Saturday & Sunday • August 14 & 15, 2021 FEC/FTBOA PUBLICATION www.wiretowire.net FLORIDA’SDAILYRACINGDIGEST FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION or to subscribe, please call Antoinette at 352-732-8858 or email: [email protected] In This Issue: Dr Post Likely for TVG Pacific Classic Elmore 2021 Jockeys and Jeans Man of the Year Amoss Rolls Dice Again With Sermononthemount in Ellis Park Derby Casse Sends out Talented Turf Duo in King Edward Gulfstream Park Charts Track Results & Entries Doctor Jeff/CHELSEA DURAND PHOTO Florida Stallion Progeny List Full Field of Juveniles to Florida Breeders’ List Square Off in Saratoga Special Wire to Wire Business Place BY NYRA PRESS OFFICE___________ cial, contested at six-and-a-half furlongs on the main track, is one of two stakes on the Featured Advertisers SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY—Doctor Jeff, 11-race card that will be bolstered by the fresh off his debut win last month at Bel- $500,000 Fourstardave Handicap (G1) for Florida Department of Agriculture mont Park, will take the step up in class and 3-year-olds and older going one mile on the face stakes company for the first time as inner turf that is a “Win and You’re In” Fred Burton Paving part of a 12-horse field of talented juveniles qualifier to the Grade 1 Fanduel Breeders’ FTBOA in Saturday’s $200,000 Saratoga Special Cup Mile presented by PDJF to be run Nov. presented by Miller Lite (Grade 2) at 6 at Del Mar. Ocala Breeders’ Feed & Supply Saratoga Race Course. Michael Dubb and Michael Caruso’s The 116th running of the Saratoga Spe- Doctor Jeff won first out in a six-furlong Peterson Smith Equine Hospital See FULL FIELD on page 3 Seminole Feed Wire to Wire August 14 & 15, 2021 Back to Top Page 3 Full Field Continued from COVER sprint taken off the turf at Bel- mont on July 10. The Street Boss colt earned a Saratoga Special field-high 78 Beyer Speed Figure for his two-and-a- quarter-length victory for trainer Rudy Rodriguez and subse- quently shipped to Saratoga, where he recorded three breezes over the main track, including a bullet five-furlong work in :59.61 on Sunday. “I’m just very happy with the way he’s training over here,” Rodriguez said. “He beat some tough horses the first time and he did it the right way. We just Rudy Rodriguez/COGLIANESE PHOTO take it day-by-day, but he’s been training over here for a while. If he doesn’t like the track now, he’s never going to like it.” Joel Rosario, aboard for Doctor Jeff’s win and the winner of last year’s Saratoga Special riding Jackie’s Warrior, will have the return call from post eight. Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, fresh off a whirlwind week in which he broke the record for most wins by a North American thor- oughbred trainer, will have a strong chance to add to that total in saddling a pair of Winchell Thoroughbred homebreds in Gunite and Red Run. The duo are both sons of Gun Runner, who Asmussen also trained during a stellar career that netted two Eclipse Awards, in- cluding 2017 Horse of the Year honors as well as that year’s Champion Older Dirt Male. “It’s extremely exciting. All a part of what makes racing great,” Asmussen said. “We’re fortunate to have horses like that and then have the chance for them to prove it. It’s amazing how he stamps them just with their attitude. Obviously, he gave them a tremen- dous amount of ability to find more than what matters. Winning and losing is usually the amount of effort willing to be applied.” Gunite has given that effort through his first three starts, im- proving in each race, culminating with a maiden-breaking win last See FULL FIELD on page 5 Wire to Wire August 14 & 15, 2021 Back to Top Wire to Wire August 14 & 15, 2021 Back to Top Page 5 Full Field Continued from page 3 out on June 26 going six furlongs at Churchill Downs. Gunite ran third on debut in April over a sloppy and sealed track at five fur- longs and stayed at the same distance in following with a runner- up effort on a fast Churchill course in May. Asmussen said stretching Gunite out in his last start was bene- ficial. “The distance had everything to do with it,” Asmussen said. “Going from five-eighths, five-and-a-half, three-quarters and go third, second and first. That’s how it felt to us.” Ricardo Santana Jr. will have the mount for a third consecutive time, drawing post two. Gunite will add blinkers. Red Run also could be a colt who might appreciate added distance. He boasts an impressive pedigree out of the Tapit mare Red House, who is a full-sister