SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Schwarzenegger, one of the most hyped 2-year-olds stabled at Saratoga this summer, will finally make his much anticipated debut here this week. When and against what caliber of competition is still to be decided.
Trainer Wesley Ward has entered Schwarzengger, a son of Not This Time, in a maiden special weight race on Thursday and the $150,000 Skidmore Stakes two days later. Both races are carded at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf, with the weather ultimately to decide which race Ward chooses for his promising youngster.
“If the maiden race stays on the grass, he’ll run then. If not he will go in the stakes,” Ward said on Wednesday. “I really just want to get him going. It really doesn’t matter to me which race. If he is going to turn out to be what we all hope, it’s just about getting him started.”
Ward has entered and scratched Schwarzenegger on three previous occasions, twice in races taken off the turf and switched to the main track, a third time because of a minor injury suffered the morning of the race.
“He had to scratch twice due to weather, the third time he banged a vein in the back of his leg coming off the track after I had jogged him the morning of the race,” said Ward. “By the time post time rolled around, the swelling had gone down and he was fine.”
Ward, who picked Schwarzenegger out of the Fasig-Tipton yearling sale here last summer for $950,000, said he already had high expectations for the horse last winter in Florida, even before his first breeze. He became an even bigger fan once breezing Schwarzenegger on turf for the first time here June 20.
“Johnny [Velazquez} breezed him four or five times at Keeneland on the dirt and loved him,” said Ward. “But once we got him here and put him on the turf, it was like a revelation. Like putting a fish in water. He was just unbelievable. He’s a very talented horse on dirt and, from what we’ve seen so far, twice the horse on grass.”
Along with Schwarzenegger, Ward also entered Gypsy Art, an unraced son of Munnings, in both the maiden race and the Skidmore and plans to start him in the stakes if his more heralded mate launches his career on Thursday.
“He’s a very talented horse too,” Ward said of Gypsy Art. “Frankie Dettori has been on him several times and thinks very highly of him. I don’t like running a first-time starter in a stakes, but I truly believe this horse will be a stakes winner. It might not be in this race, but believe me, he is a very good horse.”
The Skidmore drew a talented field of eight and along with the Ward pair includes the George Weaver-trained duo of Sandal’s Song and Tough Critic, both of whom made their previous starts two months earlier at Ascot, along with last-out maiden breakers Monster, Bobrovsky, Malus, and Spirit of New York.
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