Saratoga Notebook, Presented by NYRA Bets: Brown Taking a Travers Shot with Strategic Focus

Wandering Eyes · 2025-08-20T21:24:27Z

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A year ago, trainer Chad Brown thought he had his best chance ever when he ran 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) in the $1.25-million GI Travers Stakes. The best he could do as the 8-5 favorite was a third-place finish.

Brown accepted the verdict and vowed that he would keep trying to win the Midsummer Derby, a race he grew up with. The 46-year-old Brown grew up in the shadow of Saratoga Race Course, in nearby Mechanicville, so, of course, the Travers is the race for him.

When the Travers is run for the 156th time on Saturday, Brown will be represented but the expectations aren't nearly as high as they were a year ago. He will send the lightly raced 'TDN Rising Star' Strategic Focus (Gun Runner) to the starting gate for the 1 1/4-mile race.

Owned by Seth Klarman's Klaravich Stables Inc., Strategic Focus is the 6-1 third choice on the morning line in the five-horse field. The favorite is the imposing Sovereignty (Into Mischief), who is 2-5.

“I am taking a shot,” Brown said in his office at the Oklahoma Training Track. “I am not going in with any expectations like I am going to win the race, but I am going in with a horse that I think is far better than his last race.”

That last race was the Curlin, where Strategic Focus finished third as the 3-5 favorite behind stablemate and 'TDN Rising Star' Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie), who is running Saturday in the seven-furlong, $500,000 GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes.

At the top of the stretch in the Curlin, it looked like Strategic Focus and jockey Flavien Prat were going to win for fun, but he ended up a half-length behind Chancer McPatrick.

“I believe he pulled himself up last time due to inexperience,” said Brown, who will equip Strategic Focus with blinkers for the Travers. “I believe this horse has a lot of ability. I loved him in the Curlin. I'm not saying he is good enough to compete with Sovereignty, but I am saying there is more there.”

Strategic Focus, a $500,000 purchase at the 2023 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, did not race as a 2-year-old. He broke his maiden at Aqueduct in April and then won a first-level allowance at Saratoga on June 6 but was disqualified and placed second.

White Abarrio Staying Put to Run in Jockey Club Gold Cup

The final decision is in. White Abarrio (Race Day) will stay in Saratoga to run in the $1-million GI Jockey Club Gold Cup on Aug. 31.

White Abarrio Tuesday morning at the Spa | Sarah Andrew

“We want to stay here and take on the best,” trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. said on the soggy Saratoga backstretch Wednesday morning. “And we think he is the best.”

White Abarrio, owned by Gary Barber, C Two Racing Stable and La Milagrosa Stable LLC, was originally being pointed to a trip West, to run in the $1-million GI Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 30.

“When that statement (from co-owner Mark Cornett of C Two Racing) came out, California was the front runner, 100 percent,” Joseph said. “The horse sold us to stay here. The ownership group decided (Tuesday) that he was going to run here.”

Joseph said that White Abarrio, who is scheduled to work Thursday morning, is doing very well and that was one of the reasons the decision was made to stay home. The other was that it is easier to run out of his own stall rather to fly cross country.

White Abarrio finished fourth in the GI Whitney Stakes on Aug. 2. By staying for the Jockey Club Gold Cup, he will be facing the likes of Whitney winner Sierra Leone and 'TDN Rising Star' Mindframe (Constitution), two of the top-ranked older horses in the country.

The Pacific Classic is expected to attract the Bob Baffert-trained 'TDN Rising Star' Nysos (Nyquist), who has won two of three this year, including the GII San Diego Handicap in his last start. Another possible starter is 3-year-old Journalism (Curlin), who won the GI Preakness Stakes and was second in the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes.

Joseph said he will have to get a new rider for White Abarrio. Irad Ortiz, Jr., who has ridden the 6-year-old gray in his last 10 starts, is committed to ride Mindframe in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

“I have thoughts, but I am going to keep those to myself,” Joseph said.

White Abarrio has two wins in four starts this year, the biggest being the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park on Mar. 29. He has finished fourth in last two starts, the other being the GI Met Mile, also at Saratoga, on June 7.

“The horse is giving me the right signs,” Joseph said. “We feel like he is going to run his best (in the Jockey Club Gold Cup). Is his best going to be good enough? You never know. Another horse might run a better best.”

The ultimate goal for White Abarrio is the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 2, a race he won at Santa Anita in 2023. Joseph said that sometime after the Jockey Club Gold Cup, he will send White Abarrio back to his home base in Florida and ship to California from there.

Brightwork Back Where She Does Her Best Work

The first two starts of the year would not instill confidence to anyone who is a fan of the 4-year-old filly Brightwork (Outwork).

But those two races weren't at Saratoga. The next one is.

Brightwork in one of her recent Saratoga works | Sarah Andrew

Brightwork, trained by John Ortiz, loves it at the Spa. She has won all three of her starts at Saratoga, all of them graded stakes, including the GI Spinaway when she was a 2-year-old. Last year, she won the GIII Prioress here.

She will try to keep her perfect Saratoga record intact when she runs in the $500,000 GI Ballerina at seven furlongs.

“I don't know, but she usually blossoms here,” Ortiz said Wednesday morning at his barn on the Saratoga backstretch. “Whether it's the Saratoga air or the track or the track kitchen sitting next to our barn … she just has really sparked since we got here. It has shown up in all her workouts.”

Brightwork has had five works since arriving in Saratoga in mid-July.

“We had no plans on running her in the Ballerina,” Ortiz said. “What we were initially trying to do was to train her and get her back to her old self. She has gained a ton of weight, and she is brighter and sharper than she was in Kentucky.”

In her first two starts this year, she was fourth in the GIII Winning Colors and eighth in the GII Chicago, both at Churchill Downs.

The Winning Colors was her first start since October.

“We tried to make the Winning Colors right off the farm,” Ortiz said. “I think sometimes you are chasing a spot more than getting a horse ready for the right race. We were burning up too many calories to catch up to her fitness and it showed. She was just not happy. Now, she is back to herself. She is happy and, honestly, there is nothing better than running a happy horse.”

Brightwork, owned by WSS Racing, is 15-1 on the Ballerina morning line. She will be ridden by Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez for the first time.

“I think she will be,” Ortiz said when asked if he thought Brightwork would be overlooked, “but she always has been. Look at all her races. She has never really been the favorite when she has won and that's okay. It's not about favoritism or numbers. It's about knowing your horse and when to run her.”