SARATOGA SPRINGS — A flawless performance, a perfect 10, was witnessed at the Saratoga Race Course on Saturday.
The only thing left was to nail the landing.
This wasn’t a scene from the Paris Olympics, but rather a display of jockey acrobatics by Junior Alvarado. Arthur’s Ride, under Alvarado’s guidance, took the lead and won the $1 million Whitney Stakes. However, the horse tried to shake off his rider during the gallop-out.
Alvarado was thrown off the saddle but managed to hit the ground running, holding onto the reins to regain control over Arthur’s Ride.
With this victory, trainer Bill Mott finally clinched his first Whitney win, marking a significant milestone in his Hall of Fame career.
The win also held a special significance for owner Karl Glassman, who named the horse in honor of his late father.
“My father knew that I named the horse after him before he passed away. He told me, ‘You didn’t have to do that,’ to which I replied, ‘Dad, I really did. You had a great ride.’ He was 91 and had lived a fulfilling life,” Glassman shared.
Alvarado’s ride was smooth until it wasn’t.
He guided the grey Arthur’s Ride, who was almost 7-1 on the toteboard, from the No. 11 post, maintaining a lead of just over a length on Skippylongstocking down the backstretch. He was never threatened by the group of horses trailing behind him in the stretch.
Arthur’s Ride, making his stakes debut, won by 2 1/4 lengths over Crupi, who came from the back of the 11-horse field to secure the place.
“Arthur’s Ride broke very sharp, I put him on the lead and he took it from there,” Alvarado said. “He was traveling very beautifully the whole way. When I hit the quarter pole, he was still pricking his ears, and I was like, ‘Oh, boy, I think I have plenty of horse left.’
“When I asked him, he took off for me and ran a beautiful race.”
However, Arthur’s Ride got spooked during the gallop-out and dumped Alvarado.
“I don’t know what he was looking at,” Alvarado said with a big grin. “I knew he was looking at something, and I was trying to get a hold of him. He spooked a little quicker than I thought and he kind of dropped me, but I never let him go. I was hanging on. It happens sometimes. He was fine after that.”
According to Whitney charts on Equibase since 1991, Mott, who was inducted to the National Racing Museum Hall of Fame in 1998, had saddled 12 Whitney horses without a win, finishing second with Yoshida in 2019, with Lawyer Ron in 2012 and with Chief Honcho in 1991.
Even Cody’s Wish couldn’t win it for Mott during a 2023 Horse of the Year season, when he was otherwise undefeated.
Mott deflected attention away from his first Whitney victory to the horse who earned it, owners Karl and Cathi Glassman and Barry Eisaman, who specializes in rehabilitating injured horses at his farm in Ocala, Florida.
“It’s a very important race. It’s a Grade I and one of the top two or three races that they’ll run in Saratoga,” Mott said. “It’s really nice, and I’m really glad for the Glassmans, for Karl and Cathi.
“I must say everybody’s done a great job with this horse. It was a long layup last year. Barry Eisaman had him on his farm and did a tremendous job getting him back to us in good shape.
“There’s a time when they’re on the farm laid up and you don’t know if you’re ever going to see them again.”
“To be part of Bill Mott winning his first Whitney — my goodness, we’ll wake up, but I don’t know when. I almost hope we don’t,” Karl Glassman said with a laugh.
Met Mile winner National Treasure, who was bet down to 4-5, lurked in fourth, then third, but faded in the stretch to finish sixth
“He didn’t feel very good on it [muddy track],” jockey Flavien Prat said. “He was traveling, switching leads and he was not as quick today. I would imagine it was the track.”
National Treasure had enjoyed a long run as the top-ranked horse in North America this season, and when Mott was asked if the older dirt male division was little muddier now, he grinned and said, “Well, we might get honorable mention now.”
WAYS AND MEANS ROLLS
Ways and Means, like her father, displayed a performance reminiscent of her siblings in the Grade I Test on the Whitney undercard.
Guided by Prat, the daughter of Practical Joke won her graded stakes, by 2 1/2 lengths over Emery.
Ways and Means is by Practical Joke, who won the 2016 Grade I Hopeful and the 2017 Grade I Allen Jerkens at Saratoga, and out of the mare Strong Incentive, who has also produced graded stakes winners Highly Motivated and Surge Capacity.
The common thread is owner Seth Klarman of Klaravich Stables, who bred Ways and Means, and trainer Chad Brown.
“We don’t breed many horses, so we decided to take a chance on this mare because we really liked her, and she’s been so good to us,” Brown said. “Her daughter here has far surpassed her.”
That’s an understatement.
Strong Incentive’s six-race career as a runner amounted to a win in a maiden claiming race at Saratoga and a win in a listed stakes at Woodbine.
Among her progeny, Highly Motivated is a graded stakes winner who ran in the 2021 Kentucky Derby, Surge Capacity won the Grade III Lake George at Saratoga and the Grade I Matriarch in 2023, and now Ways and Means is a Grade I winner.
Like her father, she has settled comfortable into shorter distances, after finishing fourth behind Thorpedo Anna in the Grade I Kentucky Oaks at a mile and an eighth on June 6.
“She looks a lot like the sire, almost a spitting image, really,” Brown said. “Same color, everything.
“We always knew she’s a true Grade I horse. She’s had some bad luck along the way and really showed a lot of heart and perseverance to overcome her injury last year. She dealt with a sealed track today. We weren’t sure if she was going to like it. And she just really showed up. She deserved this today.”
Brightwork, who won the Adirondack and Spinaway last year, was a paddock scratch when she flipped onto her side.
She looked OK when she got back to her feet, but was removed from the field.
Ways and Means broke from the starting gate sharply to take the lead, and gave it up briefly down the backstretch when Emery came up the rail.
She put pressure on Emery coming around the turn and regained the lead for good just before the quarter pole.
“She broke so well, I could’ve gone if I wanted,” Prat said. “I could’ve just crossed over and gone to the rail. But I figured I was fine in the middle of the track, and if somebody on the inside was willing to go, I had no problem with that. She always runs with a target, so I didn’t think it was the day to try something like that.”
Brown said that, working backward on the schedule from the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint, there’s a chance Ways and Means may train up to it without racing.
“Obviously, she has to face older horses in that race,” he said. “She showed today, though, that she does good with good spacing in between her races. She runs so fast and hard, I don’t think she needs to run much between now and then. Maybe one start somewhere.”
Agree – Arthur’s Ride is an exciting horse to watch.
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