Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Santana to sub for Smith aboard Midnight Bisou
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Ricardo Santana Jr. will ride Midnight Bisou in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga, said Jeff Bloom, president of the Bloom Racing Stable partnership, which owns the mare.
Regular rider Mike Smith is unable to ride Midnight Bisou, the 2019 champion older female, due to COVID-19-related travel restrictions placed on jockeys at Del Mar and Saratoga.
Bloom said that Santana has been working Midnight Bisou “pretty much every week,” including prior to her 8 1/4-length victory in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis at Churchill Downs on June 27.
“She’s familiar with him,” Bloom said.
Smith has ridden Midnight Bisou in 17 of her last 19 starts. John Velazquez rode her in the other two races, including a victory in the Grade 2 Beldame last September at Belmont Park.
Santana was aboard Midnight Bisou on July 20 when she worked six furlongs in 1:12.69 over Saratoga’s main track. Exercise rider Angel Garcia was aboard Midnight Bisou on Monday, when she worked a half-mile in 50.47 seconds over the Oklahoma training track. Midnight Bisou went in quarter-mile splits of 25.42 seconds and 25.05.
Midnight Bisou, a 5-year-old daughter of Midnight Lute, is trained by Steve Asmussen. She is a five-time Grade 1 winner, including a nose victory over Elate in last year’s Personal Ensign.
Entries for the Personal Ensign will be taken Wednesday. Those expected to run are Point of Honor, runner-up in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps at Belmont Park on June 13; Motion Emotion, second to Midnight Bisou in the Fleur de Lis; Abounding Joy, winner of the Grade 2 Iowa Distaff at Prairie Meadowns on July 4; and Vexatious, runner-up to Monomoy Girl in the Grade 2 Ruffian at Belmont Park on July 11.
The Personal Ensign, run at 1 1/8 miles, provides the winner an automatic berth into the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 7 at Keeneland.
Volatile’s next race TBD
Volatile came out of his victory in Saturday’s Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap in good order, according to trainer Steve Asmussen, and while the six-furlong Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 7 at Keeneland is his year-end goal, there is not yet a plan mapped to get him there.
The choices are most likely the Grade 1 Forego here Aug. 29, though that race is at seven furlongs, or the Grade 1 Vosburgh at Belmont Park, a six-furlong race typically run five weeks out from the Breeders’ Cup. The New York Racing Association has yet to release the Belmont fall stakes schedule.
Volatile won the Vanderbilt with a front-running ride under Ricardo Santana Jr.
He was able to get away with an opening quarter of 23.46 seconds and cruised home to win by 1 1/4 lengths. Volatile covered the six furlongs in 1:09.61 and received a 102 Beyer Speed Figure.
“We’d seen brilliance by the horse, now there’s a Grade 1 by his name,” Asmussen said. “Extremely significant.”
Next Saturday, Asmussen will run a trio of horses in the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens for 3-year-old sprinters. Already set to run Echo Town and Shoplifted, Asmussen added Sonneman to the mix Sunday. Asmussen was hoping Sonneman would use the Easy Goer Stakes as a steppingstone to a route race. But the Easy Goer scratched down to a match race, and Sonneman, a closer, was at a huge disadvantage to the speedy Celtic Striker and was beaten 18 3/4 lengths.
“I think the Easy Goer scratching down to two, making it a match race, did zero for us,” Asmussen said. “With what happened, starting again is the right move with a horse that has some talent that hasn’t proven he stays.”
On Sunday, Sonneman worked a half-mile in 50.24 over the Oklahoma training track. Jose Lezcano will ride Sonneman.
The Jerkens figures to have a competitive field that should include Captain Bombastic, Echo Town, Eight Rings, Liam’s Pride, Mischevious Alex, No Parole, Tap It to Win, and Three Technique.
Tax readying for return
Tax, the 2019 Jim Dandy winner, worked three furlongs in 36.63 seconds Sunday morning over the Saratoga main track, his first breeze since he finished fifth in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap on May 2.
Trainer Danny Gargan said he does not have any plans for Tax, but said he would most likely not be ready to run at this meet.
“He’s only been back a little while,” Gargan said. “We’ll look at Keeneland in the fall.”
Gargan said Tax was turned out at Patty Hogan’s farm in central New Jersey following the Oaklawn Handicap.
“He’d been in training since he was 2 all the way through a rough 3-year-old campaign,” Gargan said of Tax, an Arch gelding. “He’s bigger and stronger and he’s filled out. Before he was tall and big, but he’d always get a little ribby. We want to keep him around for a long time, so we plan to turn him out every year for a few months. We’d like to see him until he’s 6 or 7.”