Grade 2 Jim Dandy winner Good Samaritan turned in in his last breeze Sunday before his start in next Saturday's Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers presented by NYRA Bets. The Harlan's Holiday colt flashed a strong 1:01.65 for five furlongs over the Oklahoma training track with regular exercise rider Juan Quintero aboard. The work, in tandem with Boule, a filly in Mott's care, pleased the Hall of Fame trainer.

“He went good,” Mott said. “Went 1:01 and 2, broke off as you can see, a length behind his company, joined up and finished together, finished their last quarter in 24, galloped out well, and galloped out a good six furlongs, I was pleased with what I saw.”

Good Samaritan will make only his second start on dirt after his first six career starts came on grass, and his strong performance in the Jim Dandy could prove tough to duplicate next Saturday.

“We've got to see it again. I guess he did it effectively enough the first time,” said Mott. “He didn't look like he was struggling, so it would lead you to believe he could reproduce his last race, but it's a different group of horses. Maybe he'll have to be better to win. It's going to be a bigger field, and some new shooters in there. I don't know that I'd trade places with anybody today.”

Now the plan is for everything to go smoothly, and to schedule up until post time for the ‘Mid-Summer Derby,' according to Mott.

“I'm just hoping he stays healthy and sound, stays in one piece, that's it. He's doing good and he's training good. I hope he stays the way he is,” he said.

Mott added that everything is fine with Saturday's Grade 1 Alabama winner Elate, and sixth-place finisher Lockdown the morning following the race. The daughter by Medaglia d' Oro, who missed by a head to Abel Tasman in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks, claimed her biggest victory of her career yet with her 5 ½-length victory over It Tiz Well on Saturday. Mott will wait to decide where to point the filly next.

“She ran that type of race last time, maybe it possibly was the best,” said Mott. “She was beaten a nose but it was certainly a good race. They've go races around the country, she might have to jump in with the older mares now, the Beldame, the Spinster, races like that. I probably wouldn't want to back up to a mile and a sixteenth, there's no point in me doing that. I'd look for a mile and an eighth somewhere.”

As for Mott's success at Saratoga his summer, and his nine victories which include the Jim Dandy and Alabama, the 64-year-old has a legitimate shot to win his first Travers next Saturday. Even with nine Saratoga training titles under his belt, in addition to three Eclipse Awards (1995, 1996, 2011), Mott remains humble, but aims high.

“We come here to win those kind, you never know if you're going to connect or not, but that's the ones we certainly want,” he said.

Salomon del Valle's Gunnevera, a five-length winner of the Tangelo last time out, has settled into his temporary digs at Saratoga ahead of his bid in Saturday's Grade 1 Travers. The 3-year-old colt by Dialed In travelled by van from Antonio Sano's South Florida training base and arrived at the Spa around 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, accompanied by his groom, Luis Cabello.

“They told me the trip went good,” Sano said by phone. “The horse shipped OK, so everything is good.”

Gunnevera is scheduled to walk Monday and gallop Tuesday, said Sano, who will be on hand that morning for the multiple graded stakes winner's first time out on the track.

With a lifetime record of 5-2-1 from 12 starts and more than $1.2 million in earnings, Gunnevera will be making his first start at Saratoga since winning last year's Grade 2 Saratoga Special by a length as a 2-year-old.

A $16,000 yearling purchase, Gunnevera also had a 5 ¾-length victory in the Grade 3 Delta Jackpot under his belt when he kicked off his 3-year-old season with a runner-up finish to Irish War Cry in the Grade 2 Holy Bull in February before posting a 5 ¾-length victory in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on March 4. Gunnevera was third as the even-money favorite in the Grade 1 Florida Derby the following month before finishing seventh in the Kentucky Derby and fifth in the Preakness.

The chestnut colt has breezed once since his successful comeback race in the August 6 Tangelo at Gulfstream Park, working five furlongs in 1:00 flat on August 18. Jockey Edgard Zayas, aboard for the both the breeze and the Tangelo win, will have the mount for the Travers.

Whitham Thoroughbred's homebred Travers contender McCraken galloped 1 ¼ miles over Saratoga's main track and schooled in the starting gate on Sundaymorning for trainer Ian Wilkes.

“He's doing well; I'm very happy with the horse,” said Wilkes. “It's all just routine. He walks in [the gates] fine and stands with no problems.”

Sunday's training session marked the Ghostzapper colt's second day on the track following a prescheduled walk day on Friday. McCraken breezed six furlongs in 1:16.23 over the Oklahoma track Wednesday morning and jogged Thursday, part of Wilkes' normal post-breeze regimen.

Wilkes said McCraken is likely to breeze once more before Saturday's ‘Mid-Summer Derby,' though the trainer said the details are still to be determined.

“I'll do something with him one day this week,” he said. “How I do it and when I do it, I'm not sure.”

Marylou Whitney Stable's Grade 2 Alysheba winner Bird Song is scheduled to turn in his final breeze for the Grade 1, $600,000 Forego Monday morning, said Wilkes.

The 4-year-old Unbridled's Song colt wore blinkers in his breeze last Tuesday, when he worked four furlongs in 48.70 seconds over the Oklahoma track. Bird Song cut back considerably in distance in his last race, following an eighth-place finish in the 1 1/8-mile Grade 1 Stephen Foster, to six furlongs in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt on July 29, where he raced wide to finish fourth, 9 ¼ lengths behind front-running winner El Deal.

Brad Grady's Grade 1 Haskell Invitational hero Girvin was on his toes Sunday morning, walking the shed row with marked enthusiasm, much to his hotwalker's chagrin. The nearly black colt exited his Saturday morning work – five furlongs in a bullet-of-11 59.98 seconds over the Oklahoma training track – in good order, according to trainer Joe Sharp.

Girvin, first or second in six of seven starts, will be Sharp's first Travers starter. The 32-year-old native of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, expressed confidence in his star pupil, whose only poor showing was a 13th-of-20 in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby. That effort came after a rough trip over the wet going and on the heels, literally, of a quarter-crack that has since healed.

“You definitely take a deep breath after you've won a Grade 1 with a horse like we did in the Haskell, both for the horse and the barn, being our first Grade 1,” said Sharp. “It's good to get that behind us on the big stage. I haven't really thought about a championship, but I think that if he wins another Grade 1 it definitely moves him to the top of the list as far as the 3-year-old division, especially with all the graded stakes wins he has.”

In addition to the Haskell, Girvin won the Grade 2 Risen Star and Grade 2 Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds Racecourse. Always keeping good company, he defeated Grade 2 Amsterdam runner-up Excitations on their co-debut in December.

“He's always been very talented and I think our biggest concerns are behind us as far as anything physical,” Sharp continued. “He's getting through every work perfectly and doing everything the way you want to see a horse do it coming up to a race like this. He's going in great and is a bit cocky and full of himself.”

by NYRA Press Office | 08.20.2017 | 3:08pm