City Man Looks to Finish Spa Meet with Bernard Baruch

Owner Dean Reeves is looking to end the Saratoga Race Course meet the same way he started it: with a grade 3 win with multiple stakes-winner City Man . This time, the talented New York-bred son of Mucho Macho Man   will contest the Sept. 5, $200,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap (G3T) for 3-year-olds and upward going 1 1/16 miles over the inner turf.

Trained by Christophe Clement, City Man captured the Forbidden Apple Stakes (G3T) July 15. Under the Reeves Thoroughbred Racing moniker, Dean and his wife, Patti, have won five stakes this meet.

In addition to the Forbidden Apple, their 3-year-old turf sprinter Big Invasion  took the Quick Call Stakes Presented by the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (G3T), while Isolate  won the Tale of the Cat Stakes to give trainer Tom Amoss his 4,000th victory. They also won the NYSSS Cab Calloway with the Danny Gargan-trained Dakota Gold .

The 5-year-old City Man captured the April 9 Danger's Hour Stakes at Aqueduct in his 2022 debut before two unplaced efforts at stakes level at Belmont Park ahead of the Forbidden Apple. Initially slated to defend his title in the state-bred West Point Stakes presented by Trustco Bank Aug. 26, City Man scratched out of the 1 1/16-mile event when weather conditions forced the race onto the main track.

"Hope we can get by this one without some bad weather," said Reeves, who owns City Man with Peter and Patty Searles. "We're hoping to finish the way we started. We might have run on the dirt had this race not been a week later, so it just made sense. So we figured, why not? We'll wait a week, come back and hope we get a good turf course. It's the same distance and we feel like we can be competitive in it."

Through a record of 6-4-3 from 22 starts, City Man has amassed field-best earnings of $653,050. He was bred in the Empire State by Moonstar Farm.

"To start the meet with a grade 3 and finish with a grade 3 would be unbelievable," Reeves said. "It really will make the trip home easy. So, fingers crossed, but I think we have a live shot. I would really like the end of the meet on the last day with a win like that."

Joel Rosario, who won the Bernard Baruch in 2019 aboard repeat winner Qurbaan , will return to the irons from post 5.

Other entrants include Flying P Stable and James F. Schurman's stakes-winner Dynadrive  and New York-bred stakes winner Ocala Dream , both trained by Tom Morley.

Completing the field is Mouillage , Winters Back , and Emaraaty .

Entries: Bernard Baruch H. (G3T)

Saratoga Race Course, Monday, September 05, 2022, Race 3

• Grade III
• 1 1/16m
• Inner turf
• $200,000
• 3 yo's & up
• 1:43 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Ocala Dream (NY)	Javier Castellano	118	Thomas Morley	10/1
2	2Mouillage (FR)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	120	Chad C. Brown	2/1
3	3Dynadrive (KY)	Eric Cancel	119	Thomas Morley	6/1
4	4Winters Back (KY)	Luis Saez	119	Todd A. Pletcher	9/2
5	5City Man (NY)	Joel Rosario	121	Christophe Clement	8/5
6	6Emaraaty (GB)	Flavien Prat	120	Chad C. Brown	6/1