Making the Grade: Collected

Collected winning the Sham Stakes at Santa Anita. (Photos by Eclipse Sportswire)
Making the Grade, which will run through the 2016 Belmont Stakes, focuses on the winners of the big races, usually from the previous weekend, who could impact the next Triple Crown. We’ll be taking a close look at impressive winners and evaluating their chances to win classic races based upon ability, running style, connections (owner, trainer, jockey) and pedigree.
This week we take a closer look at Collected, winner of the $100,750 Sham Stakes on Jan. 9 at Santa Anita Park.

Collected

Chestnut Colt
Sire (Father): City Zip
Dam (Mother): Helena Bay, by Johannesburg
Owner: Speedway Stable
Breeder: Runnymede Farm Inc. & Peter J. Callahan (Ky.)
Trainer: Bob Baffert

The Sham Stakes was an interesting test for Collected, whose two previous races had come on grass. It was obvious coming into the race that he had natural talent, the big question was: would that ability transfer to the main track? A 1 ¼-length victory in the one-mile Sham indicates he can run on the dirt. Now, the question he must answer is whether or not he is a legitimate threat for the Kentucky Derby.
Ability: A $170,000 purchase by Speedway Stable at the 2015 OBS March sale of 2-year-olds in training, Collected won his debut by a nose on Santa Anita’s unique 6 ½-furlong downhill turf course. He earned a 93 Equibase Speed Figure for the win, and even though he did not win his second race — the one-mile, Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes on the Del Mar turf — he took a step forward with a 105 Equibase Speed Figure for a runner-up finish.
While the Sham represented a 10-point decline from the DeMille Stakes in terms of speed figure, it did show he can capably handle dirt. For his first race on the surface, it was a very good one. Not only did he win on a new surface, he did so going around two turns and looked good dispatching a couple of rivals near the top of the stretch. I have some concerns about distance limitations because of his pedigree, which will be addressed later, but expect Collected to improve in his second start on the dirt and he looks like he’s learning and maturing with each race.
Running style: By a sire, City Zip, who was fast and precocious, it’s no surprise that Collected has plenty of speed. He showed speed in his debut when he pressed the pace and then the ability to ration it when he raced in second, 1 ½ lengths behind the leader, in his second start. In the Sham, Collected was quick out of the starting gate and established good position. He was a bit aggressive early before settling in nicely on the backstretch in fourth, 1 ¾ length back after a half-mile. He took charge with about a quarter-mile remaining and had plenty of stamina left for a challenge in the stretch. Collected should be able to consistently use his speed to gain good position early in races, which can be a very valuable asset on the Road to the Triple Crown.
COLLECTED AFTER WINNING THE SHAM STAKES

Connections: Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, a finalist for the Eclipse Award as outstanding trainer in 2015, has amassed 12 victories in U.S. Triple Crown races four Kentucky Derbys, six Preakness wins and two Belmont victories.
Baffert swept the Triple Crown in 2015 with future Hall of Famer American Pharoah, who became just the 12th Triple Crown winner in U.S. racing history. Baffert won three consecutive outstanding trainer awards from 1997 through 1999.
Speedway Stables purchased its first horse at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton November breeding stock sale and the second horse the operation purchased, Hard Not to Like, won two Grade 1 races in 2015. Speedway Stable is the racing operation of Peter and Ann Fluor and K.C. Weiner.
Weiner is the president of Texas Crude Energy. Fluor, a graduate of USC who grew up near Santa Anita Park, joined Texas Crude Energy in 1972 and has served as president and CEO. Fluor has been chairman of the board for Texas Crude Energy since 2001. Weiner’s and Fluor’s families have been friends and business associates for 60 years.
Jockey Martin Garcia has been aboard for all three of Collected’s races. Garcia took out his jockey’s license in 2005 and has amassed more than 1,370 victories as well as 28 Grade 1 wins among 91 graded stakes victories through Jan. 11. Garcia earned his best career finish in the Kentucky Derby in 2015, when he guided Dortmund to a third-place finish for Baffert. His lone victory in a Triple Crown race came aboard Lookin At Lucky in the 2010 Preakness. Garcia has won three Breeders’ Cup races, including the Classic with Bayern in 2014, and he won the Kentucky Oaks in 2011 with Plum Pretty.

Previous Making the Grades
Nyquist
Exaggerator
Mohaymen
Airoforce
Mor Spirit
Flexibility

Pedigree: Collected’s sire, City Zip, had blazing speed and he was very good as a 2-year-old, winning four graded stakes sprinting for trainer Linda Rice. He won the Grade 3 Tremont Stakes, the Grade 2 Sanford Stakes and the Grade 2 Saratoga Special Stakes in succession before finishing in a dead heat for first with Yonaguska in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at seven-eighths of a mile.  City Zip also won a pair of graded stakes at three, but he never won a race longer than the Hopeful. He did finish third in both the 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth Stakes and one-mile Kelso Handicap, the latter on the grass, but he was a much better racehorse when sprinting.
Out of the stakes-winning Relaunch mare Baby Zip, City Zip is a half-brother (same dam [mother], different sire [father]) to 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper.
For as one-dimensional as City Zip was as a runner, he’s actually been quite versatile as a sire. He’s got three Breeders’ Cup winners in the last two years: 2014 Sprint winner Work All Week, 2014 Filly and Mare Turf winner Dayatthespa and 2015 Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Catch a Glimpse. Those races came at three-quarters of a mile, 1 ¼ miles and one mile, respectively, on dirt and turf. While his average winning distance in just a tick over 6 ½ furlongs, City Zip is very capable of siring a very nice capable of going a route of ground, although in many cases those runners tend to be grass horses.
Collected’s dam, Helena Bay, was a winner at 1 mile and 70 yards on the synthetic main track at Woodbine. Collected is one of two winners from two starters produced by Helena Bay, who was bred in Great Britain, and is her first stakes winner.
His Irish-bred grandam (maternal grandmother), Josette, by Danehill, won at seven-eighths of a mile and produced a stakes winners and a pair of group stakes-placed runners in Japan.
Digging a little bit deeper, Collected hails from the family of French champion and classic winner Blushing Groom, who also was European champion miler in 1977 and a leading sire and broodmare sire in England.
I’d feel better about Collected’s chances to be a major player if the target race was on the grass or even at a mile on the main track, but I think 1 ¼ miles on the dirt against 19 other horses is a tough ask for him. On the plus side, he clearly has a ton of potential, some versatility and no shortage of speed; he could very well take a big step forward in his second race on dirt. The future is very bright for Collected, I’m just not sold that it’s first Saturday in May under the Twin Spires’ bright lights.