Diversify much the best in Evan Shipman
Four-year-old gelding bests field by 111⁄2 lengths
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Only six horses were entered for Monday’s $100,000 Evan Shipman Stakes for statebreds going 1 1/8 miles on the main track. That number was reduced to four with the scratch of Royal Posse, winner of the race the past two years, and Ostrolenka.
That left 1-2 favorite Diversify without any apparent competition for the lead. When the gates opened, jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. sent the four-year-old gelding to the front from his outside post and he took it from there, leading his three rivals on a merry chase that ended with Diversify crossing the finish line 11½ lengths in front. The time was a sharp 1:47.48 over a “fast main track.”
Eventual runner-up Governor Malibu was game well into the far turn before the winner started getting away from him. The Malibu Moon four-year-old finished another 11 ½ length clear of Papa Shot for the place. Good Luck Gus was another length back in fourth.
“It was super,” winning
trainer Rock Violette said of Diversify’s performance. “It seems like his more brilliant races have come with a little bit of space, and he ran all the way to the wire today. When they went 47-and-change, I thought, ‘This was pretty cool.’ He just loped around out there and looked pretty comfortable.”
Ortiz, in the irons for the third time on the Shipman winner, knew what he had under him.
“He’s not the kind of horse who wants to go 50 [seconds for a half-mile]. You let him go; he’s got a huge stride, and I knew he’s respond. A modest pace, 47 or 48, that’s good for him. When I asked him today, he was all business.”
Diversify, out of the exacta only once in nine starts, won for the sixth time. The Shipman score came on the heels of a 2 ¾-length victory in Belmont’s Saginaw Stakes on July 2. Monday’s $60,000 winner’s share bumped his lifetime earnings to $325,425.
Diversify races for Lauren and Ralph M. Evans. He was bred in New York by Fred W. Hertrich III and John D. Fielding.
Uncle Sigh back in winner’s circle
Uncle Sigh is best remembered for his exploits on the 2014 Triple Crown trail, when the New Yorkbred son of Indian Charlie ran second behind Samraat in the Grade 3 Withers and Gotham. He ended up accumulating enough qualifying points to make the field for the Derby, where he finished 14th. Racing exclusively in allowance company since, until he was recently dropped into the claiming ranks, Uncle Sigh has had trouble making it into the winner’s circle. In Monday’s statebred optional claimer, however, the now six-year-old gelding showed flashes of his old form with a rousing off-the-pace score at 1 3/16 miles, a distance he’d never gone before. Well back for much of the way, Uncle Sigh came wide into the stretch, then found room between horses to get up late by a neck over Hoboe.
The running time was 1:52.13 over a firm Mellon course. Hoboe finished three-quarters of a length clear of Converge, another horse with considerable graded-stakes experience (winner of last year’s Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes).
Uncle Sigh won Monday’s race for trainer David Duggan and PhilMar Stables. He was claimed for the $25,000 price, and will race next for MSK Racing Ventures LLC. Raymond Handal will train.
Converge, in for a tag for the first time, was claimed by David Merjan. Mark Hennig will train.
It was the fourth of five winners for Jose Ortiz.
“It’s special because here, it’s very tough,” Ortiz said of the feat. “There’s a lot of good jockeys, trainer and horses. If you just get into a little bit of trouble in the race, you get beat. Obviously, I want to win the (riding title) and the Eclipse Award. But I’m just concentrating on the Travers and the title.”