The Week in Review

This week is the equivalent of football's “bye week” in the American racing world. Yes, Thoroughbreds were still running counterclockwise at ovals from coast to coast. But in terms of a collective mindset, the racing nation is ready to slough off that traditional six-week lull that occurs between the end of the Triple Crown chase and this week's double-barreled Opening Days at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club (Wednesday) and Saratoga Race Course (Friday).

In honor of those twin holidays (they are official holidays, right?), let's kick-start the column with a little quiz. Can you pinpoint the date of the following quote?

“Already the annual pilgrimage to Saratoga is underway, and the greatest season ever experienced at the Spa is assured from every standpoint…Already an unrest can be seen among the regulars betokening a keen desire to be on their way to where America's greatest race meeting is held each year.”

That blast from the past was penned in Daily Racing Form exactly 100 years ago, on July 17, 1917. With the possible exception of the word “betokening,” everything else in those two sentences looks like it could have jumped off the page of a freshly minted press release from 2017.

We're all counting the hours. Now on to a dissection of this weekend's major stakes races.

Delaware Handicap

Fan-favorite, two-time champion Songbird (Medaglia d'Oro) doesn't really need any extra emotional tug to draw admirers to her storyline. But the fact that gentleman sportsman Rick Porter, the 77-year-old principal of Fox Hill Farms, was able to exit a hospital stay for treatment of lymphoma to witness her one-length win in Saturday's GI Delaware H. added a touch of compassion and empathy to her brilliant 13-for-14 race record.

Yet purely from an analytical point of view, the question has to be asked whether Songbird is progressing from age three to four in a manner that represents the same “untouchable” aura she exhibited in the meteoric earlier stages of her career.

Making her first start off a seven-month layoff, Songbird won the June 10 GI Ogden Phipps S. at Belmont Park in measured, confident fashion. The stretch from 1 1/16 miles to 10 furlongs at Delaware Park figured to be a cakewalk on paper for the overwhelming 1-20 favorite, and when jockey Mike Smith let the talented filly roll on the lead through well-within-herself splits of :24.26, :48.36, and 1:12.63, it appeared as if it would only be a matter of how much in control her final margin of victory would be.

It wasn't exactly panic, but a sense of “uh-oh” set in around the quarter pole when Martini Glass (Kitalpha) mounted a serious attack and it became evident that a shake of the reins from Smith was not going to produce the instantaneous quickening we've come to expect from the fluid, multiple-geared champ. The 21-1 filly in hot pursuit was hardly a graded stakes veteran–in fact, Martini Glass had been competing against $16,000 starter-allowance types at Tampa Bay Downs as recently as two starts back. Yet Smith had to resort to a rousing hand ride and some left-handed stick work to elicit the expected overdrive from Songbird to edge away late.

Martini Glass ran the race of her life and ended up second. Songbird called upon an elite reserve of class to earn the win, yet she couldn't quite match strides with the public's otherworldly expectations of her.

While Songbird cooled out and presumably enjoyed a well-deserved dinner, debate sparked on social media over the allegedly “negative” commentary regarding her sub-prime performance. I don't understand the need to “defend” Songbird, though. When you're 1-20 in the betting and don't crush inferior competition, you'd better expect some objective criticism.

The GI Personal Ensign S. at Saratoga on Aug. 26 was mentioned by winning trainer Jerry Hollendorfer as a potential next start for Songbird. As is the case with all “How good is the horse?” debates, it's an argument best settled on the racetrack–not Twitter.

Indiana Derby

In the compressed block of time between January and the Triple Crown season, we hear a lot of talk about the need for 3-year-olds to learn to effectively rate from off the pace. In fact, you hear so much about the subject that it makes it seem as if the sophomores don't figure it out by the first Saturday in May, it's never going to happen.

That's nonsense of course; a product of American racing's overzealous emphasis on getting young horses ready for the GI Kentucky Derby. The learning curve for top-level 3-year-olds can and does extend deeper into the season.

Irap (Tiznow), appears to be one of those late bloomers with regard to patient tactics.

Granted, he's been pushing around B-level competition with back-to-back wins in the June 24 GIII Ohio Derby and in Saturday night's GIII Indiana Derby. But the key to his progression is not who he's been beating, but how he's doing it.

Irap was a maiden heading into the Apr. 8 GII Blue Grass S. at Keeneland Race Course, and the on-the-pace stunner he registered at 31-1 odds still resonates as one of the most scrutiny-defying graded races of the year because of the flops of so many other qualified contenders in that field.

His Kentucky Derby 18th-place try was a tossout based on the mud and a difficult trip, and at that point it might have been understandable if his connections pointed him to speed rather than stamina pursuits, because his half brother is Speightstown (Gone West), who secured an Eclipse Award after winning the 2004 GI Breeders' Cup Sprint.

In the Ohio Derby, Irap didn't look 100% comfortable biding his time on the inside and behind runners, but he ran down 4-5 favorite Girvin (Tale of Ekati) in workmanlike fashion and prevailed in a taxing stretch battle.

On Saturday night at Indiana Grand as the 7-5 favorite, Irap broke on top from the rail post, was snugly restrained by jockey Mario Gutierrez, and settled outside of traffic while four deep through the backside run. He moved past the three frontrunners at will entering the second turn and was kept to task by his rider, building a five-length lead through the stretch while striding out and appearing to be a stronger, more confident horse than in previous tries.

The only disconcerting blemish about the effort was Irap's inability to maintain an even line through both turns. On the clubhouse bend, the colt veered off his secure spot on the fence, and his momentum nudged three other rivals as wide as the eight path. Turning for home unopposed, Irap floated a good five paths off the rail even though there were no other horses pressuring within two lengths of his lead.

Irap will return to his Southern California home base for owner Reddam Racing LLC and trainer Doug O'Neill to prep for a possible next start in the Aug. 26 GI Travers S. at Saratoga.

Los Alamitos Derby

Giving up ground might have been the unintentional theme to Saturday's stakes races for 3-year-olds, as 2-5 favorite West Coast (Flatter) got well acquainted with the crown of the course en route to a five-wide-on-both-turns powerhouse romp in the GIII Los Alamitos Derby by 2 3/4 lengths.

This tactic–at least the off-the-pace part of it–was by design, according to winning trainer Bob Baffert.

“[Jockey Drayden Van Dyke] was instructed to wait, wait, and wait with him,” Baffert said. “If you go too early with him, he doesn't finish. It was sort of a gamble to sit back there, but it paid off because you need to be patient with him. He took off the last eighth of a mile. He needs to learn how to run like that. Mission accomplished.”

The Gary and Mary West colorbearer is another sophomore now aiming for what is shaping up to be a rollickingly wide-open Travers.