Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Rushing Fall may or may not race prior to Breeders’ Cup
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – On Sunday, Rushing Fall gave trainer Chad Brown his fifth straight victory and sixth win overall in Saratoga’s Grade 1 Diana Stakes. In about 10 weeks, Brown hopes Rushing Fall can give him his fifth victory in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
Rushing Fall, under Javier Castellano, outfought a stubborn Mean Mary to win the $500,000 Diana by a neck, improving her record to 3 for 3 this year and 11 for 14 in a career that began in 2017. That year, Rushing Fall won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, her first career Grade 1 win. She has now won six Grade 1s and at least one in four consecutive years.
“I thought she showed a lot of heart and class to run down an up-and-coming horse that looks to be very legit at the Grade 1 level,” Brown said Monday morning at Saratoga. “She continues to be ultra-consistent and has put together one of the best campaigns from a female turf horse this decade if you look at her overall body of work.”
Rushing Fall, owned by Bob Edwards’s e Five Racing Thoroughbreds, and Mean Mary, trained by Graham Motion, each earned a 102 Beyer Speed Figure for the Diana.
Brown said he’s not yet sure if he will start Rushing Fall before the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, which will be run at 1 3/16 miles on Nov. 7 at Keeneland. If she were to run again, the most likely spot would be the Grade 1 First Lady on Oct. 3 at Keeneland.
“We’ll observe how she’s doing, the timing of everything, it’s 50-50,” Brown said. “The filly will really tell us.”
Mean Mary, who was trainer Graham Motion’s sixth runnerup finish in the Diana, had a four-race winning streak snapped despite running a game race on the lead. Motion said given how hard Mean Mary runs each time he would be more inclined to train the 4-year-old filly up to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
Brown could potentially train Sistercharlie up to the Filly and Mare Turf, a race she won in 2018. She finished third in Sunday’s Diana, a race that Brown felt was an improvement over her third-place finish in the Ballston Spa last month.
– David Grening
Tacitus gets what he needed
Tacitus has never been the kind of horse that would wow anyone in the morning. As his trainer Bill Mott says, he’ll only work “as fast as his workmate takes him.”
Mott’s workmate of choice here Monday morning was another Juddmonte homebred, the unraced 3-year-old Nubian, who wound up “taking” Tacitus to an average five-furlong clocking of 1:01.75 over the main track. Tacitus worked with blinkers on this week after breezing without blinkers in his previous local works, all over the Oklahoma training track.
“That’s just him,” Mott said. “He’s never been a great work horse, although he can work fast if you put him with fast horses, like he did with Modernist and Frank’s Rockette prior to the Suburban. But he came home his final quarter in 23 and change and galloped out another eighth in under 13 this morning, and he did it easily. That’s all we were looking for. He’s continued to do well up here since the Suburban.”
Tacitus stormed to a resounding 8 3/4-length victory in the Grade 2 Suburban on July 4 at Belmont Park, easily his best effort of the season and best since finishing third in the Jockey Club Gold Cup more than nine months earlier. He remains on target for the Grade 1 Woodward on Sept. 5.
Speaking of Frank’s Rockette, she recently joined Mott’s main string at Saratoga after spending most of the summer at Belmont following her near record-setting performance winning the Grade 3 Victory Ride on July 4 at Belmont. She’s pointing toward the Grade 2 Prioress on the Woodward undercard.
Mott also said he is still not
ruling out the Kentucky Oaks as an option for Harvey’s Lil Goil’s next start. Harvey’s Lil Goil is coming off a third-place finish behind Swiss Skydiver after stumbling at the start of the Grade 1 Alabama.
“It’s a little quick to come back for the Oaks, and I’m certainly not under any pressure to run her there,” Mott said. “But with Swiss Skydiver, Gamine, and the filly from the West Coast [Speech] all in the race, that’s a lot of speed and if they wound up knocking heads it would be to her advantage, so we’re at least still thinking about it at the moment.”
– Mike Welsch
Jackie’s Warrior has nice work
Several of the talented runners in trainer Steve
Asmussen’s Saratoga barn put in workouts Monday, with arguably the most impressive being turned in by the 2-year-old colt Jackie’s Warrior, who is preparing for the Grade 1 Runhappy Hopeful on Sept. 7.
Jackie’s Warrior worked outside of the of the multiple stakes-winning 4-year-old Nitrous. The pair worked five furlongs in 1:00.15, breaking off at the half-mile pole and going from that point to the wire in 46.72 seconds with Jackie’s Warrior putting a neck up on his mate at the wire.
“He just doesn’t ask for any favors, he goes out there and trains like an old horse every day,” said Scott Blasi, assistant to Asmussen. “He’s very mature, he’s such a strong physical that he seems to able to take the training.”
Jackie’s Warrior, a son of Maclean’s Music, is 2 for 2 with a 2 1/2-length maiden victory at Churchill Downs on June 19 and a three-length score in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special on Aug. 7.
“He’s continuing to improve every week,” Blasi said. “The work today should put us in good position for the Hopeful.”
Nitrous will likely run in an allowance at Churchill Downs.
Several other Asmussen horses breezed Monday for upcoming stakes. Yaupon went three furlongs in 37.09 seconds over the Oklahoma training track for a scheduled start in Saturday’s Grade 2, $150,000 Amsterdam Stakes. Yaupon, a 3-year-old son of Uncle Mo, is 2 for 2 with an allowance win here July 18 for which he earned a 101 Beyer Speed Figure.
Lady Lilly, a maiden winner here Aug. 2, worked five furlongs in 1:01.05 over the main track in company with the 2-year-old maiden colt Directional. Lady Lilly is pointing to the Grade 1 Spinaway on Sept. 6.
Volatile, the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt winner, worked a half-mile in 51 seconds. He is preparing for the Grade 2 Vosburgh on Sept. 26 at Belmont.
On Sunday, Midnight Bisou worked five furlongs in 1:01.97 over the Oklahoma training track as she prepares for the Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland.
◗ Mutasaabeq, an impressive debut winner here Aug. 8, worked five furlongs in 1:00.64 on Monday morning over Saratoga’s main track, in company with the unraced 2-year-old colt Mr. Briggs for trainer Todd Pletcher. Mutasaabeq is pointing to the Grade 1 Hopeful.
– David Grening