The candidates in the race to be named Horse Of The Year in America have faltered, which makes Wise Dan’s return to the track at Saratoga tonight all the more timely.
Wise Dan has not raced competitively since he registered his 21st success by defending his title in the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve in May, after which he contracted severe colic that required surgery.
The two-time Horse Of the Year’s sights have been lowered as his convalescence draws to an end, and he drops into Grade 2 company for the first time in 12 months in the Bernard Baruch Handicap.
There are better races tonight at the New York course, with the Forego Stakes and Woodward Stakes both boasting Grade 1 status, but all eyes will be trained on the seven-year-old gelding, ridden by John Velazquez.
Tonight’s 1,700-metre event features 11 runners, but as a handicap, Wise Dan has to concede up to 11 pounds to some of his rivals and eight to Five Iron, a classy front-runner.
“He is going to have to carry more weight, and that’s one thing that I’m concerned about,” trainer Charles LoPresti said.
“I know we did it last year, but this is a different scenario, because colic surgery is colic surgery, so you have to be concerned about that. He is ready to run.”
Wise Dan’s ultimate aim this season is a third successive Breeders’ Cup Mile, but such is his constitution that LoPresti has not ruled out a return in two weeks for a defence of the Woodbine Mile.
Wise Dan was diagnosed with nephrosplenic entrapment, which means some of his small intestines were lodged behind his spleen.
As soon as the veterinary surgeons opened him up, however, his intestines slipped back into place on their own accord, and he missed only three and a half weeks training following the surgery.
LoPresti was aiming Wise Dan for the Four Star Dave, a race he won he won last season, but, in his words, he was trying to squeeze “10 pounds of potatoes into an eight-pound bag.”
Prior to Wise Dan’s colic, LoPresti hoped to race Wise Dan on dirt in order to add variety to his campaign, so that he might match Forego’s feat in the mid 1970s of three Horse Of The Year awards.
Wise Dan has been breezing well on the dirt at Saratoga, which means a dirt race may not be out of his compass later this season. Legitimate contenders for his Horse Of The Year crown are thin. California Chrome’s reputation was tarnished when he failed in his Triple Crown bid in the Belmont Stakes.
Palace Malice’s four-race winning run was halted in brutal style when Moreno crushed him in the Whitney Handicap by 11 lengths earlier this month.
Only the unbeaten Shared Belief, who beat UAE Derby winner Toast Of New York in the Pacific Classic this week, presents a serious threat, but LoPresti is only looking to tonight’s race.
“I was thinking a little bit about trying to do some things maybe that we didn’t do last year to try to go for another Horse of the Year,” LoPresti said of his hopes before the colic episode.
“At this point, I’m just glad that he’s alive and we’ve got a chance to run him back.”
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