SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The absence of division leader The Big Torpedo has left Thursday’s main event at Saratoga, the $125,000 Rick Violette Stakes, a wide-open affair. It’s a fact not lost on trainer Danny Gargan, who will send out two of the leading contenders, Instamatic and Russian Realm, in the 1 1/16-mile turf test for 3-year-old New York-breds.
The Rick Violette, named in honor of the late trainer and longtime president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, drew a field of eight, which includes the graded stakes-tested Elysian Meadows and multiple stakes-placed maiden Courtly Banker.
The Big Torpedo registered one-sided victories in both the six-furlong Spectacular Bid and one-mile Cab Calloway divisions of the New York Stallion Stakes Series but is bypassing the Rick Violette to await the opportunity to face open company in the Grade 3 Saranac here Aug. 31.
Gargan’s duo complement each other nicely, with Instamatic likely to set or press the pace and Russian Realm expected to run on at the end if taking to the surface in his turf debut.
Instamatic will bring a two-race win streak into the Violette, both victories coming at six furlongs over the Aqueduct turf course, including a June 22 statebred allowance win for which he earned a career-high 76 Beyer Speed Figure. He will be making his second start around two turns on Thursday, having run second after prompting the pace trying this distance in his 2-year-old finale in November.
“It’s a little farther than I’d like for Instamatic, the distance is what I’m worried about,” Gargan said. “We ran him a mile and one-sixteenth at 2, and I’ve gelded him since then. He’s doing really well. We’re taking a chance, but there are a couple of horses who didn’t enter, including the The Big Torpedo, which makes this race pretty wide open, and if he makes an easy lead he could be tough.”
Russian Realm is a lightly raced but improving 3-year-old coming off a career-best effort when registering an 86 Beyer for a second-place finish behind the 1-5 favorite Vettriano in a statebred allowance race going one mile on dirt June 29 at Aqueduct.
“I’ve always wanted to run him on the grass. He’s worked well on it, and I believe his dam was a stakes winner on turf,” Gargan said. “And if he runs close to that 86 [Beyer] he got in his last start, he should win by five lengths.”
Elysian Meadows also has had his best efforts on dirt, with a third place in the seven-furlong Mike Lee and a fourth in the 1 1/16-mile New York Derby at Finger Lakes, earning career-best 83 Beyers in both starts. In his only previous outing on grass, Elysian Meadows ran a non-threatening fifth in the Woodhaven Stakes against open company on April 27 at Aqueduct.
Nobody was happier to learn The Big Torpedo was bypassing the Violette than the connections of Courtly Banker, who has finished second behind that nemesis in each of his last two starts. In the Cab Calloway, Courtly Banker was no match for The Big Torpedo but was easily best of the others, finishing 3 1/4 lengths in front of third-place finisher Fidelightcayut, who also returns in this race.
Ez Roll will try to fill stablemate The Big Torpedo’s very large shoes for trainer Tom Morley while rounding out a lineup that also includes B D Saints and Cable Ready. Doc Sullivan and Land d’Oro were entered for the main track only.
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