SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Bill Mott trained the last two winners of the True North Stakes. He doesn’t have a runner this year, but his training tree does as former key assistant Rodolphe Brisset is sending out 2-1 morning-line favorite Mullikin on Saturday.
Brisset targeted the True North even before Mullikin made his 5-year-old debut May 3, finishing a good fifth in a loaded renewal of the Churchill Downs Stakes. He returns to Saratoga for the first time since roaring to a 5 3/4-length victory last summer in the Grade 1 Forego. Flavien Prat, committed to Nysos in the Churchill Downs, regains the mount, and Brisset sees no reason why Mullikin can’t take a step forward Saturday. Mullikin earned a 95 Beyer Speed Figure in the Churchill Downs – fast, but not so fast compared to his peak that he can’t do better.
“Obviously, that was a tough spot to come back from a layoff. The number came back strong. I thought we should be pretty happy with the way he ran,” Brisset said.
Pickings are far from easy in the True North, a $400,000 contest carded for 6 1/2 furlongs that’s far stronger than its Grade 3 status.
:: DRF's Belmont Stakes Headquarters: Contenders, latest news, and more
Book’em Danno finished fourth in the Churchill Downs, beaten just a neck and a length better than Mullikin. Last summer at Saratoga, Book’em Danno won the Woody Stephens and finished third in the Allen Jerkens.
Nakatomi has two wins and a third from three Saratoga starts, easily capturing the Grade 1 Vanderbilt last summer. His most recent start came April 5, when he took a supremely tough beat in the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen.
And Crazy Mason, cut back from routes to sprints at the end of his 3-year-old campaign, has won three in row, including the Grade 2 Carter, making Silky Sullivan-like last-to-first runs.
Four others were entered. Surveillance and Full Moon Madness, solid sprinters each, better suit lesser competition. Nutella Fella won the Grade 1 Hopeful here two summers ago at 54-1, and while his recent form is poor, he was a surprisingly good third here in the Woody Stephens a year ago. Rail-drawn Concrete Glory, a longshot with speed, should set the pace.
With a good break from post 6, Mullikin can perch just outside the apparently overmatched leader, an ideal trip for a horse with strong win credentials – even in a vacuum.
“We’re very happy with the draw,” said Brisset, who trains Mullikin for WinStar Farm. “I like what I’m seeing since his last race. He had a really good work again Sunday.”
Mullikin got stuck wide around the turn in the Churchill Downs, but Book’em Danno didn’t have a great trip either. Making his second start after a winter break, 4-year-old Book’em Danno broke from an inside post and found himself mushed down near the fence down the backstretch and into the turn, an especially challenging spot for a horse that trainer Derek Ryan said prefers rallying outside. Nonetheless, Book’em Danno went through a gap and finished strongly.
“He was the only one close to the speed who stuck around till the end,” Ryan said.
More of a closing type last year, Book’em Danno has notably showed more positional pace in his two starts this year.
“He’s gotten a lot stronger,” Ryan said. “Six and a half to seven [furlongs] hits him right between the eyes.”
Ryan lamented losing the $1 million Churchill Downs by a neck. Nakatomi’s neck defeat to rank outsider Dark Saffron in the Shaheen left a mark, too. The good news: Nakatomi came back to America looking like a horse who hadn’t shipped halfway across the world.
“I took him to my farm here,” trainer Wesley Ward said when reached by phone at his base just outside the Keeneland property. “I was looking at him and he didn’t show any ill effects. We gave him a slow breeze, and you wouldn’t even know he went over there.”
At his best, Nakatomi can win, but he has struggled stringing together peak performances. Ward said he’s hoping for rain, as Nakatomi won sharply in the Saratoga slop two summers ago.
Don’t sleep on Crazy Mason. A 2-year-old maiden winner at Saratoga in 2023, Crazy Mason slogged his way through a route-focused 3-year-old season before trainer Gregg Sacco gave him a freshening and brought him back in the fall, focusing on sprints. Crazy Mason has found his niche as a deep-closing sprinter. In the Carter, racing more than 10 lengths off the pace, Crazy Mason uncoiled at the quarter pole and ran his final furlong nearly a half-second faster than favored Quint’s Brew, a good horse Crazy Mason swept past for his first graded win.
“His works since have been very strong, with good gallop-outs,” Sacco said. “The energy level is there, and he’s a big, strong colt with his head in the feed tub – everything you want to see coming into a race.”
Crazy Mason would look good in a standard Grade 3. The True North’s a different beast, with three Grade 1 horses to try and catch this time.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.