Different Paths, Futures for Two Spiral Contenders

King and His Court and Bronson, two 3-year-old horses who will break next to each other when the gates open in the JACK Cincinnati Casino Spiral Stakes (G3) March 25, are both Triple Crown nominees in the hands of leading North American trainers.

Other than that, they have very little in common, especially the paths they took to the 1 1/8-mile race on synthetic Polytrack at Turfway Park Saturday and their respective connections' plans for them going forward.

Trained by multiple Eclipse Award-winning conditioner Todd Pletcher for Mathis Stable, Bronson has won two of four starts and his earnings of $59,420 are second-lowest in the field. The well-bred son of Medaglia d'Oro  —Cambiocorsa, by Avenue of Flags, who drew post 10 and is listed at 10-1 morning-line odds, was purchased as a yearling for the pricey sum of $350,000, highest among Spiral entrants sold at public auction.

Starting from post 11, King and His Court, the co-morning line second choice at 5-1 odds for Adam Wachtel's Wachtel Stable and Gary Barber, is a gelded son of Court Vision  —Pennywhistle, by Grand Reward, bought by Alex Patykewich for $2,254 as a yearling, the lowest-priced starter. He is trained by Canadian Hall of Famer Mark Casse. With three wins, including two stakes at Woodbine, his bankroll of $242,981 dwarfs his Sprial rivals.

The Spiral carries 85 total points toward the Road to the Kentucky Derby leaderboard, with 50 points to the winner. The12-horse field is headed by multiple stakes winner Kitten's Cat, the 4-1 morning-line favorite. Team Valor International's Animal Kingdom   used a victory in the 2011 Vinery Spiral as a stepping stone to success in the Run for the Roses.

Despite the lure of Derby points, partners Wachtel and Barber have no delusions about their horse's strengths and weaknesses and have Canada's prestigious Queen's Plate at Woodbine July 2 as the target for King and His Court, who was purchased privately during the fall after making seven starts for his previous owner and trainer Patykewich.

Seven of the gelding's 10 starts, including all three wins, have been on synthetic tracks. King and His Court's victories have included back-to-back stakes wins in the Coronation Futurity and Display Stakes in his first two starts for Wachtel and Barber. In his lone dirt-track test, he showed little and finished last of nine in the Sam F. Davis (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs Feb. 11, his start previous to the Spiral.

"(Casse) said he had worked well on dirt, and in the past I've had good turf horses that worked well on dirt, but it never meant (they) could run on dirt," Wachtel said of the Tampa race. "Sure enough, he didn't like it. A hundred yards into the race, you could see it was not a good situation. That was a failed experiment. You never even got to see him on the screen while the race was running.

"People look at the Spiral as an end-around to get to the Derby. We're trying to do what's best for the horse and pick out the best spots for his career, and the best path to the Queen's Plate. Our focus is to try to do the best we can in this race and look forward to the Queen's Plate."

While he has confidence in his charge, Wachtel said there is concern about King and His Court's post position, next to the far outside horse.

"I don't love the draw," the co-owner said. "You would prefer to be more inside, so you don't get hung out. But he doesn't have a whole lot of speed anyways, so hopefully we can tuck in and get a decent trip. In terms of having experience going two turns and on synthetics, I don't think I would switch places with anybody in the race. Hopefully the post won't get us."

Wachtel also thinks he and Barber have a good shot in the Spiral as co-owners of Colonel Samsen, who breaks from post 5 as a 12-1 morning-line shot. Also a gelded 3-year-old, the son of Colonel John—Blondz Away, by Skip Away, was a $19,000 yearling purchase trained by Eion Harty for Wachtel, Barber, Casner Racing, and Corey Johnsen.

Winner of the Gold Rush Stakes at Golden Gate Fields, Colonel Samsen is also a synthetics and turf specialist who has won two of nine starts and earned $124,710. He was not nominated to the Triple Crown series.

"Colonel Samsen is an established synthetic horse and we came here not so concerned about Derby points but to try to win the race," Wachtel said, noting that the gelding has run the fastest of any Spiral runner to date, based on Razogin figures. "I feel coming into the race that I have two horses that have demonstrated they can run two turns on synthetic surfaces."

Unlike Wachtel and Barber, Bill and Terry Mathis do have classic aspirations for Bronson, but they remain grounded in reality and are not looking beyond Saturday's race. After breaking his maiden at first asking at Monmouth Park, the gray colt was moved into graded company, finishing fourth in the Sanford (G3) at Saratoga Race Course before completing his 2-year-old season with a second in an allowance at Gulfstream Park, his first turf start. In his 2017 debut, the colt won an off-the-turf 1 1/16-mile allowance over a sloppy Gulfstream main track.

"We just take it one race at a time and we would be over the moon if he performed well enough that we would even consider a run in the Derby," Bill Mathis said. "It's asking quite a lot to take a horse from an allowance race straight to a graded stakes. But like kids, they mature so differently. They can change so much from the last time they ran. Todd told us he has been very pleased with how the horse came out of the muddy race at Gulfstream. He was really pleased with the race since he didn't think he would care (for) the surface and it was his first race around two turns.

"Since then he has continued to impress Todd and he considered running him in the John Battaglia (Memorial at Turfway). Since he was doing so well, we decided to wait and considered the Rushaway (also at Turfway March 25) or Spiral, depending on how he progressed. It seems like the right thing to do, to take a shot in the Spiral. It will be a big, big step up. Being an all-weather surface, we certainly expect him to like it better than the surface he just ran on."

Bill Mathis said Bronson was named for the couple's son, Billy Bronson Mathis, who will be in attendance Saturday and that the numbers seem to be lining up for the family.

"(Billy Bronson) is 10, and we're the 10th horse in the 10th race," the owner said.