Grade 2, $168,450 Firecracker Handicap to prevail by two lengths on the wire for owner/breeder Mort Fink and trainer Charles LoPresti. The hard-knocking six-year-old earned his seventh straight win while becoming the first two-time scorer of the Firecracker. The winner’s share pushed his earnings to $4,164,070 and the chestnut gelding improved his career mark to read 16-1-0 from 23 starts. Both Seruni and Ol Army headed to the front from their outside posts when the gates opened, with the former setting the opening fractions in :24 3/5 and :49. Meanwhile, jockey John Velazquez had Wise Dan running on the hedge just in behind with Lea to his immediate outside while Daddy Nose Best brought up the rear. Wise Dan wasn’t given any leeway by his rivals, remaining trapped throughout the backstretch under a strong hold from Velazquez to keep him from running up on the heels of Seruni. He stayed boxed in until the turn, when a miniscule seam opened up between the pacesetter and the hedge, then there was no holding the multiple champion back as he squeezed through.

Seruni wouldn’t give an inch, though, keeping Wise Dan in tight on the inside
and practically running through the hedge, until he finally managed to clear
that rival and pull away to finish the one-mile contest in 1:39 4/5.

Wise Dan paid $2.40 and $2.10 after show wagering was canceled as the 1-5
prohibitive favorite. Lea overtook Seruni late for runner-up honors, while Daddy
Nose Best and Ol Army completed the order under the wire. Corporate Jungle,
Dimension and Finnegans Wake were all withdrawn.

Unraced as a juvenile, Wise Dan showed ability when winning four of six starts
at three. During that 2010 campaign, he captured his stakes debut in the Phoenix
Stakes at Keeneland and finished a creditable sixth, beaten just 2 1/2 lengths,
in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Wise Dan proved a triple-surface threat in 2011,
winning the Firecracker in his turf debut, and adding the Presque Isle Mile on
Tapeta, before romping in the Fayette over Keeneland’s Polytrack and the Clark
Handicap on the Churchill Downs dirt.

The chestnut gelding kicked off his 2012 season at Keeneland with a
scintillating 10 1/2-length conquest of the Ben Ali in a track-record time of
1:46.63 on the Polytrack. Wise Dan returned to Churchill for the Stephen Foster
Handicap, only to lose by a head after a tough trip. That is his only loss in
his past 11 races.

Wise Dan reverted to turf for the Fourstardave Handicap last August at
Saratoga, where he posted a five-length demolition job, and came back a month
later to dominate the Woodbine Mile by 3 1/4 lengths. Wise Dan used the Shadwell
Turf Mile in October at Keeneland as a virtual paid workout, with a 2 1/4-length
jaunt that set him up perfectly for the November 3 Breeders’ Cup Mile. In that
championship-clinching victory at Santa Anita, he scorched in a course and
stakes-record time of 1:31.78.

By taking home Eclipse Awards as Horse of the Year, champion older male and
champion turf male, Wise Dan joined the legendary John Henry as the only two to
sweep those three honors in the Eclipse era.

Now six-years old, Wise Dan figures to have much more time to polish his
resume. He made a triumphant return in the April 12 Maker’s 46 Mile at Keeneland
and posted a 4 3/4-length score over yet another yielding turf at Churchill
Downs in the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic last out on the Kentucky Derby
undercard.

The Kentucky-bred is by Wiseman’s Ferry and out of the winning Wolf Power
mare Lisa Danielle. He is a half-brother to multiple Grade 2 victor Successful
Dan, who set a new Churchill track record when taking the Alysheba last May.
Successful Dan recently returned from an injury-induced layoff to wire this
year’s Ben Ali on April 21, making it back-to-back wins in that race for the two
“Dans.”

Another half-sibling to the “Dans,” stakes winner Our Royal Dancer, is
herself the dam of Argentinean Group 2-placed Bailando Voy. Lisa Danielle is in
turn a half-sister to Grade 1-placed Carsona, who has produced Grade 2 victor
Siphon City. This is the family of German Group 1-winning highweight Scalo, and
further back, French champion, classic winner and noted sire *Val de Loir as
well as dual classic heroine and Irish champion *Valoris II.

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