The Three Amigos Set a Reunion Date

The three merry warriors from the ol' Triple Crown Trail now well behind us are traipsing off on their separate ways; but have agreed to reunite and reconvene in Saratoga for the Travers.  Orb, who will not win another race this year, will train up to the race.  I'm not surprised that he's getting a break; more and more, thinking that he shot his wad in the spring.  The Derby winner will hang out at Fair Hill Training Center for now.

 “It’s not like I’m going to send him up there the week before the [Travers] but there are so many things here he can do that he can’t do at Saratoga,” McGaughey said.

McGaughey was referring to the hyperbaric chamber and cold, saltwater spa treatments. [DRF]

Yeah, but.....I thought Saratoga is the place with the spa treatments?  It is after all, The SPAAAAH, as Durkin will soon be saying.  Well, anyway, Preakness winner Oxbow, who will likely continue to put forth honest efforts, will do so next in the Haskell at Monmouth, where he'll face Verrazano in one of the more intriguing matchups to come.   Not only is the purse for that race a cool million, but, as David Grening reported in the Form, both he and owner Brad Kelley get a 25K windfall just for showing up with a Triple Crown winner.  Nice!  Lukas, bless his soul, isn't shy about letting us know how he determines the horse's campaign.

 Lukas said that he has been so impressed with Oxbow since his runner-up finish in the Belmont that “if the Swaps would have been half-a-million dollars like it was years ago I would have run him in the Swaps."

Palace Malice will run in the Jim Dandy on July 27.

 "Actually, (trainer) Todd Pletcher put him back in work shortly after the Belmont, or he was going to tear the barn down." [Miami Herald]

 So said Dogwood president Cot Campbell.  This horse still doesn't have a "normal" race since the Risen Star by which to really evaluate him.  There was the trouble in the Louisiana Derby, the Blue Grass on synth, the blinkers-on mishap in the Derby; and winning the Belmont Stakes in a slow time has hardly proven to be a guaranteed harbinger of future success in recent years.  Having said that, I'd sure be interested in knowing his futures odds for the Classic.  I'd easily rate him the most likely of the three to be competitive in that race.

 - At Belmont on Thursday, guess the word was out on Ari the Adventurer, 1-9 in her first time out of the gate for the Toddster, are you kidding me?  Only a four horse field, but still.  Won by 6 3/4.  She's a two-year old daughter of the rookie sire Pioneer ofthe Nile, standing for $15K at Winstar.  According to the Maiden Watch blog on Bloodhorse.com: "Ari the Adventurer is the 3rd winner for Pioneerof the Nile, whose 6 runners have finished in the top 3 in all of their starts."  She's out of a mare by Forest Wildcat; and other than the fact that she's the 4th winner from five foals from the dam, there ain't much to see on her catalog page.

Pletcher also won the 9th when Path of Dreams ($15) graduated, on the grass, in her 5th start.  She's a three-year old daughter of Giant's Causeway (and a half to the graded turf winner Excited), out of the grassy stakes winner Path of Thunder (a full sister to the multiple graded winner Spain, and the graded turf winner Fantastic Spain).

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/09/3491863/jim-dandy-next-up-for-palace-malice.html#storylink=cpy