From the NYRA Media Team / Nick D’Amore:
Andthewinneris, the Grade 2 winner from Susan Moulton, is hoping to return to the winner’s circle on Wednesday in the Restricted $135,000 John’s Call, a 13-furlong Mellon turf test for horses ages 4 and older that have not won a Grade 1 or 2 race on turf in 2024, at Saratoga Race Course.
The four-year-old gelding by Kentucky-bred Oscar Performance recently joined the stables of four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown after completing his junior and sophomore seasons under the tutelage of Wayne Catalano.
“This is a cool horse that was brought to us and came back into the world after a long injury layoff. Everyone involved with the horse did a great job rehabbing him,” Brown said.
In his first start for Brown, he ran a new personal best of 90 Beyer Speed Figure over 1 1/8 miles on the turf here on July 20. He will go beyond nine furlongs for the first time at John’s Call.
Brown, who has won this race four times, did not seem concerned about the distance issue.
“I want to test him at a distance he’s never done before,” Brown said. “I’ve had luck in this race before and he looks like a horse that’s well suited to this race.”
Andthewinneris won his first race outright at the 2022 Keeneland Spring Meet over 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf, where he started slowly and lagged behind the field before making a strong move at the top of the track to pull away by two lengths. He followed up in his third start and went into the 8 1/2 furlong Grade 3 With Anticipation at Spa as the betting favorite, finishing third behind Boppy O, beaten 1 3/4 lengths.
He returned to Keeneland in his next start and won the Grade 2 Bourbon over 1 1/16 miles by 2 3/4 lengths before finishing a side-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, also at the Lexington Oval, that same year.
His only win as a sophomore came in the Texas Turf Mile at Sam Houston, where he defeated Private Creed by a head. He finished in stakes races at the track in his next three starts before being benched last May.
“He is a gentleman horse and I can imagine that if he stays healthy he will have a nice second half of his career with us,” added Brown.
Andthewinneris, assigned 122 pounds, has a record of 11-3-0-2 with earnings of $374,843. Flavien Prat will call from Post 2.
Tony Weintraub, West Point Thoroughbreds and RR Partners’ Winning Spirit (5th seed Dylan Davis, 122 pounds) will be wearing blinkers as he looks to rediscover his European form after a difficult start to his American chapter in the John’s Call. The 4-year-old Soldier Hollow colt made his first start for trainer Christophe Clement at Churchill Downs in Chorleywood on June 15, in a 1 3/8-mile turf trial in which he was soundly beaten.
Since that performance, he has trained three times on the Oklahoma turf. Most recently, he was with Soldier Rising, who has placed multiple times in Grade 1. They completed the five-furlong course in 1:02.55.
“He did a nice maintenance move last time with Solider Rising. He had Dylan (Davis) with him for work, they looked good,” Clement said.
Last year he won in his last start in Germany for trainer Peter Schiergen at Baden-Baden over 1 1/2 miles. Winning Spirit is placed in Italy in the Group 2 Italian Derby, where he was 1 1/2 lengths from victory and had to settle for second place. Before this start he won the Premio Emanuele Filiberto at San Siro by a margin of four lengths.
“We’re not sure what happened last time,” said Clement. “The horse is in top form in Europe and we just need to find him again here. Hopefully he can pull himself together in this race and get back to the performance we know from him.”
Kentucky-born Curbstone (4th seed, Florent Geroux, 118 pounds), a 5-year-old gelding by Street Sense, owned by Patricia L. Moseley, is attempting marathon distances for the first time in nearly two years.
The gelding was last absent from an allowance race over 1 1/16 miles on the turf at Belmont at the Big A on June 23.
Coach Tom Morley emphasized that Curbstone’s last performance was better than it seemed on paper.
“He was easily overtaken at the beginning. He’s a horse that likes to be in the spotlight and I think the marathon distance on the turf will really suit him. He will be ridden aggressively,” said Morley.
A daughter of stakes-placed Arch mare Archstone, Curbstone is a half-brother to Grade 2 champion mare Proctor’s Ledge. Proctor’s Ledge won Grade 2 Lake Placid and Grade 3 Lake George here during her racing career and is now the dam of recent allowance winner Proctor Street, who ran in Saturday’s Grade 2 Lake Placid.
“Of course, being a full brother to Proctor’s Ledge, he has enough pedigree to handle it well. If it was raining and pouring and muddy, I would be the happiest man on earth,” Morley said.
Double O Racing’s Foreign Relations (3rd seed, Tyler Gaffalione, 124 pounds) will come off the bench in the John’s Call for trainer Conor Murphy. The chestnut gelding by Karakontie has made one start this year, finishing second in a Keeneland Allowance race over 1 1/2 miles on firm turf on April 14. He pressured the winner, multiple graded stakes-placed Ohana Honor, the entire way and had to settle for second, 5 3/4 lengths behind.
Last May, Foreign Relations secured a Grade 3 victory when he defeated the Louisvilles over Limited Liability and English Conqueror at Churchill Downs.
His record is 12-2-3-1 and earns $263,864.
Rounding out the field are stakes-placed Six Minus (1st place, Irad Ortiz, Jr., 118 pounds) for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher and Grade 1-placed Cathkin Peak (6th place, Jose Ortiz, 118 pounds) for trainer Mike Maker.
Kuchar, Costa Terra and Dai Vernon are only registered for the main route.
The John’s Call will be the third race in Wednesday’s nine-race schedule, with the first start at 1:10 p.m. Eastern Time.
Saratoga Live presents live coverage and analysis of the summer meet at Saratoga Race Course on the FOX Sports networks. For the broadcast schedule and channel search, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule/.
