ESPN.com - 2004 Saratoga report card

ESPN.com: HorseRacing

Tuesday, August 31, 2004
2004 Saratoga report card

By Bill Finley
Special to ESPN.com

There is still a week left to the Saratoga meet, but the dwindling days barely count. The meet turns into slumber mode after the Travers as the vans start heading back to Belmont to prepare for a big fall meet and the Forego is the only major race left. That said, it's not too early for a 2004 Saratoga report card.

Trainers:
Todd Pletcher (A)
Enjoyed a phenomenal day Monday winning five races, to give him 31 on the season. With six days of racing to go, he's well within range of breaking his own record for most winners ever at a Saratoga meet. Pletcher set the mark last year with 35. He's always good, but he really turns up the heat at the Spa.

Jimmy Jerkens (A-)
Hasn't run much at the meet, but has done a great job making the most of his few opportunities. He's had 14 starters, with 5 winners and 4 seconds.

Nick Zito (A-)
He finished one-two in the Travers and, remarkably, has put Birdstone into position for possible year-end honors that once seemed all but guaranteed to go to Smarty Jones. Only reason he doesn't get an A is because I don't get his decision to not start Birdstone again until the Breeders' Cup Classic. Based on him winning with no starts in between the Belmont and Travers, Birdstone obviously runs well fresh, but Zito is taking a big gamble that he can have him ready off just works for such a huge assignment. Most horses who have tried such a tactic have failed miserably.

Wayne Lukas (C)
With just four winners from 69 starters, would deserve a lot worse if not for the great work he's done with Azeri. Written off for dead by just about everyone, she won the Go for Wand at the meet over Sightseek and then fought like a raging tiger to narrowly lose the Personal Ensign after getting caught up in ridiculously fast fractions.

Bobby Frankel (C)
Frankel has to be judged by tougher standards than anyone else because he is, well, Bobby Frankel. After winning three Grade I races at the meet last year in the Forego, Whitney and Go for Wand, he's won just one stakes so far this year. It was Saturday's Grade II Fourstardave with Nothing to Lose.

Jockeys:
John Velazquez (A-)
Though he's well on his way to his second straight riding title, Velazquez has to share the credit. Ride first call for Todd Pletcher and you're going to win an awful lot of races.

Cornelio Velasquez (A-)
This guy just keeps getting better and better. Against the toughest riding competition in the country, he's made it up to fourth place in the standings. He's announced he will ride in the fall at Belmont. Good move.

Jerry Bailey (B-)
Said prior to the meet that he would make a real effort to win back the riding title, which he last won in 2001. Bailey was the leading rider seven times over an eight-year period. Instead, is third in the standings and far, far back of Velazquez, who has had almost 60 more mounts. Bailey won 46 races at the meet last year, but has only 29 after the end of the fifth week. He's also dipped in stakes winners. He won nine stakes in 2003, including five Grade I's. This year, he has a mere five stakes winners with his lone Grade I win coming in the Ballerina.

Robby Albarado (D)
A very good rider, for some reason Saratoga just isn't kind to him. He's 14-for-226 (6%) over the last two meets and has not had a single stakes winner.

Horses:
Roses in May (A+)
Turned in absolutely the best race of the meet in the Whitney when battling through fractions of :22.60, 45.20 and 1:08.80, yet still had enough to hold off a good horse in Perfect Drift to win by a nose. This is a nice horse.

Azeri (A)
See Lukas comments above. What a great meet for a special horse.

Society Selection (A)
Won the Test and the Alabama, the two Grade I races at the meet for 3-year-olds fillies. One is at seven furlongs and the other is at a mile and a quarter. That's pretty special stuff. The last time any filly hit that daily double was November Snow in 1992.

Afleet Alex (A-)
Clearly the 2-year-old star of the meet after he swept the Hopeful and Sanford Stakes. Loses the plain A rating because he was all over the track in the Hopeful in what was not exactly a scintillating effort.

Funny Code (C-)
Okay, so we all still love the charismatic gelding from the other side of the tracks, and he's run a bunch of good races this year, but he's got to start winning something that matters. The Saratoga Breeders' Cup was supposed to be his for the taking. He went off at even money against some real cupcakes, yet settled for a distant second behind Evening Attire. Where did the magic go?

Purge (D)
Forget about his Jim Dandy win. He looked like a real up-and-comer until running a flat fourth in the Travers when getting a perfect trip sitting right off a slow pace.

Peace Rules (D-)
After a gutsy win in the Suburban, showed nothing in the Whitney as the narrow favorite. He's thrown in a few too many clinkers this year.

Miscellaneous
Politicians (F)
The big wigs in Albany adjourned without passing any meaningful legislation that would help racing or, in particular, help NYRA unsnarl the mess that stands in the way of getting slot machines into Aqueduct. The best they could do is to toss out a law whereby the families of owners, trainers and jockeys can once again get free passes into the track. Wowee.