It’s a big weekend for 3-year-olds at Saratoga Race Course.
The Spa presents the $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) on Saturday, the traditional prep leading to the biggest race of the meet: the $1.25 million Travers Stakes (G1) on Aug. 23.
The sophomores are also featured in Friday’s headline attraction, the $200,000 Amsterdam Stakes (G2) at 6 ½ furlongs.
There’s little doubt how the race will play out. If he breaks cleanly, Macho Music will set what should be a lively pace. That’s his game, and he looks poised to dictate the action from the rail as the 2-1 favorite.
Macho Music is the only graded stakes winner in the field, having captured the Pat Day Mile (G2) on the Kentucky Derby undercard at Churchill Downs. He set the pace that afternoon on the sloppy track and scored by 3 ¼ widening lengths.
Next stop was Saratoga for the Woody Stephens (G1) at 7 furlongs over another wet track.
Nothing went right. Macho Music didn’t break smoothly and then rushed into very swift fractions over the muddy track. He led to the top of the stretch before tiring to finish seventh.
Macho Music has a lot going for him in this rebound spot. His graded win stamps him the class of the field, he turned in a sharp workout in his last drill before heading here from Kentucky, the cutback in distance makes his speed an even more powerful weapon, and perhaps most importantly, trainer Rohan Crichton made a rider change replacing Javier Castellano with Irad Ortiz, Jr., Saratoga’s top jock.
That is a tall stack of positive angles. But then, this is Saratoga, the legendary “Graveyard of Favorites.” Keeping that in mind, we went hunting for a possible upsetter and landed on Smoken Wicked (6-1).
He was no match for Macho Music in the Pat Day but bounced back for a game second to the undefeated Verifire in the Maxfield Stakes at Churchill Downs. He’s no stranger to Saratoga stakes, having run twice here last summer, finishing third in the Saratoga Special (G2) and fourth in the Hopeful Stakes (G1).
Dallas Stewart, his trainer, knows a thing or two about upsets. He won the 2006 Kentucky Oaks (G1) with Lemons Forever at 47-1.
Perhaps Stewart has another surprise up his sleeve.
For those who bet on horse racing ...
The picks: 1 Macho Music, 2 Smoken Wicked, 3 Gunmetal
The field for the $200,000 Amsterdam Stakes (G3), from the rail out, with jockey, trainer, odds:
The writing team at US Racing is comprised of both full-time and part-time contributors with expertise in various aspects of the Sport of Kings.
