Making the Grade: Competitive Edge

Competitive Edge gallops out after his Hopeful victory. (Photos by Eclipse Sportswire)
Making the Grade, which will run through the 2015 Belmont Stakes, focuses on the winners of the big races, usually from the previous weekend, who could impact the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile as well as the next Triple Crown. We’ll be taking a close look at impressive winners and evaluating their chances to win important races based upon ability, running style, connections (owner, trainer, jockey) and pedigree.
This week we take a closer look at Competitive Edge, winner of the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes on Sept. 1 at Saratoga Race Course. 

Competitive Edge showed an abundance of talent with a runaway win in his career debut in July at Saratoga Race Course and confirmed his class with another dominant performance in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes on Sept. 1. But the challenge of navigating two turns and stretching out in distance to 1 1/16 miles for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and later to 1 ¼ miles for the Kentucky Derby is a whole different ballgame. Let’s take a look at this promising 2-year-old’s potential.
Ability: Competitive Edge was purchased for $750,000 at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton Florida sale of selected 2-year-old in training, which was the third-highest price for that auction and well above the $284,468 average sale price. He was obviously well received by buyers at the sale after breezing an eighth of a mile in 10 seconds.

Competitive Edge
Bay Colt
Sire (Father): Super Saver
Dam (Mother): Magdalena’s Chase, by Cape Town
Owners: Nancy Favreau, Kathy Psoinos and Michael Tabor
Breeder: WinStar Farm (Ky.)
Trainer: Todd Pletcher

Competitive Edge’s debut was sensational. He opened a clear advantage early and roared to a 10 ¼-length romp in a 6-furlong race at Saratoga Race Course on July 26. He earned an Equibase Speed Figure of 95 for the debut win.
In his second race, Competive Edge made a successful jump to graded stakes competition while stretching out an extra eighth of a mile to 7 furlongs.  He pressed a swift pace and shook clear to win the Hopeful by 5 ¾ lengths as the 0.65-to-1 favorite. On a track that was drying out and labeled as good, Competitive Edge earned an 83 speed figure. Normally, I’d be a little concerned by a 12-point drop in speed figure when adding some distance, but Competitive Edge won very easily. Plus, you often see 2-year-olds put up a big number in a sprint and come back a little bit with added distance as they learn to harness their speed.
Running style: After running a hole in the wind in his debut, it was nice to see Competitive Edge settle a little bit in his second start and race in third early – listed as a half-length behind the leader on the chart but judging by the replay probably a closer to a length back – before making his winning bid. He doesn’t look like a “need-the-lead” type, and with some additional experience he should be able to use his cruising speed for early position and his acceleration to launch a winning rally. Speed is dangerous, especially when the horse is controllable. From what jockey John Velazquez said, it sounds like Competitive Edge’s mind is also a major asset.
“Nothing bothers him. This colt, nothing tears his hair out, scares him or anything,” Velazquez said. “He’s so laid back, his future can be much better than the other ones. Like everything else, he has to stay sound. A great mind.”
Connections: Competitive Edge has the advantage of the superb trainer-jockey tandem of six-time Eclipse Award winner Todd Pletcher and John Velazquez in his corner.
Pletcher won the Kentucky Derby in 2008 with Competitive Edge’s sire, Super Saver, and also won the Belmont Stakes in 2007 with Rags to Riches and in 2013 with Palace Malice. In the not-so-distant future for Competitive Edge, Pletcher won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in 2010 with Uncle Mo and in 2012 with Shanghai Bobby.
Velazquez is a two-time Eclipse Award winner who won the Kentucky Derby in 2011 with Animal Kingdom. He was aboard Rags to Riches for her Belmont win and also guided Union Rags to victory in the 2012 Belmont Stakes. Velazquez, who was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2012, also teamed with Pletcher to win the 2010 Juvenile aboard Uncle Mo.
Bloodstock Agent Alex Solis II purchased Competitive Edge at the Fasig-Tipton Florida sale on behalf of owners Nancy Favreau and Kathy Psoinos. After the colt’s debut win, prominent owner Michael Tabor, an associate of the global Coolmore breeding/racing operation, purchased an interest.
COMPETITIVE EDGE ENTERS THE PADDOCK BEFORE THE HOPEFUL

Pedigree: Super Saver is a WinStar Farm homebred who is off to a fast start with his first crop. In addition to Grade 1 winner Competitive Edge, he also is the sire of Grade 2 Saratoga Special Stakes winner I Spent It and stakes winner Hashtag Bourbon. I Spent It finished second to Competitive Edge in the Hopeful.
Super Saver was a graded stakes winner as a 2-year-old and ran the biggest race of his life going 1 ¼ miles in U.S. racing’s signature race. He could be the rare stallion who passes along both precociousness — which we saw from him on the track and are seeing from his early runners — and stamina to his offspring. Super Saver’s sire, Maria’s Mon, also sired 2001 Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos.
It’s the female family that serves as a slight cause for concern when assessing Competitive Edge’s chances to excel at longer distances.
Competitive Edge’s dam (mother) is multiple stakes-placed Magdalena’s Chase, who won races from 5 to 6 ½ furlongs. Her grandam (maternal grandmother), Illuminance, won races at 6 and 7 furlongs and her third dam (maternal great-grandmother), Synformer, was unplaced in one start at 6 furlongs.
There also is not much in the way of stakes-caliber horses up to that point, other than Synformer’s 1995 Blue Grass Stakes-winning son Wild Syn.
Digging a little deeper you find some additional elite racehorses in Grade 1 winners All Fired Up, Awesome Humor and Emcee, but this is definitely not a bottom half of a pedigree that screams Kentucky Derby horse.
As for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, where elite talent often trumps all, that’s another story. If he’s good enough, Competitive Edge should have no problem navigating an extra three-sixteenths of a mile on Nov. 1