Opry Takes Center Stage in Pilgrim

[Wandering Eyes]

Down the backside of the GIII With Anticipation S. Aug. 29 at Saratoga, Opry (Declaration of War) looked to be fairly hopeless. Traveling greenly while still able to see them all at the five-sixteenths pole, he still appeared to be figuring things out in the stretch drive, but produced a huge stretch kick to strike the front and score going away. A repeat of that effort would likely make him tough in Saturday’s GIII Pilgrim S. at Belmont, but any positive development in the interim could have the fat lady signing for his competition well before they hit the wire.

Debuting in an off-the-turf event Aug. 11 at the Spa, Opry showed some late interest to be third, beaten less than a length. The form of that race has since been validated, as winner Cairo Cat (Cairo Prince) returned to capture the GIII Iroquois S. at Churchill Downs two Saturdays ago. But Opry was clearly meant for grass, a preference he proved emphatically when entered as a maiden in the With Anticipation. The $180,000 Keeneland September graduate shows a bullet half-mile in :48 4/5 (1/21) over the Saratoga training turf Sept. 21 in preparation for this.

“Initially, the plan was to run him on the turf and he drew the also-eligible,” said trainer Todd Pletcher. “When that race came off the turf we decided not to run even though we could’ve drawn in. We entered him back and the race came off the turf again, so I figured he trained well enough on the dirt that we needed to get him started. He ran a respectable race that day and I’d been impressed enough with his turf works to think it wasn’t crazy to enter him in the With Anticipation. Since then he’s continued to develop and certainly has earned his way into running here.”

Somelikeithotbrown (Big Brown), runner-up to Opry last out, returns to re-engage. Prior to that, the bay was an eight-length victor in the infamous wrong-distance race run at Saratoga Aug. 8. August Dawn Farm’s Forty Under (Uncle Mo) was 20-1 when he upset turf maidens on the Travers undercard Aug. 25, and he’ll likely be a much shorter price trying to repeat here. Rhythm With Soul (Kitten’s Joy) took a good deal of money debuting in a Spa turf sprint Sept. 2 and, similarly to Opry, looked without a chance on the backstretch before sweeping from last to get up on the wire.

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