LEXINGTON, Ky. – When the condition book for the 2024 Saratoga meet became available, trainer Will Walden scanned the index looking for a New York-bred turf-route maiden. He found his race and called Steve Rushing, the agent for jockey Irad Ortiz. “I got one for you,” Walden said. The horse’s name was Rhetorical. He won the race Walden circled, Ortiz aboard, and on Saturday at Keeneland, in his graded-stakes debut, Ortiz guided Rhetorical to victory in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Turf Mile.
Ortiz gave Rhetorical a perfect trip, and Rhetorical gave Ortiz plenty. Rhetorical broke sharply, was four wide and right with the pace 50 yards into the Turf Mile, but Ortiz gently pulled the reins and steered left, plunking Rhetorical down in fourth, saving ground a few lengths behind three horses – Quatrocento, Howard Wolowitz, and Epic Ride – who sprinted around the turn and onto the backstretch. The quarter-mile went in 22.40, the half in a testing 46.07, and at the five-sixteenths marker, the turn for home looming, Ortiz said go, and Rhetorical went.
Quatrocento, a 15-1 shot coming off two Kentucky Downs wins, put away his pace rivals and did not go down without a fight, but Rhetorical got him at the furlong grounds, opened a lead, and, fairly comfortably, held off three charging rivals to win by three-quarters of a length.
“He loves to win,” Ortiz said. “Today he was amazing – every step of the way.”
Will Walden trains Rhetorical for Gary Barber, Cheyenne Stable, and Wachtel Stable. Walden began training in 2022, won his first graded stakes races last year, and in just his third season as a head trainer captured his first Grade 1. Now, he’s going to the Breeders’ Cup with a live chance in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. The Turf Mile is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge series, and Rhetorical earned automatic fees-paid entry into the BC Mile. His tactical speed and consistency, and the fact he has started just six times, a progressive gelding, should make him a player in the big race.
Rhetorical has done nearly nothing wrong during his career. His lone defeat came in his second start, a close, closing third-place finish after Rhetorical got away poorly and raced from last.
“I rode him that day. He should have won,” Ortiz said. “Me and Will, we always thought he could win in open company. He was taking it one step at a time, doing things the right way. After last time, I told him there’s no doubt we have to try now.”
Last time was the West Point Stakes for New York-breds on Aug. 24. Rhetorical dominated, but Walden wasn’t ecstatic with his training at Saratoga shortly after that start. Back in Kentucky, stabled at Churchill Downs, Rhetorical roared back into form.
“All those metrics we look for in judging our stock, in how they’re doing, just started to go through the roof. The works were really, really, really good,” Walden said.
The second-, third-, and fourth-place finishers Saturday all turned in good performances. Program Trading, second by a neck over Brilliant Berti, raced several lengths behind Rhetorical, moved up steadily around the turn, but could not quite quicken sufficiently in upper stretch, instead coming steadily forward for a good second.
“It’s a mile, you know, and he’s done his best racing at a mile and an eighth,” jockey Flavien Prat said.
Jose Ortiz reported that Brilliant Berti ran into a spot of traffic around the furlong grounds before finishing with interest for third.
And Jonquil, a half-length behind Brilliant Berti in fourth, ran as well as anyone. Breaking from post 11, jockey Dylan Davis, rather than get stuck three or four paths wide around the first town, had to take Jonquil back to 10th. Jonquil, who shipped from England, wound up his run at the three-eighths pole, came wide into the stretch, and, with a field-best 22.48 final quarter-mile, rocketed into contention.
“I think [the post position] really was the big factor today. We probably could have won it if we’d had an inside post,” Davis said. “He has a small frame but a big stride, he’s strong, on the bridle, has a very good kick.”
Rhetorical ran his mile in 1:33.61, more than a second faster than Simply in Front’s winning time in the Grade 1 First Lady two races earlier. He paid $21.18 as the third choice.
Diego Velazquez, the Ireland shipper favored at 7-5, looked disengaged down the backstretch before making a moderate run to finish fifth. Another European shipper, Woodshauna, broke poorly, as he always does, and was last of 11. Donegal Momentum was a regulatory veterinarian scratch before the card began.
Purchased at a New York-bred yearling sale for $320,000, Rhetorical is by Not This Time out of Sheet Humor, by Distorted Humor, who was trained during his racing career by Walden’s father, Elliott Walden. Rhetorical posted a series of works as a 2-year-old in 2023, but didn’t debut until that New York-bred maiden race about 15 months ago. He was worth the wait. Rhetorical is going to the Breeders’ Cup.
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