- Saratoga Race Course: Belmont winner Arcangelo checking all the boxes heading into Travers
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Based on his race and workout schedule, Arcangelo looks like a slacker.
Based on his behavior in the round pen next to trainer Jena Antonucci’s barn on July 8, five days before opening day of the Saratoga Race Course meet, he looks like a goofball (Note: that’s what round pens are for).
But this is a serious racehorse.
The son of 2016 Eclipse Award winner Arrogate hasn’t raced in over 10 weeks and did not breeze last weekend, but that was by design, and Arcangelo will be one of the top contenders, if not the favorite, for Saturday’s 154th Travers at Saratoga.
Because the field is expected to include the winners of all three Triple Crown races, along with last year’s 2-year-old male champion, Forte, the Travers could be the deciding factor in this year’s Eclipse voting for 3-year-old male.
Arcangelo is one of those Triple Crown horses, having won the Belmont Stakes on June 10, making Antonucci the first female trainer to not only win that race, but any of the Triple Crown legs.
She comes into the Travers with confidence borne by her colt’s training pattern and Arcangelo’s history of performing well when he gets ample recovery time between races. After breaking his maiden at Gulfstream Park in March, Arcangelo has raced just twice, winning the Peter Pan at Belmont Park on May 13, a week after the Kentucky Derby, and the Belmont itself.
“This horse has had most of his career spaced out with a lot of time [between races],” Antonucci said on Monday afternoon. “We’ve just found that’s given him that breathing room he needed to continue to mature and grow up and fill in and fill out. It really wasn’t a heavy debate, to be honest.
“The tightest races he had run back-to-back were the Peter Pan and the Belmont. So, continuing to let him come out of the big effort in the Belmont and put himself where he needed to be for this race was kind of an easy conversation.”
The Travers field and post positions will be drawn Tuesday evening, and, besides Arcangelo, is expected to include Derby winner Mage, Preakness winner National Treasure, Forte, Tapit Trice, Disarm, Scotland and Il Miracolo.
Arcangelo breezed five furlongs in 1:00.21 on Whitney Day Aug. 6, the second-fastest of 45 works at that distance on the main track that day.
Last Wednesday, 10 days after the Aug. 6 breeze, Antonucci had regular Arcangelo’s exercise Robert Mallari put the gray ridgling through five furlongs at a more moderate pace, just to make sure Arcangelo was tightened up for the Travers. He was clocked in 1:01.63 and has been just going out for routine gallops since.
“Our focus this last work, we’ll call it a clean-up work if we didn’t feel like we had everything accomplished that we were working for in the work prior,” Antonucci said. “So it was a heavy-lift the work prior to kind of check all the boxes we were looking to see checked. That last work was more of a sprinkle on top, shall we say.”
Arcangelo will regain the services of jockey Javier Castellano, who had a difficult decision between riding Arcangelo or Mage, whom he rode in the Derby and to a third-place finish in the Preakness.
Castellano is 3-for-3 on Arcangelo, having been on his for the maiden win in March.
It doesn’t hurt Arcangelo’s cause that Castellano has won the Travers seven times. No other jockey has won more than four.
“Living in it, it didn’t feel that way,” Antonucci said, of the competition to get Castellano. “I’m a big believer that things just work out, and you’ve got to stay in your space and do what you do. The nice part is this colt has gotten so professional in his job that whoever ended up on him was going to know what to do and how they needed to do it.
“We’re thrilled that we do have him, obviously, and thankful for that. They’ve had a lot of success together, so hopefully we can add some more to that.”
Another box that Arcangelo can check is pedigree, at least from the most immediate generation.
Arrogate, who was inducted to the National Racing Hall of Fame earlier this month, won the 2016 Travers while breaking General Assembly’s 1979 track record time.
Antonucci couldn’t help but laugh that, in running in the mile-and-a-quarter Travers, Arcangelo is actually cutting back in distance. The Belmont is run at a mile and a half.
“We won at a mile, we won at a mile and an eighth and we won at a mile and a half,” she said. “He has what I would call some DNA speed in there from his dad, where it just makes him so dynamic in that regard.
“It’s not often you can say it’s a cutback to a mile and a quarter, and what does that look like. So, excited to see that, and just excited for him to have this opportunity against this kind of group.
“We’re definitely not tied on to one business plan in that race. I would expect National Treasure isn’t going to dawdle, as well [besides Scotland]. So I would be surprised if there wasn’t an honest pace on the front end. We’ve been able to sit on a quick pace and sit off a little quicker pace. We’re going to let Javier do what Javier does and run a smart race.”
When Arcangelo won at Gulfstream in March, he wasn’t really on the Triple Crown radar.
He remained so, while running in the Peter Pan, a Grade III race that falls in the interstices of the Triple Crown series while often servicing as a useful bridge race to the Belmont.
He went off at almost 8-1 in the Belmont, then beat a field that included National Treasure, Forte, Tapit Trice and the highly regarded Angel of Empire, the betting favorite in the Derby after Forte was scratched the morning of the race.
So Arcangelo will get strong consideration to win the Travers.
Antonucci is OK with that.
“That stuff kind of becomes white noise in the big picture of what we do, and just staying focused on the colt and making sure we’re checking all the boxes and he’s in an optimal space to run.
“So that stuff, fortunately, doesn’t move the needle in how we prepare and how he’s ready to run. Fun for the industry to be able to enjoy that and talk about it, and I’ll let them do that. I’ll stay focused on him. So super-excited for a great day of racing, for the industry, for the fans, so … you know, let’s go win a race.”
