Elite Power, Gunite Ready to Tussle Again in Forego

If the Aug. 26 Forego Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course is anything like the Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap (G1) run earlier in the meet, racing fans are in for a treat.

The one-two finishers from the July 29 Vanderbilt, millionaires Elite Power  and Gunite , respectively, will butt heads again in the $500,000 Forego, one of the supporting stakes to the day's main event, the $1.25 million Travers Stakes (G1). The Forego will be run as race seven on the 13-race card and has a post time of 3:07 p.m. ET.

Elite Power, owned by Juddmonte, and Gunite, who carries the silks of Winchell Thoroughbreds, are familiar foes but the former has, so far, come out on top in their two meetings this year, which also include the Riyadh Dirt Sprint (G3) in February at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Saudi Arabia. Elite Power sailed to a 3 1/4-length victory in that race with Gunite checking in second. In the Vanderbilt, the margin was much closer, a head.

Elite Power, a 5-year-old son of Curlin  , brings an eight-race winning streak, which includes five graded stakes victories, to the seven-furlong Forego for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. Last year's champion male sprinter and the winner of the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) has not lost a race since May 7, 2022, when he was still a maiden and finished third at Churchill Downs in his third career start.  

"Naturally, you want to keep them winning as long as you can," Mott said Tuesday morning at his Saratoga barn. "However, we know that every time we take them over there you take the chance of getting them beat because we're running against very good competition. And this is Saratoga and anything can happen. He seems to have come out of his last race in good order; trained certainly well enough coming up to this race, and, hopefully, he can do it again.

"When Gunite turned for home (in the Vanderbilt), he opened up two or three lengths on everybody," Mott added. "It looked like at one point when they first straightened away, there was no way we were going to be able to run (Gunite) down. It looked like that horse had opened up and he was going to be gone. Then, as they started to approach the eighth pole, you could see (Elite Power) was gaining momentum and he just really gutted it out. It was a gallant effort on his part and a good effort on Gunite's part. They put on a pretty good show that day."

Video: Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. (G1)

Elite Power, with Irad Ortiz Jr. back aboard, drew post 3 in the five-horse field.

David Fiske, the racing manager for Gunite's owner and breeder, Ron Winchell, thought the 4-year-old son of Gun Runner   who Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen trains had the Vanderbilt in the bag as he rounded the turn of the six-furlong race which was contested on a sloppy and sealed track.

"Turning for home and at the eighth pole, I thought he was going to pull it off," Fiske said by phone from Kentucky this week. "Then, I saw Elite Power, and I thought, 'Oh, I hope we hang on.' 

"So, like I told someone else, you have to be the champion to beat the champ. It wasn't like Gunite got run down by a 40-1 horse or some flukey deal. He and (Elite Power) are two of the best sprinters in the country and they have thrown it down before. I'm hoping that if we keep throwing it down, eventually, we will come up on the winner's side of that."

Gunite first showed his affinity for Saratoga's main track back when he was a 2-year-old by posting an 11-1 upset in the 2021 Hopeful Stakes (G1) with a commanding 5 3/4-length victory. Last year at Saratoga, the colt captured the Amsterdam Stakes (G2) and was second to the highly regarded and now-retired Jack Christopher   in the H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes (G1).

"Since then, he's just gotten bigger and more attractive, and as a 4-year-old, he seems to be faster," Fiske remarked. "I like all of that."

Tyler Gaffalione, who has been partnered with Gunite for 10 of his 18 starts and five of his eight career wins, has the mount from post 2. 

Mott, who won the Forego last year with another one of his stars, Cody's Wish , has also entered High Oak  for LRE Racing and JEH Racing Stable. The 4-year-old has not won a race in seven starts since taking the 2021 Saratoga Special Stakes (G2).

Also entered is Synthesis , a 7-year-old who was not a factor while finishing fifth in the Vanderbilt for owner-trainer David Jacobson, and the Chad Brown-trained Pipeline , third in last year's Forego and winless in two starts since for John D. Gunther and Eurowest Bloodstock Services.