Spurious Precision
emerged from his Grade 2, $200,000 Saratoga Special victory in good order and
will make his next start in the Grade 1 Foxwoods Champagne Stakes on October 6
at Belmont Park, trainer Rick Violette confirmed
Monday.
“All is well so far,” said Violette, who trains the colt
for Klaravich Stables and William H. Lawrence. “He walked this morning,
and he was a little tired. Our plan is to chill out a bit and have him ready
for the Champagne,
hopefully have a fresh horse again going into the fall. It pays being nimble
though – sometimes horses just don’t cooperate with the best-laid
plans.”
Violette originally had planned to send Carried Interest, a gutsy debut maiden winner at Belmont on July 5, to
the Saratoga Special, but that horse turned up with a sore shin and will be
rerouted to the Grade 2, $300,000 Three Chimneys Hopeful on September 3,
Violette said. Instead, Spurious
Precision filled in for his stablemate – also campaigned by Klaravich and
Lawrence – to wheel back from a July 21 maiden victory. Pressed on the
lead through early fractions of 21.35 and 44.02 in yesterday’s race, Spurious
Precision drew clear to win by five lengths under Alan Garcia.
“He broke so sharp, it’s awfully difficult to tap on the
brakes at that point and give up what came to him so easily, but they certainly
put high pressure on him,” Violette said. “We got pressed real hard
by Southern Honor, and as soon as we put him away, Drum Roll pounced, so there
was no breather there. I thought the scratch [of morning-line favorite Shanghai
Bobby] actually might have hurt me. As much as he was a really nice horse, he
would have been the speed to point at. I think [Spurious Precision] will be
fine stalking, given his first race, so I think we’ll be able to turn
down the pilot light a little bit. He’s actually probably better running
at horses.”
Violette was equally impressed by the way the son of High Cotton
handled himself off the racetrack on Sunday.
“He’s very cool,” the trainer said. “In the
paddock he was so quiet you were hoping he was OK, and in the winner’s
circle he was the same way, it looked like he hadn’t run.”
The colt’s good temperament was one of the things that made him
attractive to Violette at the 2012 OBS April Sale, where the colt fetched
$105,000 from de Meric Sales, Agent.
“He was a really well-balanced, good mover, and seemed like he
had a good head on his shoulders, kind of in a plain brown wrapper,”
Violette said. “Nick de Meric was the consigner and his son actually
found [Spurious Precision] in a field in Ocala
somewhere. Tristan [de Meric] was there to look at some other horses and he
kept saying ‘Who’s that, who’s that?’ and the guy said
‘Eh, he’s a cheap one.’ He said ‘Well, do you mind if I
take a look at him?’ and pulled him out of the field. That’s a
pretty good story. I’m very friendly with the de Merics; they’re a
wonderful family, and Tristan obviously displayed some talent [picking out
Spurious Decision].”
Violette added that Carried Interest will likely begin galloping next
week for his Hopeful engagement.
“He’s going to jog for another week or so,” Violette
said. “I’ll just jog the pants off him. The shin, knock on wood, is
really good, and we’ll start galloping him in another week. He’ll
be fit enough to head over across the street [for the Hopeful]. We’re
sparing nothing, it’s just that jogging doesn’t pound on the shin
quite as much as galloping does, that’s all. Actually, it will be
perfect, going to the Hopeful with him, but if the Hopeful had [still] been a
Grade 1, we might not have run [Spurious Precision] yesterday. It does alter
plans.”