Pick a number, any number, and you could be a winner, as Monday's GI Hopeful S. at Saratoga has a definitive wide-open air about it.
Each of the eight runners has posted a Beyer Speed Figure of between 72 and 77 and it isn't hard to envision several horses on the wire together. Stickstatelydude (First Dude), one of a surprising seven first-crop winners for his freshman sire (by Stephen Got Even), looks to have as much upside as anyone in this seven-furlong affair. The Virginia-bred outran debut odds of 8-1 to finish a strong second in a highly rated Churchill maiden June 27 for trainer Greg Burchell and was saddled by Kiaran McLaughlin in an Aug. 1 heat at this track. Settled off a generous pace that afternoon, he swung up four wide into contention, but got to playing a bit inside the final furlong. He looked an unlikely winner at the sixteenth pole, but came out and dug in gamely to best subsequent Spa maiden winner Ready Dancer (More Than Ready) by two lengths. Burchell handles the training duties again here.
Magna Light (Magna Graduate) and Uncle Vinny (Uncle Mo) exit a controversial running of the GIII Sanford S. on opening day of the meet July 25. The former set a modest pace and looked to be on his way to success when he ducked out at the furlong grounds, causing a few of his rivals to steady slightly. He came home a 3/4-length winner from Uncle Vinny, but stewards ruled the interference was enough to cost Percolator (Flashy Bull) a spot and demoted Magna Light to third. The Rudy Rodriguez runner outworked five others to earn the five-furlong bullet Aug. 29 and will be under the gun early from the inside stall. Uncle Vinny validated prohibitively short odds on his May 21 debut, but was a troubled sixth in the June 5 Tremont S. at Belmont ahead of his Sanford effort.
Cheyenne Stable's Everett Dobson has Oklahoma roots and named Sallisaw (Exchange Rate) for the town, population 8,650, not far from the Arkansas border. The bay drew the outside stall for his Aug. 15 bow going 5 1/2 furlongs here and tracked a slow tempo before grinding his way to a 3/4-length success in a race where the seven runners were covered by just over three lengths.
“He broke [widest in a field of seven], was out in the clear and ran very well to win,” said McLaughlin of Sallisaw. “In this race, he's two of eight, and we'll see how it goes with the inside post. He does everything right. He's very professional.”
Bullet Gone Astray (Gone Astray), whose Florida-based sire is also off to a strong start at stud, defeated Gulfsteam maidens in the slop June 28 and made it two straight with a nine-length defeat of much softer in the Aug. 1 Mountaineer Juvenile S.
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