Recruiting Ready Steps Up in Woody Stephens
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Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
Recruiting Ready wins the Chick Lang Stakes at Pimlico Race Course
Sagamore Farm's Recruiting Ready will try to extend his win streak to four June 10 in the $500,000 Woody Stephens Stakes (G2) at Belmont Park, but he'll have to fend off a trio of last-out grade 3 winners if he wants to earn his own graded score.
Since he returned from a two-month freshening in March, the frontrunning Algorithms colt has done no wrong. He's won three straight races at three different racetracks, including back-to-back, open-lengths stakes scores in the April 13 Bachelor Stakes at Oaklawn Park and the Maker's Mark Chick Lang Stakes at Pimlico Race Course. He started his win streak with an optional-claiming allowance win at Laurel Park March 10, but all three of those races were at six furlongs and the Woody Stephens, his first graded try since a third-place run in the 2016 Iroquois (G3), is at seven-eighths.
"He's certainly coming into this race in the right form," said Recruiting Ready's trainer, Horacio DePaz. "We only ran him long once, but hopefully he can get seven furlongs. We're not going to try to change his style. He's going to continue to run the same way he's been running."
Along with the added distance, Recruiting Ready will also face a class test. The 5-2 morning-line favoritism rests on WinStar Farm and China Horse Club's American Anthem, who has shipped east for trainer Bob Baffert off a victory in the Lazaro Barrera Stakes (G3) May 13 at his Santa Anita Park home base. The Bodemeister colt dialed back to seven furlongs in the Barrera after off-the-board, two-turn finishes in the Santa Anita Derby (G1) and Rebel Stakes (G2).
BALAN: American Anthem Sweeps By to Take Barrera
"That was a huge effort last time coming off of those other races," Baffert said. "If he can run that race back, he's going to be very competitive. Eventually I want to stretch him out. I thought about the Easy Goer (Stakes Saturday at Belmont), because of the mile and a sixteenth (distance), but the Woody Stephens is a big race, so we'll take a shot there."
The most visually impressive last-out performer in the field is Calumet Farm's Wild Shot, who blew away the Pat Day Mile (G3) field by four lengths May 6 at Churchill Downs. Alpha Delta Stables' Long Haul Bay wasn't far off April 8, when the Quality Road colt stalked and pounced to win the Bay Shore Stakes (G3) by 3 1/4 lengths at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Woody Stephens S. (G2)
Belmont Park, Saturday, June 10, 2017, Race 7
- 7f
- Dirt
- $500,000
- 3 yo
- 3:15 PM (local)
| PP | Horse | Jockey | Wgt | Trainer | M/L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1Giuseppe the Great (KY) | Tyler Gaffalione | 115 | Nicholas P. Zito | 12/1 |
| 2 | 2Classic Rock (KY) |
Luis Saez | 121 | Katherine Ritvo | 10/1 |
| 3 | 3Recruiting Ready (KY) |
Horacio Karamanos | 121 | Horacio DePaz | 6/1 |
| 4 | 4Gold for the King (NY) | Jose L. Ortiz | 121 | Charlton Baker | 15/1 |
| 5 | 5Blessed Halo (FL) | Joel Rosario | 115 | David A. Cannizzo | 20/1 |
| 6 | 6Hard Scramble (KY) |
Irad Ortiz, Jr. | 115 | Steven M. Asmussen | 20/1 |
| 7 | 7Wild Shot (KY) | Corey J. Lanerie | 123 | George R. Arnold, II | 4/1 |
| 8 | 8American Anthem (KY) |
Mike E. Smith | 123 | Bob Baffert | 5/2 |
| 9 | 9The Money Monster (KY) |
Jose Lezcano | 121 | William I. Mott | 20/1 |
| 10 | 10Long Haul Bay (NY) | Manuel Franco | 123 | Chad C. Brown | 5/1 |
| 11 | 11Petrov (KY) |
Ricardo Santana, Jr. | 115 | Ron Moquett | 8/1 |