Wise Dan records final Fourstardave move; King Kreesa
breezes a half-mile
Horse of the Year Wise Dan is sitting on “go” for the Grade
2, $500,000 Fourstardave Handicap on August 10 at Saratoga following a half-mile breeze
over the Spa’s good main track on Saturday morning.
Out shortly after the track opened at 5:30 a.m. (EDT), Wise Dan
went four furlongs in :49 2/5 seconds, galloping out five-eighths in 1:02
according to NYRA clockers, ranking 28th of 49 horses at the distance.
The move came one week after a sizzling five-furlong work
over the firm Oklahoma training track turf course in :57 1/5, after which
trainer Charles LoPresti was undecided whether to give Wise Dan another breeze
before the one-mile Fourstardave.
“I just wanted to do something easy with him,” said LoPresti, who trains the
six-year-old Wiseman’s Ferry gelding for owner/breeder Morton
Fink. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I didn’t want to take him to the
turf again. I just wanted a nice, easy work for him, just something to keep him
ticking over to next week.”
LoPresti said he wasn’t concerned about the time of the
work but is more focused on how Wise Dan is coming into his return to Saratoga.
Wise Dan began his seven-race win streak, which includes five Grade 1 victories,
in last year’s Fourstardave.
“He’s perfect,” LoPresti stated. “He could have gone so much faster, but we
didn’t want him to do that. He did that last week. That was the work that
prepared him for this race. This was just something to tick him over.”
LoPresti is following a similar schedule this year with
Wise Dan, whose older half-brother, Successful Dan, is running in Satuday’s Grade
1, $750,000 Whitney Invitational Handicap. A graded stakes winner on three
surfaces, including Grade 1 wins on dirt and turf, Wise Dan was also nominated
to the Whitney.
“I think he would be very hard to beat in the Whitney,” LoPresti said. “I
just feel that way. He’s trained well over this track.”
Also on the Saturday worktab for the Fourtstardave was King Kreesa,
who will step up in class off wins in Belmont Park’s July 4 Poker and
June 1 Kingston for New York-breds.
With jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, King Kreesa breezed four
furlongs on the firm Oklahoma turf course in :47 1/5 in company with stablemate
The Big Deluxe.
“It was a nice breeze, and Irad was real happy with him,” trainer Jeremiah Englehart
said. “He puts a lot into his training, so I wasn’t too worried about him
needing to get a lot out of the work.”
Owned by Gerald and Susan Kresa, King Kreesa set the pace
in both his 2 1/4-length Kingston victory and 1 1/2-length Poker triumph. Although
King Kreesa was on the lead in those races, Englehart believes the four-year-old
son of King Cugat doesn’t need it and will let the gelding race wherever he is most comfortable in
the Fourstardave.
“He’s much more mature in his races this year; he allows Irad to settle him,” Englehart
explained. “The trainer in me wants to believe he can race off the pace, but
everybody has been telling me he does his best when he races on the lead. I’m a
little biased, but I think he’ll be OK just off the pace. I’d be stupid to say I
know he’ll be fine racing off the pace, so we’ll just let him do his thing.”
Englehart acknowledges that the Fourstardave will be a
stern test for King Kreesa, a four-time stakes winner who is 5-3-2 in 14 starts.
“I have a lot of respect for what Wise Dan has
accomplished,” Englehart remarked. “The nice thing about horse racing is that
there are a lot of variables, and we feel like this is our time to take a
chance.”
Trainer John Shirreffs on Saturday said he is looking
forward to running Mr. Commons in the Fourstardave based off how the son of
Artie Schiller exited his fifth-place finish in an optional claiming race on July 24 at
Saratoga.
“He’s eating well, he’s training great, the rider is
commenting that he came out of that race with a lot of energy,” Shirreffs stated.
“It looks like this next race should be really good.”
A two-time Grade 2 winner on the turf, Mr. Commons finished
1 1/2 lengths behind the winner in the optional claimer. It was the
five-year-old bay’s first
start since the St. George Farm Racing colorbearer finished third in the Maker’s 46 Mile in April at Keeneland
behind Wise Dan.
Mr. Commons was scratched out of the
Jaipur in June at Belmont after the race was transferred to the main
track.
“His last race was a good comeback race, probably better
than his placing indicated,” Shirreffs remarked. “I’m looking forward to running
him. He needed a race — he had one work in a month (a four-furlong breeze in
:49 2/5 on July 17 at Belmont Park). We had a lot of bad weather and the timing
was never right, but the nice thing is he came out of this race really well. He
recovered quickly. The whole point of the allowance race was to get him ready
for the Fourstardave. We knew he would need a prep race.”
Shirreffs added that he wants Mr. Commons to get an outside
trip in the Fourstardave.
“When those horses came outside of him (in the July 24
race) he didn’t really like that,” Shirreffs noted. “If we can get the outside
and make a run, I think he’ll do very well.”
Mr. Commons will breeze on Sunday, according to his conditioner.
Also expected to line up next Saturday in the Fourstardave are Grade 3 winner Lea, runner-up to Wise Dan in the Firecracker at Churchill Downs
last out on June 29; Grade 2 victor Skyring, most recently sixth in the July 6 United Nations at Monmouth
Park; and dual Grade 3 conqueror Za Approval, most recently second in the Shoemaker Mile.
Grade 1 hero Willyconker, who was claimed just two back, is questionable, according to NYRA stakes
coordinator Andrew Byrnes.
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