Loaban Fine and Dandy Sunday

Laoban (Uncle Mo) exited his maiden win in Saturday's GII Jim Dandy S. in fine shape, trainer Eric Guillot reported Sunday morning from Saratoga.

“Everything's good,” Guillot said. “He ate up almost everything–he left a little bit which is normal for him, especially as late as it was. He's not tired, he's doing great.”

Guillot confirmed the Aug. 27 GI Travers S. was likely next for Laoban.

“It's the horse racing business, you've always got to go day-to-day with these animals, but that's my long-term plan,” Guillot said of the Travers. “That's why I get up at 4:30 in the morning. I get up for the big dances, not to run in maiden races. That's what I like to do and I'm good at it.”

Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin remained puzzled by the performance of the Jim Dandy's beaten favorite Mohaymen (Tapit), who finished fourth after stumbling badly at the break.

“We're disappointed and don't have a lot of excuses,” McLaughlin said. “He took dirt a long way and was in tight all the way. The first four races of his life he always moved out away and finished strong. His last three he hasn't quite been that way. The GI Kentucky Derby he finished very well. Yesterday, you'd like to say he might have needed the race, but he doesn't blow at all and only took three or four sips of water. It's just frustrating. We're going to try to think about what to do going forward.”

McLaughlin did not think Mohaymen's misstep at the break cost him the race.

“[The stumble] didn't help, but looking at races as often as we do, he recovered quickly,” McLaughlin said of the Shadwell Stable's colorbearer. “We had talked before the race about trying to get him out into the clear. [Alvarado] said to me, 'What do you think?' and I said the rail hasn't been great, if you could just tip out and be in the two or three path. He didn't really have an opportunity to do that. He was in pretty tight all the way. It's just the way it went. Sometimes horses don't like that dirt in their face that long.”

Mohaymen won the first five starts of his career, including tallies in the GII Xpressbet.com Fountain of Youth S. and GII Lambholm South Holy Bull S., but has been fourth in his last three outings: the Apr. 2 GI Florida Derby, May 7 GI Kentucky Derby and now the Jim Dandy.

After speaking with Shadwell general manager Rick Nichols, McLaughlin didn't rule out a start in the Travers for Mohaymen.

“[Nichols] said as long as he looks OK, we can look at the Travers. But, he has to be OK and keep going,” McLaughlin said. “He's just been a little disappointing and a bit of a puzzle for us to try to figure out. That's what we're going to try to do. He looked good this morning.”

Also doing well Sunday morning was Jim Dandy third-place finisher Destin (Giant's Causeway).

“He seemed to come out of the race well,” trainer Todd Pletcher said of the colt, who was second in the June 11 GI Belmont S. “I think we got the trip that we wanted. Javier [Castellano] still seems to think he's figuring things out a little bit. He felt like he was kind of just clocking that horse [Laoban] in front of him and kind of had a little difficulty getting him to focus in and go by that horse, and kind of re-engaged when [runner-up] Governor Malibu (Malibu Moon) came up on the inside of him. It's something we've been working on, playing with his equipment and blinkers and this and that, but part of it is just experience and hopefully learning how to polish off the race. I don't think we'll take the blinkers off; we might play with a shadow roll or something like that, but haven't decided yet. We'll probably experiment a little bit in his breezes.”

For the second Saturday in a row, Pletcher unveiled a promising juvenile in the colors of the China Horse Club and WinStar Farm. Last week it was One Liner (Into Mischief) and this week it was 'TDN Rising Star' Theory (Gemologist). The much-hyped colt was an easy 5 1/2-length winner and the effort was no surprise to Pletcher.

“We're very pleased, the colt had been training very well and we were expecting a good debut,” said Pletcher. “For a nice-sized horse, he's got good tactical speed and is maybe even a little more precocious than Gemologist was. But Gemologist also came out and ran well in his first few starts, so it's nice to see him get off to a promising start as a stallion. I would think [the Sept. 5 GI] Hopeful would be the logical target off that race assuming he comes back and trains accordingly.”