Well-Named Preservationist Ready for Whitney

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Surely, there is a joke to be crafted about Preservationist (Arch)'s name and how little he has raced in what is now a four-year career for trainer Jimmy Jerkens and Centennial Farms. With a mere eight starts, he has spent way more time on the injured list than in the starting lineup, but the 6-year-old is finally rewarding the patience of his connections, who have been true believers in his potential to become a top-level competitor.

A decisive 4 1/2-length victory over Catholic Boy (More Than Ready) in the GII Suburban S. July 6, his first try in a graded stakes, has carried Preservationist to the Aug. 3 GI Whitney S., where he will tangle with four Grade I winners: Thunder Snow (Helmet {Aus}), McKinzie (Street Sense), Yoshida (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) and Vino Rosso (Curlin). Though Jerkens said after the Suburban victory that he might wait for the Aug. 31 GI Woodward S., the $1-million Whitney rather quickly became the target.

“Some horses thrive in Saratoga. He's doing well,” said Centennial president and co-owner Don Little, Jr. “There are only so many opportunities in life. The horse is doing very well and if he can repeat some of the performance from last time, why not?”

Little agreed that Preservationist is being asked to face a tough crew in the 1 1/8 miles, a “Win and You're In” race for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

“It's very salty, but at some point you're going to have to face the music and take on the big guys,” Little said. “We think that we're one, that we deserve to be there after that performance.”

The Suburban score was Preservationist's third straight win and pushed his record to 5-1-2.

Jerkens worked Preservationist on Saratoga's main track July 27, in what was officially recorded as five furlongs in 1:00.60, the third-fastest of 30 at the distance. Little said that Jerkens was looking at it as a seven-furlong breeze but that time was not captured. Jerkens had the horse doing six furlongs in a tick or so over 1:13.

“The thing that is so exciting watching him is that it just looks like he's doing a strong gallop, because he's so athletic,” Little said. “It looks like a strong gallop and he's doing it pretty easily. The rider almost stands up on him and lets him do his work and doesn't bother him.”

Far more important to the partners than the time was that Preservationist looked sharp in the work and was en route for his fifth start in 2019. That is more than the combined total of his races in 2016, 2017 and 2018. He debuted midway through his 3-year-old season of 2016 with a second, but did not race again until December, 2017. After three starts in a little over three months, he was off again for nearly 11 months.

“He's just always had some nagging things that we had to stop on him. It was getting frustrating,” Jerkens said. “He's finally put it all together, it looks like. Obviously, the fact that he's only run the few times that he's run and he's six years old there have been problems.”

Little said that Preservationist did not have a major physical issue and that time may be the most important reason for the turnaround.

“I think it's the type of horse that he is, just a big, robust horse,” Little said. “It's like any athlete you have to wait out the little hiccups. There wasn't anything really wrong with him. He'd get a foot bruise. He's a little bit of a heavy horse and you just needed to wait it out, let him grow into himself and be able to handle the talent that he had. The old saying that the horse is too fast for his own good, well, he's a good example of that. He had so much talent that his body wasn't grown up enough to handle it all.”

Centennial was founded in the early 1980s by Little's late father, Don Sr., and has had plenty of success through the years. The highest point was the 1993 GI Belmont S. win by Colonial Affair. Rubiano was a champion sprinter. Five years ago, Wicked Strong won the GI Wood Memorial and the GII Jim Dandy, was nipped by stablemate V.E. Day in the GI Travers S. and was fourth in the GI Kentucky Derby and the GI Belmont S.

Some of the Preservationist partners have been involved in Centennial horses for decades, while others were first-timers with the horse bred by Emory A. Hamilton, a granddaughter of the late Robert Kleberg, who built the King Ranch bloodstock empire. Little said he was blown away by the reaction to Preservationist's graded stakes victory.

“It's been gratifying for everyone involved with the Suburban win. The partners were ecstatic,” he said.  “I had never had more texts and phone calls, even when we won the Wood with Wicked Strong and going to the Derby for the first time. It was not even close. This was by far the most gratifying win.”

Veterinarian Dr. Steve Carr has been with Centennial since 1983, is its racing manager and heads the company's bloodstock selection team. Carr said that Hamilton's Arch yearling colt stood out as a tantalizing prospect at the 2014 Keeneland September sale.

“Top and bottom pedigree, of course. It's blue hen on the top and bottom,” Carr said. “The top, Arch, goes back to the Courtly Dee, Althea family. The bottom goes back to the Too Chic, Chic Shirine, Verrazano family. So you've got the two big King Ranch families top and bottom.

“And he met all of the criteria that all of our horses do: very athletic, nice walker. The only thing that might have made him a little different from some of the others is that he's a big, strong horse. He was just bigger and stronger than a lot of them that we buy. For a horse of that size to walk and handle himself as well as he did is what attracted us to him.

“Because of that and because we liked him so much we actually spent a little bit more on him than we usually do. We're normally in the $250,000 to $400,000 range, at the most. We paid $485,000 for him because we liked him so much.”

Nearly five years later, Preservationist is set for his first try in a Grade I. Little said there was no plan in place and that the Whitney just happened to be the stage because Preservationist has shown he is at long last ready for the challenge.

“Race horses only have so many years of their career. You don't know when their best is,” he said. “Sometimes it's cut short for whatever reasons. We've waited and the education process was good for everybody, I think. I learned a lot from it in how to deal with people and the business.

“I think it's just a good story, too. You don't have too many stories like that and racing needs good stories. I would hope that he could continue on. He's a nice, rugged horse and everything is good now, so let's go.”