Todd Pletcher takes Quality Road to Whitney Handicap
So who is the best horse in America?
The supporters of Zenyatta will point to an unbeaten 18-race career, even if John Shirreffs has yet to definitively point the mare to her next race. Then those members of the Rachel Alexandra fan club will remind you that she is the reigning Horse of the Year, even if she is yet to reach that level of performance thus far this season.
Then Lookin At Lucky can be thrown into the mix. This year’s three-year-old colts had been hard to rate conclusively after some mixed results in the Triple Crown races but Bob Baffert’s horse brought order to that division with a four-length win in the Grade One Haskell Invitational Stakes at Monmouth Park on Sunday.
That puts him in the mix but none of these are actually at the top of the pile in terms of performances this season. According to the World Thoroughbred Rankings, which were released a few days before the Haskell, Quality Road is the best. He is rated 1lb ahead of Zenyatta, at 126, with Eskendereya on 123 – following his nine-and-three-quarter-length win in the Wood Memorial Stakes - and Rachel Alexandra down on 120.
Which is not bad for a horse who may be best remembered last year for a race that he did not even run in. The Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita last November was the crowning glory for Zenyatta but it was a moment that Todd Pletcher would probably prefer to forget as Quality Road created the most unwanted piece of history by becoming the first horse to be withdrawn at the gate from the most valuable race.
The road to h**l may be paved with good intentions but the best intentions of the gate crew at Santa Anita were no match for 500 kilos of colt packing steel on his hooves and in no mood to co-operate. Quality Road had shown some reluctance to go into the stalls before but http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGfrr8CFuIw.
The task for Pletcher was to control those wayward tendencies while harnessing the obvious talent and began with winning the Grade Three Hal's Hope Stakes at Gulfstream in January and following up with victories in the Grade One Donn Handicap at Gulfstream the following month and then his third career Grade One win in the Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont in late May.
But the memory of Santa Anita sticks with Pletcher which is why Quality Road was on the track at Saratoga for another session in the starting gate before he runs in the Grade One Whitney Handicap on Saturday. John Velazquez, the jockey who looked like he would become the first Puerto Rican astronaut when Quality Road exploded before the Classic, was riding as the colt practiced with a couple of stable companions.
Having impressed with a five-furlong workout on Sunday, the trainer was equally happy with the gate prep and was heard to say: “It couldn't have went any better - he was perfect. He was well-behaved in the paddock. He walked right into the gate three times with horses and without horses. I was very, very pleased,” although Pletcher admitted that it will be a different ball game when Quality Road is being loaded in front of a full house. “It's going to be a little different environment starting in front of the grandstand and we just wanted to cover all our bases."
The field for the Whitney will include Blame, the winner of the Stephen Foster Handicap last time out, Musket Man, who was second to Quality Man in the Metropolitan, and last year's Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird.
There is still no news on whether Zenyatta will be running in the Clement Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar on Saturday. Despite winning the race for the last two years Shirreffs still has concerns about the Polytrack surface at Del Mar.
Shirreffs has mapped out a programme for Zenyatta that will include two more runs before she defends her Classic title at Churchill Downs in November. The option away from Del Mar is the Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park on October 2nd. That would put Zenyatta right in Rachel Alexandra’s backyard but no closer to the great match-up between her and Rachel Alexandra, who is already slated for the Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga on August 29th.
While Shirreffs is pondering the state of the track the opposition that his mare is likely to meet if she runs looks like being headed by Made For Magic, the winner of Grade Two Milady Handicap but well beaten twice since, Rinterval, the winner of the Wintergreen Stakes at Turfway Park, and Wynning Ride, who won the Iowa Distaff at Prairie Meadows.
The road to Churchill Downs starts here but quality opposition looks to be thin on the ground.
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