The 151st Saratoga meet starts in just a week’s time and in a lot of ways it’s a return to normalcy. Gone is the sesquicentennial celebration that consumed Saratoga Springs a year ago that focused so much of its time on the past.
Saratoga’s future rests on the brilliance of its athletes and there may be no more brilliant horse running on dirt than Untapable, the 3-year-old filly trained by Steve Asmussen.
Some people consider Untapable to be the best 3-year-old horse in the country, male or female. She won the Grade I Kentucky Oaks (the day before the Kentucky Derby) with laughable ease. It was the type of performance that made people question whether or not she should have been running against the boys in the Derby.
It was also a performance that harkened people back five years when Rachel Alexandra posed the same questions. With Rachel Alexandra, a filly also trained by Asmussen (after the private sale of her to Jess Jackson following the Oaks), she answered the call two weeks later and won the Grade I Preakness Stakes against the boys.
It’s one of the more electrifying races and just another in a long line of epic race calls by Tom Durkin (more on him later).
Rachel Alexandra won the Grade I Mother Goose at Belmont Park in a virtual walkover, as did Untapable, so suddenly the comparisons between the two don’t seem so foolish. The synchronicity of the trainer and the timing is darn near cosmic. Even Asmussen is thinking about charting her course through male races to see just how good she is.
“There’s definitely the thought of running her against the boys,” Asmussen said after the Mother Goose. “I think that this was a very good obstacle for her, as far as shipping and running, because of how bad her Breeders’ Cup was. Maturity, time, confidence, how she acted pre-race in the paddock today, all of those are steps in the right direction, and it will be an interesting conversation with [owner] Ron [Winchell] after today’s win. She’ll ship up to Saratoga to train on Monday. [The Coaching Club American Oaks] is a very lucrative race that is there, but I don't want to speak for Ron at this point. We’re aware that [the Haskell] is there and the timing is excellent. It’s nice to have a horse like her because you can consider races as good as these.”
Untapable is on the verge of superstardom. Add to that her regular rider is the astute and capable Rosie Napravnik and you have a combination marketers will fawn over for the next six weeks and beyond. Asmussen could very well target the Grade I Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park as he did with Rachel Alexandra and then go to the Grade I Travers Stakes.
In 2009, Asmussen elected to run Rachel Alexandra against the older boys in the Grade I Woodward Stakes instead of a week earlier in the Travers. Rachel Alexandra always had a nagging issue about distance limitations. Nine furlongs, or 1 1/8th miles, was always within her wheelhouse. Untapable, unlike Rachel Alexandra, may be better the longer the race goes. That opens Untapable’s options to the Grade I Alabama Stakes for 3-year-old fillies or the Travers—both 1 1/4-mile races.
Tapit, Untapable’s sire, has been on fire of late. Tonalist, winner of the Grade I Belmont Stakes, was also sired by Tapit.
And while Untapable is the filly to watch heading into Saratoga, it’s two-time reigning Horse of the Year Wise Dan who could steal some of her thunder. Wise Dan is the brilliant turf horse trained by Charles LoPresti. Wise Dan put a scare into everyone when he had emergency colic surgery on May 16. He’s recovering just fine.
“We’re trying to go as easy as we can, but it’s not going to be too much longer before he’s going to have a little breeze,” LoPresti told The Blood-Horse. “Man, he’s strong. Every day, we’re just picking it up a little more. I’m trying to get him as fit as I can without really pressing on him too much.”
Wise Dan’s potential return to racing will be in August in the Grade II Fourstardave at Saratoga on the ninth. The Grade II Bernard Baruch on August 30 is also an option for Wise Dan if he’s not ready by August 9.
“I’m just going to try to get as much easy galloping into him as I can, then I’ll probably go an easy half-mile down here, and then away he goes to Saratoga,” LoPresti told The Blood-Horse.
Whenever Wise Dan makes his return, Tom Durkin will make the call one last time. Durkin will retire after this year’s Saratoga meet, ending an illustrious career full of the most loquacious race calls brimming with energy, sarcasm and passion. Not to mention, as The New York Times’ Joe Drape wrote, Durkin uses “vivid narration, in real time, a symphony of words, emotion and triumph.”
Saratoga fans will get one more, “And they’re off … at SARATOGA!” from Durkin, one for the books on July 19.
“Horse racing owes me absolutely nothing. I owe horse racing my life,” Durkin told The New York Times.
