King's Bishop contender Wildcat Red settles in at the Spa

Grade 2 hero Wildcat Red galloped 1 1/8

miles over a muddy main track on Wednesday, his second morning at

Saratoga, with regular exercise rider Pete Shelton aboard.

Trained by Jose Garoffalo for Salvatore Delfino and Josie

Martino's Honors Stable Corp., Wildcat Red arrived midafternoon on Monday

from Monmouth Park, where he ran third in the July 27 Haskell Invitational.

The three-year-old son of D'wildcat

also galloped over the track Tuesday morning. Scheduled to breeze this weekend,

he will make his next start in the Grade 1, $500,000 King's Bishop on August 23

at the Spa.

"We went out in the rain, but the track was good," said

Garoffalo's assistant, Nick Galati. "He loved Monmouth, and he hasn't missed a

beat here. This is a lot different than he's used to, but he likes this track.

He just does his business. This morning the rain just had him on his toes.

That's a good sign."

Wildcat Red is stabled with trainer John Kimmel adjacent to

the main track, where he has a view of horses walking to and from the track from

his stall window as well as the traffic driving by on Union Avenue.

"There's a lot to look at. He likes that back window," Galati noted. "He can look out at a row of horses across the way. It's amazing. It's

relaxed him. He usually terrorizes the barn. Walking out to the track he stops

and looks. It's good for him. It's good for everybody, don't you think?"

Bred in Florida, Wildcat Red made the first seven starts of

his career at Garoffalo's

Gulfstream Park base, winning the Hutcheson

and Fountain of Youth and finishing second in the Florida Derby

and Gulfstream Park Derby.

His neck loss to Constitution in the Florida Derby earned

him a trip to the Kentucky Derby, where he finished 18th following a rough

start. He returned to win a stakes at Gulfstream before pressing winner Bayern

for much of the Haskell until passed late and finishing a length behind

runner-up Albano.

"Other than the winner, he was the only one that really ran his race," Galati

declared. "He just lost second to that horse that was on the rail.

It was a great effort.

"He looks like a million bucks. He filled out and muscled

up and just looks awesome. He couldn't be happier."

Galati, 52, is a Long Island native who first came to

Saratoga in 1976 and has worked on the NYRA circuit as an assistant for Hall of

Fame trainers Allen Jerkens, Nick Zito and the late Bobby Frankel.

He has traveled to Kentucky, New Jersey and now New York

with Wildcat Red, a $30,000

OBS purchase who has banked $850,850 in 10 lifetime

starts.

"Everything kind of happened gradually. He was just getting a little better

and a little better. We didn't even talk about going to the Derby and then, all

of a sudden, it happened," Galati said. "He's a gift. He's a

special horse to be around. Other than the Derby, he's been there every single

time."

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