Therapist towers over Cab Calloway field
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » As the only stakes winner in the field – he’s won four of them, including open stakes in Maryland, Florida and New York – Therapist is a logical 3-5 favorite in today’s $100,000 New York Stallion Stakes (Cab Calloway Division). The race is for 3-year-olds going one mile on the Inner Turf.
Therapist has other things going for him as well. He’s running at his preferred (or at least most familiar) distance, where he’s won two stakes. His only non-win at a mile came in the Penn Mile, a Grade 2 race in which he faded in the stretch after contending early. In his other graded stakes appearance, Therapist ran a solid third in the Palm Beach (G3), a race won by Maraud, recent runner-up in the Hall of Fame Stakes (G2) here. The son of Freud comes in off an off-the-pace score in a NYSS race at Belmont on June 24.
Collective Effort (5-2) is given the best chance to upset the favorite. The Mission Impazible colt was out-finished by Therapist in the June 24 NYSS race, beaten two lengths after rallying from far back. Collective Effort has been off the board just once in a dozen starts. That’s the good news. The bad news is that he only won one of those races, a maiden special two starts back.
Ten Eyck, another son of Freud, is listed at 5-1. The 3-year-old gelding broke his maiden in his sixth try – in a 1 1/16-mile maiden claimer on July 16 – after failing to get the job done in five maiden special weights.
MTO entrant Stoney Bennett (12-1) won an opening-level allowance at six furlongs here 10 days ago. The Bustin Stones gelding has competed in four statebred stakes, his best finish being a second in the Notebook Stakes last November.
Codrington (12-1), Santo Antonio (12-1), Forward Motion (30-1) and Beach Access (30-1) round out the field.