Week of August 26 – August 30, 2013
WINNER’S
CIRCLE
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WINNER’S CIRCLE Saratoga TODAY Newspaper’s Guide to the 2013 Racing Season at the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York
As Everyone Leaves, Paynter Heads East
by Brendan O’Meara for Saratoga TODAY It’s hard to believe, but we’ve reached the final weekend of the 150th Saratoga race meeting. Downtown is easier to navigate. The license plates illustrate a more northeastern regionalism. The folks from downstate and Kentucky have largely left south and west of here. Coming east, however, is Paynter. A year ago he was a smashing winner of the Grade I Haskell Invitational. Then he got sick, real sick. His owner, Ahmed Zayat, created what can only be considered the longest, biggest virtual candlelight vigil to save Paynter’s life. Paynter suffered from colitis, followed quickly by laminitis in three of his four hooves. If ever there was a “death sentence” in horse racing, Paynter stared it down.
“It’s an incredible story,” said Paynter’s Hall of Fame trainer, Bob Baffert. “It was so emotional, what he went through for two months. Now that he’s back, I really want him to take on the big guys, because he’s a big guy himself.” Those big guys include Fort Larned (Post 3, 4-1), winner of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic, Successful Dan (Post 2, 5-2), Flat Out (Post 4, 7-2), Ron the Greek (Post 1, 12-1), Mucho Macho Man (Post 6, 6-1) and Alpha (Post 7, 15-1). Paynter (Post 5, 3-1) came back a winner on June 14 sporting a 114 Beyer Speed Figure. The second race of his comeback, the Grade II San Diego Handicap, he was beaten a half a length by Kettle Corn. “The Woodward is a great race, pointing to the Breeders’ Cup,” Baffert said. “We’re excited about running him. It’s a tough field, but he’s tough.” Fort Larned was the beatenfavorite in the Grade I Whitney Invitational four weeks ago. He got off to a bad start, failed to get the lead and didn’t have enough run to chase down the winner, Cross Traffic. “I haven’t lost any confidence in him,” said Ian Wilkes, Fort Larned’s trainer. “He’s had a different schedule than last year—he hasn’t raced
as much—but the objective is still the same: get back to the Classic. I think the whole division is very strong this year, and this race is going to be as tough as or tougher than the last one [Whitney].” Running right with Fort Larned for much of the Whitney was Mucho Macho Man, third place in the Whitney. “It’s certainly going to be tough, but he’s coming into this race better than he did into the Whitney, because we had run into a couple of problems early in the year with a bacterial infection and so forth,” said Mucho Macho Man’s owner Dean Reeves. “So this will be his third race back, and we’re looking for him to improve on that race in the Whitney, and hopefully it’ll be good enough to get that group of horses, which are a fine group, in this coming Woodward.” Bill Mott, trainer to Ron the Greek and Flat Out, won this race a year ago with To Honor and Serve. Flat Out comes into the Woodward off a long layoff, electing to skip the Whitney and start in this spot. “We thought if he was doing really, really well going into the Whitney, we’d run,” he said. “We worked him and thought he maybe wasn’t on his game 100
After nearly losing his life in a battle with colitis and laminitis last year, Paynter not only survived but went on to win the $1 million Haskell Invitational earlier this year. Paynter will be running in this weekend’s Woodward Stakes. Photo Courtesy of Zayat Stables.
percent. He has always had issues with his feet and we thought we needed a little more time for one of his feet. With that being said, we pointed to the Woodward. We didn’t want to skip them both.” Alpha, trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, was the dead-heat winner of last year’s Travers. He wasn’t a factor in the Whitney finishing sixth. “He likes it here at Saratoga,” said trainer Kiaran McLaughlin of last year’s co-winner of the Grade 1
Travers. “We thought we’d give him one more shot against these horses.”
Travers Wrap The 144th running of the Grade I $1 million Travers Stakes saw a crowd of 47,597 people. D. Wayne Lukas, Hall of Fame trainer to Will Take Charge, won the Travers for the first time since 1995. Will Take Charge ran down a stubborn Moreno, who nearly took this field of three-year-olds all the way See Travers Wrap pg. 21