Breaking the Rules tops Lure

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Since bringing Breaking the Rules back from a year layoff, trainer Shug McGaughey has exhibited extreme patience with the 5-year-old son of War Front, so there’s no sense in rushing him now.

Following two strong allowance wins, Breaking the Rules would have seemed ripe for a try in a graded stakes. Instead, McGaughey has elected to run him in Monday’s $85,000 Lure, a 1 1/16-mile turf race restricted to horses who have not won a graded stakes in 2020.

“It’s a perfect spot,” said McGaughey, who trained Lure, the two-time Breeders’ Cup Mile winner for whom this race is named. “If he runs good there, we’ll look for bigger and better.”

At the end of his 3-year-old season in 2018, Breaking the Rules won the Tropical Park Derby, fueling hopes for a big 4-year-old campaign. After a narrow defeat in the Grade 3 Canadian Turf, Breaking the Rules ran in the Grade 1 Old Forester Turf Classic at Churchill Downs, but did not care for the soft ground and finished last. He came back a month later and finished last in the Grade 3 Poker on June 16, 2019.

Shortly thereafter, Breaking the Rules was diagnosed with bone bruising and was sent home to recover.

“It took forever to get him going right,” McGaughey said. “It’s usually 60 or 90 days. It took him six months.”

Breaking the Rules came back June 20 at Belmont Park and beat Digital Age in a 1 1/8-mile allowance. Digital Age came back to win a thirdlevel allowance here, earning a career-best 98 Beyer Speed Figure. In his next start, Breaking the Rules rallied from 13 lengths back to beat Therapist and Devamani in an allowance going 1 1/16 miles.

“He’s trained really well since that last race,” McGaughey said of Breaking the Rules.

Trainer Chad Brown sends out Devamani and Olympico in this spot. Devamani is shortening up to 1 1/16 miles, but has run well at that distance, albeit against lesser company. Olympico, who won the Grade 2 Fort Marcy in 2019, is making his second start of the year, having finished fifth behind Some like it hot brown in the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch on July 25.

Brown is adding blinkers to both horses’ equipment.

“I want to see if that helps them, especially at the mileand-a-sixteenth distance, maybe helps them get into the race a little sooner,” Brown said.

Largent, winner of the Edward Evans Stakes at Colonial Downs for Todd Pletcher on July 29, could be the primary speed under Luis Saez. He has won 4 of 6 starts overall.

Rose’s Vision won the 2018 Better Talk Now Stakes here for trainer Stuart Simon. He won for the first time since then on Aug. 16 at Woodbine and is now returning to Saratoga for the Lure.

Trainer Bill Mott supplemented Ballagh Rocks into this spot. In February, Ballagh Rocks won an allowance race at Gulfstream, his lone win in 11 starts since he captured the Grade 3 Poker at Belmont in 2017.

The Lure goes as race 8 on the program and is not part of the Empire 6 wager, which has a mandatory payout on Monday’s closing-day program.