to 2014 Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1)-winner and champion 3-year-old filly Untapable. Red Run won going five furlongs on a sloppy Churchill track on May 9 before running fifth in the Grade 3 Bashford Manor on June 26 at Churchill stretched out to six furlongs. “He’s going to need considerably further. The pedigree suggests it also with his female side of the family,” Asmussen said. “I chose him to run here for his next step; he’s needing one.” Manny Franco will be in the irons from the outermost post 12. Fellow Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher will also send out a couple of talented colts, including Phoenix Thoroughbreds’ Double Thunder, who won the Bashford Manor by nearly five lengths Red Run/COADY PHOTO under Hall of Fame rider John Velazquez. The son of Super Saver is two-for-two to start his career, winning on June 5 at Monmouth Ottoman Empire, a $120,000 purchase at last year’s Keeneland before graduating against stakes company later in the month. September Yearling Sale, will look to parlay his graded stakes ex- After drawing away at Churchill and improving his career earn- perience into black type, picking up the services of jockey Dylan ings to a field-high $116,850, Double Thunder will compete at Davis from post three. He will also add blinkers. Saratoga for the first time, teaming again with Velazquez in breaking Robert Masterson’s Glacial won his first race for trainer Norm from post seven. Casse in May at Churchill before running third in the Bashford Pletcher’s other contender, Repole Stable’s Midnight Worker, Manor in his previous start. The son of Frosted, a $140,000 pur- showed an affinity for Saratoga already, edging Bourbon Heist by chase by Deuce Greathouse as an agent from the Kings Equine a head for a debut win going six furlongs at the historic track on Consignment at the OBS March Sale will pick up the services of July 24. Tyler Gaffalione in breaking from post 10. Midnight Worker, a son of Outwork, will pick up the services Rounding out the field is High Oak, Stolen Base, Dance Code of jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., departing from post five. and Kitodan. Nakatomi added to trainer Wesley Ward’s ever-growing list of first-out win- ners in April at Keeneland with a victory in a four-and-a-half-furlong contest over a sloppy and sealed track. That set up the Fir- ing Line gelding’s cross-Atlantic trip to Ascot, where he ran eighth in the Group 2 Norfolk going five furlongs on June 17. Owned by Qatar Racing, M. Detampel and D. Howden, Nakatomi registered a breeze on the Saratoga main track on Thursday and will see Hall of Famer Javier Castellano will pick up the mount for the first time, exiting the inside post. Greg Tramontin’s Ottoman Empire was a debut winner, topping an 11-horse field in a five-furlong sprint on June 20 at Churchill Downs. Trainer Tom Amoss then moved the son of Classic Empire up in class early in the Saratoga meet, where he ran fourth in the six-furlong Grade 3 Sanford over a main track rated good on July 17. Wire to Wire August 14 & 15, 2021 Back to Top Wire to Wire August 14 & 15, 2021 Back to Top Page 7 Dr Post Likely for TVG Pacific Classic BY DEL MAR PRESS OFFICE_________________________ DEL MAR, CA—Dr Post, a 4-year-old son of Quality Road trained by Todd Pletcher, is a strong candidate to ship in from the East Coast to run in the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic (Grade 1) a week from Saturday. Owned by the St. Elias Stable of Vincent Viola, whose sports-related endeavors include ownership of the National Hockey League’s Florida Panthers, Dr Post has four wins in nine career starts and earnings of $700,635. A $400,000 purchase at the 2018 Keeneland September sale by the late J.J. Crupi in the name of his Crupi’s New Castle Farm, Dr Post ran once as a 2-year-old before going through a five-race campaign in 2020 that featured a victory in the $75,000 Unbridled Stakes at Gulfstream Park, runner-up to Tiz the Law in the Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets (G1), third to Authen- tic in the TVG Haskell (G1) and fourth in the Jim Dandy won by Mystic Guide. His 2021 campaign has been comprised of wins in two Grade 3 events—the Westchester Dr Post/RYAN DENVER EQUIPHOTO Stakes at Belmont Park in May and Monmouth (G1)-winning Florida-bred Medina Spirit worked six furlongs in Cup in July—around a fifth in the Metropolitan Mile Handicap 1:11.80 Thursday morning for trainer Bob Baffert, best of three of- in June at Belmont Park.