Wide-Open Field for Saratoga’s A. P. Smithwick

[Wandering Eyes]

Only a week ago, the question was whether any of 14 other nominees to Saratoga Racecourse’s GI A. P. Smithwick Memorial Steeplechase S. could upset Optimus Prime (Fr) (Deportivo {GB}), the current season’s top-rated hurdler.

But a training injury has put Rosbrian Farm’s star hurdler on the sidelines for the rest of the year, and now a full field of 12 contenders will sort themselves out on Thursday as jump racing turns into its championship events through the summer and fall.

The 2 1/16-mile Smithwick has a bit of everything in its bulky cast: newcomers to American racing, former stars looking to regain their luster, and improving horses looking to crack into the top echelon.

The most intriguing newcomer is owner Irv Naylor’s Bedrock (GB) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}), who carries into the U.S. a top 157 rating from two stakes wins last fall in Ireland. The 6-year-old is in the hands of trainer Leslie Young and will be ridden by Sean McDermott.

Also in Naylor’s silks is Sempre Medici (Fr) (Medicean {GB}), who is trained by Cyril Murphy and has been making a career of chasing Optimus Prime, most recently a second in the Virginia Gold Cup’s GII David Semmes Memorial on May 4.

Jack Fisher is ripping through the 2019 season and has all but locked up his eighth straight trainer title. He has two imports, headed by handicap stakes winner Vosne Romanee (GB) (Arakan). The 8-year-old will have his regular jockey, Sam Twiston-Davies, in the saddle.

Danny Mullins, a top young Irish jump jockey, will be aboard Gill Johnston’s Peppay Le Pugh (Ire) (Arakan), who had been beating up on lesser handicap opponents in the U.K.

Fisher’s team also includes Riverdee Stable’s Gibralfaro (Ire) (Dalakhani {Ire}), winner of the Queen’s Cup MPC ‘Chase, a novice stakes in late April. Gibralfaro was overmatched in his first Grade I start, the Calvin Houghland Iroquois in Nashville two weeks later.

Making his second U.S. start will be Hudson River Farms’ Winston C (Ire) (Rip Van Winkle {Ire}), who finished third in a novice stakes at Nashville. The 5-year-old is trained by Jonathan Sheppard, who also will saddle All the Way Jose (Senor Swinger), a 2017 Grade I winner now attempting to mount a comeback.

Also on the comeback trail is last year’s Smithwick winner, Mark W. Buyck Jr.’s Show Court (Ire) (Vinnie Roe {Ire}), who scored at 14-1 last year and will carry long odds on Thursday. He hasn’t won a jump race since last July and was beaten by lower-level horses in his most recent jumps start, at Fair Hill, Md., in May.

The Smithwick also will determine the significance of that race, the $40,000 Valentine Memorial, which was won by Robert A. Kinsley’s No Wunder (GB) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}). In his prior start four weeks earlier, No Wunder had finished more than 13 lengths behind Gibralfaro at the Queen’s Cup in Charlotte.

Elizabeth Voss also trains Kinsley’s Modem (GB) (Motivator [GB]), who is still looking for his first U.S. victory after stringing together five straight Grade I second-place finishes. His last jumps start was a sixth in last year’s Smithwick.

 

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