November 20, 2024

Elkhorn winner Unitarian returns for Sycamore

Last updated: 10/13/14 12:59 PM











Unitarian overcame a slow pace to win the Elkhorn going away

(Keeneland/Coady Photography)

Unraced since posting an 18-1 upset of the Elkhorn at
Keeneland on April 25,
Unitarian returns to the Lexington, Kentucky, track for Thursday’s Grade 3,
$100,000
Sycamore
over 12 furlongs on the turf.

Trained by Todd Pletcher, the Pulpit colt overcame a deficit of more than
nine lengths, and an eight-wide bid, to win the 1 1/2-mile Elkhorn, a Grade 2
event, by 1 1/4 lengths over War Dancer, subsequent winner of the Louisville
Handicap.

Prior to notching that initial stakes win, Unitarian had captured two
allowances at Gulfstream and had trailed throughout in the Fair Grounds
Handicap, which marked his stakes debut.

Pletcher will also saddle Red Rifle, who took the Maxxam Gold Cup at Sam
Houston on dirt last March and who has a win and two seconds from three grass
starts since July. Most recently, the four-year-old captured the $98,000 Yankee
Affair, an overnight stakes over a mile and a half on the Belmont Park turf. He
is the potential lone speed.

Also lining up for the Sycamore is Tricky Hat, third in the 2013 Sycamore and
winner of the $100,000 John’s Call at Saratoga on August 6. Fifth behind
Unitarian in the Elkhorn, the Shug McGaughey charge occupied that same position
last out in the Kentucky Turf Cup.

Holiday Star, runner-up by a nose to Tricky Hat in the John’s Call, missed by
the same margin in the PTHA President’s Cup at Parx last time. He’s placed just
once in three previous attempts on the Keeneland turf for trainer Graham Motion.

Also looking for their first Keeneland turf success are Aldous Snow, Grade 3
scorer in the Singspiel at Woodbine in July prior to sixth-place efforts in the
Sky Classic and Northern Dancer Turf; multiple Grade 3 veteran Mister Marti
Gras, a neck third in the Washington Park Handicap at Arlington last time; Grade
2-placed stakes winner and recent claiming mainstay Cozy Kitten; and the
stakes-placed Villandry.

Debuting at Keeneland on Thursday is St. Albans Boy, who followed up a
second-level allowance score going 1 3/8 miles at Saratoga with a narrow defeat
in the Laurel Turf Cup on September 27.



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