Tenfold Finds Path to Victory in Jim Dandy
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Photo: Coglianese Photos/Chelsea Durand
Tenfold, drifting to the center of the track, wins the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga Race Course
In front of him, Ontario-bred Flameaway was running straight and true. Behind him, grade 1 winner Sporting Chance was blowing the turn. Somewhere around the middle, Winchell Thoroughbreds' Tenfold got his act together and won the $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G2) with a final, desperate lunge.
The 1 1/8-mile Jim Dandy, Saratoga Race Course's traditional prep for the Aug. 25 Travers Stakes (G1), unfolded like any other horse race early on. Flameaway, seeking redemption off a sixth in the June 23 Ohio Derby (G3), set off on the rail on a dutiful lead under Jose Ortiz. Tenfold, in his first start since a fifth in the June 9 Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1), was hustled from the start by Ricardo Santana Jr. and took up a hounding position in the two path.
Those two separated themselves as a quarter went in :23.90 and a half went in :47.16, with Flameaway maintaining a half-length lead.
Then things got interesting.
When Santana let Tenfold out a notch and turned up the pressure on Flameaway on the far turn, Tenfold had every chance to kick clear and gallop to the wire. Instead, the quirky Curlin colt found a distraction through a 1:36.95 mile and ducked out twice until he was well outside the middle of the track.
Tenfold's sideways maneuvers nearly gave steady Flameaway the edge, but Santana's right-handed whip got the errant Tenfold straightened out just in time to claim his first graded victory by three-quarters of a length in a final time of 1:50.49. Off at odds of 8-5, Tenfold returned $5.50, $2.80, and $2.30.
"Ricardo said when he moved away from (Flameaway), he got a view of the screen in the infield and he couldn't get him to quit looking at it," trainer Steve Asmussen said of Tenfold's journey. "I watched it from down the stretch a bit because he has lost concentration (in the past). Ironically, he has jumped back to his left lead, and laid in, in his previous races. It's obviously concerning. I'm glad he still won the race. But we all know he can do better, and we have work to do."
Then there was 6-5 favorite Vino Rosso.
Dead last in the early going, the Wood Memorial Presented by NYRA Bets (G2) winner appeared well out of contention as the five-horse field turned for home, but he turned on the afterburners in deep stretch and just missed second by a head. Reride was fourth, and Sporting Chance was pulled up but walked off after getting out badly near both the three-eighths and the quarter pole.
"We've seen this performance before," co-owner Mike Repole said of Vino Rosso. "He has done it at Tampa (Bay Downs) a couple of times. ... When he puts an effort into it, he makes up ground. He made up probably 10 lengths in less than a quarter mile, and he put his head down and galloped out in front. The biggest key now, if we decide to go to the Travers, is to get him to run 100% of the race and not 50% of the race."
The Jim Dandy was a steppingstone to the Travers for Tenfold, and it remains the target—despite his antics.
"That's what we were trying to get to with this race here today," Asmussen said. "I'm glad we ran him over this racetrack, because he does find something new all the time."
Bred in Kentucky out of the Tapit mare Temptress, lightly raced Tenfold put together back-to-back wins at Oaklawn Park this year to start his career, then ran fifth there in the April 14 Arkansas Derby (G1). He was third in the May 19 Preakness Stakes (G1) before his Belmont bid. His earnings now stand at $679,200.
"This is the type of horse we thought we'd have for the Belmont," Asmussen said. "He was away cleanly today. He's got a big rhythm. He's a horse who is capable of being fast. That's how he's most effective."
Meanwhile, Flameaway's Travers status is undetermined after trainer Mark Casse announced he will target the Midsummer Derby with Gary Barber's Wonder Gadot, who will seek a third straight win over males after taking the Queen's Plate and Prince of Wales Stakes in dominant fashion.
"He ran hard," Casse said of Flameaway. "We'll see (about the Travers). I'll talk to (his owner John) Oxley. As of an hour ago, I think Wonder Gadot is going to run in the Travers. ... If everything stays the same, we're going to try the Travers with her. She likes a mile and a quarter as good as anybody. We figure it's one of our only shots (at earning divisional honors), so why not go for it?"