Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Breaking Lucky returns in stakes-caliber allowance
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – While the $100,000 Summer Colony Stakes for fillies and mares may technically be the featured event on Sunday’s 10-race card at Saratoga, a $95,000 allowance race for older sprinters looks more intriguing.
The seven-horse field includes the return of the graded stakes winner Breaking Lucky, who makes his first start in 11 months and first for trainer George Weaver. The field also includes Behavioral Bias, Petrov, and Favorable Outcome.
This will be the third straight year Breaking Lucky has raced at Saratoga. In 2016, he nearly pulled off a 48-1 upset in the Grade 1 Woodward, falling a neck shy of winner Shaman Ghost as the fourth-place finisher in a four-horse photo. Last year, he was third to Gun Runner in the Grade 1 Whitney. He was trained by Reade Baker then.
While Breaking Lucky has mostly participated in graded stakes around two turns, Weaver felt this sevenfurlong race was a better spot to start the horse’s 6-year-old campaign.
“He’s had such a long time off I thought running him seven eighths off the bench is probably the right thing to do,” Weaver said. “Cutting back to a sprint, I’m not expecting him to win. I hope he makes the adjustment well enough to come running at the end. I think it’s the best way to set him up for two-turn races down the line.”
Behavioral Bias, trained by Al Stall, looks to end a string of seconds in this spot. On July 21 here, he went very fast early and finished three-quarters of a length behind No Dozing, who ran him down late. Behavioral Bias wore blinkers for the first time in that race.
“We were proud of him,” Stall said. “The blinkers made him show a little more speed than he normally had, which was the idea. He did everything but win. Maybe I’ll cut the blinkers back a smidge.”
Petrov drops back into allowance company after running sixth in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt. In his last 12 starts, Petrov is 0 for 9 in stakes, 3 for 3 in allowance races.
Wonderful Light, Life in Shambles, and Eight Town are also in this stakes-caliber field.
Telekinesis cuts back
Wonder Gadot won’t be the only 3-year-old trainer Mark Casse will be running at Saratoga on Travers Day.
Casse plans to cut Telekinesis back in distance and try him in the Grade 1, $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes at seven furlongs. Telekinesis, a son of Ghostzapper, finished fifth to Wonder Gadot in the Queen’s Plate after winning the Plate Trial going 1 1/8 miles over Woodbine’s synthetic surface.
“In the Queen’s Plate he got involved in a heated duel,” Casse said. “I’m not sure he cared that much for the synthetic. He’s a better miler, seven-eighths. That horse has so much talent.”
Telekinesis worked a halfmile in 50.73 seconds Friday morning over Saratoga’s main track.
The Jerkens figures to attract Engage, Firenze Fire, Givemeaminit, Promises Fulfilled, and Seven Trumpets.
Engage, runner-up to Promises Fulfilled in the Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes, worked four furlongs in 48.50 seconds Friday morning over the main track in company with the filly Alter Moon.
Trainer Todd Pletcher said there is a chance Gidu could make his dirt debut in the Jerkens. On Friday, he worked a half-mile in 50.91 seconds over the Oklahoma training track.
“At some point we’re going to experiment on the dirt, and if we’re going to do it we might do it in a meaningful race,” Pletcher said.
Finley’s lucky charm tunes up
The older she’s gotten, the more Finley’ s lucky charm has learned to harness her abundant speed. It’s a trait that trainer Bret Calhoun is hoping will serve her well when she seeks her second Grade 1 win of the season here next Saturday in the seven-furlong Ballerina.
Finley’ s lucky charm tuned up for the Ballerina working an easy half-mile in 48.66 seconds over the Oklahoma training track Friday.
“I moved her work up a day, not because of rain in the forecast but because I wanted to give her an extra day to get her hydrated since she’s a little sensitive to Lasix and sometimes it takes its toll on her,” Calhoun said. “I thought the work was excellent. She was well within herself, she relaxed the whole way, and she galloped out really well. She would never work like that when she was younger, she always seemed to go a little faster than we wanted her to.”
Calhoun said that Finley’ s lucky charm has learned to contain her speed as she’s matured. It has become a major asset and is the reason why he feels she’s now as effective going seven furlongs as she has always been at six. Finley’ s lucky charm became a Grade 1 winner for the first time when taking the sevenfurlong Madison on April 7 at Keeneland, but turned back to six furlongs to earn a careerhigh 104 Beyer Speed Figure when proving a popular winner of the Grade 2 Honorable Miss here July 25.
“Her last race was one of those rare races where everything just went her way,” Calhoun said. “She got a perfect setup, was in a perfect spot, was relaxed and in control the whole way, and just took care of business. I just don’t think distance matters as much to her as she’s gotten older. She always wanted to go faster when she was younger and that might have hampered her going seven furlongs back then. Now, six or seven furlongs, it doesn’t matter.”
Finley’ s lucky charm was one of several Ballerina nominees to work locally Friday along with Cairenn, Ivy Bell, Lewis Bay, and Pacific Wind, each of whom also went four furlongs.