Barbara D. Livingston
Carl Spackler wins the Grade 3 Kelso Stakes on July 13 at Saratoga.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – For all his dominance of the turf stakes run on this circuit, trainer Chad Brown has one glaring omission on his résumé – the Grade 1 Fourstardave Handicap.
In eight runnings from 2012-22, Brown has started 15 horses in the one-mile turf race for older males. He has six seconds and two thirds. In 2020, Brown ran half the field and finished fifth through eighth.
On Sunday, Brown has a chance to end his oh-fer when he sends out Carl Spackler in the $500,000 Fourstardave.
The race was scheduled for Saturday, but with heavy rains in the forecast for Friday and into Saturday morning, the New York Racing Association has moved the Fourstardave – and the Grade 1 Saratoga Derby – to Sunday, carding the Fourstardave as the 10th race and the Saratoga Derby as the 11th. It is an unorthodox move, but one that Brown applauds.
“I know that everyone’s not going to agree, but I do like very much how management has taken a different approach with dealing with weather this year,” Brown said. “Last year, running the Saratoga Oaks on knee-deep turf did serious, serious damage to the turf course. I really like how they’re doing different things to maintain safe courses.”
It’s a virtual certainty the race will be run on less than firm ground. Last summer, Carl Spackler won both the Grade 2 National Racing Museum and Hall of Fame Stakes and the Grade 3 Saranac over Saratoga turf labeled good.
Brown isn’t sure how soft the course would have get to negatively impact Carl Spackler.
“He can handle some moisture in the ground, I don’t know if he wants heavy ground,” Brown said. “He can handle less than firm.”
Carl Spackler has won four of his last five starts, the one loss coming in the Grade 3 Poker Stakes, where he finished fifth as the 9-5 favorite. Brown deduced that Carl Spackler may have bounced from a hard effort winning the Opening Verse at Churchill five weeks earlier, when he had to gut out a head victory over Talk of the Nation.
“He probably needed more time than I gave him,” Brown said. “He’s back and doing well.”
Carl Spackler bounced back from the Poker with a half-length victory over Talk of the Nation in the Grade 3 Kelso run at one mile here July 13.
One big obstacle for Carl Spackler in the Fourstardave was removed earlier in the week when it was announced that Master of The Seas, last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile winner, would have to scratch from this race due to a foot bruise. Master of The Seas is owned by Godolphin and trained by Charlie Appleby, and those connections have a solid back-up in Ottoman Fleet.
Ottoman Fleet, a 5-year-old gelding by Sea The Stars, has won the Grade 3 Arlington and Grade 2 Wise Dan in his last two starts, both at Churchill Downs. In the Wise Dan, he showed a different dimension going to the lead and taking the field gate to wire under Flavien Prat.
“Flavien got off him after the Wise Dan and said he thinks he’s getting faster,” said Chris Connett, assistant trainer to Appleby. “He’s the top jockey around, so we’ll listen to Flavien on that.”
Prat, initially named on Master of The Seas, will now ride Ottoman Fleet after Joel Rosario was originally named to ride.
Ottoman Fleet likely won’t be on the lead Sunday. That spot figures to be occupied by Strong Quality, who drops back to a mile after finishing last in the Grade 1 Manhattan going 1 3/16 miles here June 8. Strong Quality has been successful on less than firm ground and has run well from 7 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/8 miles on turf.
“I don’t think the soft turf is going to be an issue; it might help him,” trainer Mark Casse said. “It’s cutting back, but the good thing about soft turf is they’re not going to whiz around there. It’ll be like running a little farther, which I think suits him.”
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Money Supply put together a five-race winning streak on dirt from Sept. 27-Feb. 17, capped by a victory in the Grade 3 Mineshaft. He didn’t make his first start on turf until last month, when he won the Jonathan B. Schuster Memorial Stakes at Horseshoe Indianapolis over yielding ground.
Trainer Todd Pletcher didn’t sound enthused about running Major Dude on a soft turf course, but said Thursday that he would wait until race day to see the course condition and then decide whether to run.
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