Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin and owner
Nicholas Brady's Mill House have one primary goal for their outstanding
colt Trappe Shot - to see him in the winner's circle following a Grade 1
race.
At Saratoga this past month, they came up a nose
shy when Trappe Shot just missed nailing runaway front-runner Sean
Avery on the wire in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap. On Saturday, the
4-year-old son of Tapit will try again when he competes in the 73rd
running of the Grade 1 $350,000 Vosburgh Invitational at Belmont Park,
one of the premier six-furlong races in the country for 3-year-olds and
up.
Widely considered one of the best colts in the
country, Trappe Shot likely will have to run the race of his life as the
Vosburgh is shaping up as a fearsome test. The race has attracted 2010
champion sprinter Big Drama, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert's Grade
1-winning speedball Euroears, Grade 2 Smile Sprint Handicap winner Giant
Ryan and a plethora of other dangerous runners.
Part
of the "Super Saturday" card, the Vosburgh is a "Win and You're In" race
for the Breeders' Cup Sprint on November 5 at Churchill Downs. It will
be broadcast live on ESPN Classic and ESPN3.com from 4:30 - 6 p.m. EDT
along with the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup and Grade 2 Kelso.
Trappe
Shot finished ahead of Vosburgh rivals Apriority and Calibrachoa in the
Vanderbilt, but McLaughlin recognizes the field's quality and size make
this no easy task.
"We're ready to go, and we're happy
with him," McLaughlin said of Trappe Shot. "There are some new
shooters. It's a quality race, and it's a Grade 1, and you're going to
have a tough field. It's a shame we lost the last one by a nose. We need
to win a Grade 1 because he's a Grade 1 horse."
McLaughlin
knows Trappe Shot, the 9-5 favorite choice on the morning line and
undefeated in three starts at Belmont Park, has the talent to win the
Vosburgh, but the trainer is concerned about getting a clean start to
get in position in a field of nine.
"Any time you have
[nine] horses, it's traffic," McLaughlin said. "You break sharp and hope
you don't get in traffic trouble. Yes, he's broken awkwardly at the
gate. His last couple races he's broken well, but it's an issue you
always have to think about."
Trappe Shot figures to have
to be at his very best to defeat Big Drama, who trainer David Fawkes
said is coming into the Vosburgh in superb condition.
The
5-year-old son of Montbrook has raced only twice this year following
his championship season, but both efforts have resulted in victory.
Big
Drama, 2-1 on the morning line, won the Grade 3 Mr. Prospector on
January 15 at Gulfstream Park by four lengths, recording a sensational
120 Beyer Speed Figure, a number that has not been surpassed in any race
this year. Fawkes chose to give his ace more than seven months off
after the effort, while insisting nothing was physically wrong with the
horse.
Big Drama returned to the races in the
Whippleton Stakes on September 4 at Calder Race Course and easily
defeated three overmatched rivals by 2 ¼ lengths. While the race went in
moderate time, Fawkes considered it an ideal set-up for the Vosburgh.
"As
far as Big Drama goes I'm very confident. He's doing super good," said
Fawkes, who also will send out Apriority, runner-up earlier this year in
the Grade 1 Carter Handicap and fourth in the Vanderbilt. "If [Big
Drama's performance in the Whippleton] was too good it might have me
worried, but off a layoff and the level of fitness I had him, I thought
it was a perfect race. Calder was nice enough to write that race for
him. He only worked five-eighths one time [beforehand]. He had galloped
probably 30 or 40 days at the farm before he came in. So he was fit."
Fawkes hopes the Vosburgh will be a springboard for Big Drama to have an opportunity to defend his Breeders' Cup Sprint title.
"This is the Breeders' Cup pre-Breeders' Cup," he said.
2010
Eclipse Award-winning jockey Ramon Dominguez will ride Big Drama for
the first time, while Alex Solis picks up the mount on Apriority.
Euroears,
4-1, always a fast horse, has risen to a new level since being
transferred into the care of Baffert. In three starts since, the
7-year-old son of Langfuhr has won the Grade 2 Palo Verdes Handicap at
Santa Anita, finished second to the brilliant Singapore star Rocket Man
in the Grade 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen, and whipped top West Coast
sprinters Smiling Tiger and Amazombie in the Grade 1 Bing Crosby in July
at Del Mar.
"He is doing great," Baffert said. "He's a very fast horse, and we're just hoping for a fast track."
Trainer
Todd Pletcher sends out two runners for Repole Stable, Calibrachoa and
Caixa Eletronica, who will compete as a coupled entry at 10-1.
The
former, who overcame sore hooves earlier this year, returned to top
form in his most recent start when a close-up third in the Vanderbilt.
The winner of back-to-back Grade 3 sprints at Aqueduct this past winter
posted a Beyer Speed Figure of 107 in the Vanderbilt and has trained
well since then.
Caixa Eletronica turns back to six furlongs following a victory at 1 1/8 miles in a starter handicap August 26 at Saratoga.
"Calibrachoa,
he ran a huge race in the Vanderbilt," Pletcher said. "He was chasing
the whole way and dug in gamely inside the eighth pole. I thought he
might get there . . . He runs hard every time and likes Belmont. We're
optimistic he'll run well in what appears to be by far the best sprint
race of the year. Whoever wins this race will probably come out and be
the favorite in the Breeders' Cup."
The contention runs
deeper: Force Freeze, trained by Peter Walder, enters the Vosburgh off a
four-length victory in the Teddy Drone Stakes on July 31 at Monmouth, a
race in which he defeated top sprinters Jersey Town and Ravalo; Giant
Ryan has won five straight for trainer Bisnath Parboo, including the
Grade 2 Smile Sprint Handicap in July; and Justin Phillip won the Grade 2
Woody Stephens on June 11 and is undefeated in both his starts at
Belmont Park. The field for the Grade 1, $350,000
Vosburgh:
|
Prog. No
PP |
Horse |
Jockey |
Wgt |
Trainer |
Odds |
|
1
4 |
Calibrachoa |
R
Maragh |
124 |
T A
Pletcher |
10-1 |
|
1a
9 |
Caixa
Eletronica |
J
Lezcano |
124 |
T A
Pletcher |
10-1 |
|
2
1 |
Force
Freeze |
P
Lopez |
124 |
P R
Walder |
20-1 |
|
3
2 |
Apriority |
A O
Solis |
124 |
D
Fawkes |
12-1 |
|
4
3 |
Euroears |
J
Castellano |
124 |
B
Baffert |
4-1 |
|
5
5 |
Giant
Ryan |
C H
Velasquez |
124 |
B
Parboo |
12-1 |
|
6
6 |
Big
Drama |
R A
Dominguez |
124 |
D
Fawkes |
2-1 |
|
7 7 |
Justin
Phillip |
C
S Nakatani |
122 |
S
Asmussen |
15-1 |
|
8
8 |
Trappe
Shot |
J
Velazquez |
124 |
K P
McLaughlin |
9-5 |