Fresh off a pair of dominant Grade 1 victories, Point of Entry
enters the Grade 1, $600,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational on
Saturday at Belmont Park as one of the premier turf horses in the
country.
The 1 ½-mile race for 3-year-olds and up is part of the
“Super Saturday” card at Belmont and a “Win and You’re In” event for
the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
Despite having won back-to-back starts this spring,
rising turf runner Point of Entry was given a 10-week vacation
following his victory April 27 in the Grade 2 Elkhorn at Keeneland.
There was nothing at all wrong with the Phipps Stable
homebred, just that Hall of Fame trainer Claude “Shug” McGaughey could
see where Point of Entry’s year was headed.
“It was by design,” McGaughey said of the layoff for
Point of Entry, the 4-5 morning-line favorite for Saturday’s race. “I
knew when the Man o’ War was, and I knew when the Sword Dancer was, and
I knew when the Joe Hirsch was, and I figured if we get through that, I
know when the Breeders’ Cup is.”
Point of Entry, a 4-year-old son of Dynaformer, won the
Grade 1 Man o’ War on July 14 at Belmont by 3 ½ lengths. He followed
that up with an explosive four-length score in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer
Invitational at Saratoga Race Course.
“He seems to be doing as well as ever,” McGaughey said of
Point of Entry. “He had a good work Sunday, and I was really pleased,
so we’re just crossing our fingers and hoping everything’s fine going
up to the race.”
McGaughey calls Point of Entry “a pretty free-running
kind of horse,” and he has tracked pace-makers from close up in his
past two starts. On Saturday, he will face one of the best in
5-year-old gelding Little Mike. A formidable, front-running winner of
last month’s Grade 1 Arlington Million, Little Mike will try the 1
½-mile distance for the first time.
Victorious in 11 of 19 starts, Little Mike, the 2-1
second choice, built a reputation the past two years as a brilliant
miler who could successfully stretch his speed an extra furlong under
the right conditions. Trainer Dale Romans, however, had other ideas and
pulled off an upset when Little Mike wired the field in the Arlington
Million at odds of 4-1, opening up an insurmountable 4 ½-length lead at
the top of the stretch and holding on to win by 1 ½ lengths.
Now, Romans will attempt to get another quarter-mile out
of Little Mike, who figures to be the controlling speed in the Joe
Hirsch.
“You’re always concerned about something you haven’t done
before,” said Romans. “But he got the mile-and-a-quarter easy enough,
and, hopefully, he can go ahead and get the mile-and-a-half. It will be
the right kind of pace.
“Automatically, a horse with that kind of speed, the
shorter the better, but it’s a totally different pace scenario. If he
gets three quarters [of a mile] in 1:15, then all he has to do is
sprint home. Running a mile, he’s liable to go 1:10.”
Romans also will run the uncoupled 3-year-old Finnegans
Wake, 10-1, second last time out in the Grade 1 Secretariat on the
Arlington Million card, and third in the Grade 2 Virginia Derby.
Treasure Beach, 6-1, will take his second straight
shot at Little Mike, having finished sixth, 3 ½ lengths back in the
Arlington Million. Trained by Aidan O’Brien, the 4-year-old son of
Galileo has been a world traveler, having raced in France, Canada,
Dubai, Hong Kong, Belmont and Arlington since last October.
In July, Treasure Beach finished fifth behind Point of Entry in the Man o’ War at Belmont.
Kindergarden Kid, 12-1, third two weeks back in the Grade
3 Kentucky Turf Cup at Kentucky Downs, and Hailstone, 20-1, sixth in
the Sword Dancer, complete the field.