Saratoga Picks | Jim Dandy Stakes 2024

Aaron previews the 2024 Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) from Saratoga & gives his top win pick from the local prep race for the Travers Stakes (G1).

Will Fierceness continue his win-loss-win-loss pattern here after finishing 15th as the favorite in the Kentucky Derby (G1)?

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The press release:

Multiple Grade 1-winner Fierceness, along with Grade 1-winners Sierra Leone and Seize the Grey, look to return to the win column in Saturday’s Grade 2, $500,000 Jim Dandy presented by Mohegan Sun, a nine-furlong main track test for sophomores, at Saratoga Race Course. 

The Jim Dandy is slated as Race 10 on Saturday’s 12-race card that also features the Grade 1, $350,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap [Race 6]. First post is 12:35 p.m. Eastern. 

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Repole Stable’s Champion 2-Year-Old Colt Fierceness was last seen attending the pace before finishing a distant 15th as the beaten favorite in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby on May 4 at Churchill Downs. Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, the City of Light bay entered from a 13 1/2-length romp in the nine-furlong Grade 1 Florida Derby in March at Gulfstream Park. 

“We are happy with him. We gave him plenty of time after the Kentucky Derby, and I think it has done him well,” said Pletcher. “He has put on some weight and has trained really well.”

The Florida Derby performance earned a career and field-best 110 Beyer Speed Figure, which improved upon his previous-best 105 for a 6 1/4-length victory over now multiple Grade 1-winner Muth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in November at Santa Anita Park. Both wins came with Hall of Famer John Velazquez at the helm. 

Fierceness, who was scratched from the Grade 1 NYRA Bets Haskell at Monmouth Park in favor of this race, completed his final preparations with a half-mile breeze in 49.61 seconds Sunday over the Spa main track.

“We weren’t looking to do a whole lot. It was kind of a final easy half-mile before the race,” Pletcher said. “I thought it was executed very well. It looks like he’s in good order.”

Out of the winning Stay Thirsty mare Nonna Bella, Fierceness, a Kentucky homebred, won his debut by 11 1/4 lengths in August in his lone appearance at the Spa. He boasts a lifetime record of 6-3-0-1 with just over $1.7 million in earnings. 

Fierceness, assigned 124 pounds, will exit the outermost post 6 under Velazquez.

Four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown will send out Sierra Leone [post 1, Flavien Prat, 124 pounds], who enters from a closing third in the 10-furlong Grade 1, $2 million Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets, on June 8 here.

The late-running Gun Runner dark bay traveled last-of-10 during the middle stages before showing his turn-of-foot, but unable to reel in the victorious Dornoch after drifting in and bumping with some rivals. 

After the effort, Sierra Leone returned to the work tab on June 23 on the Oklahoma dirt and has completed weekly half-mile breezes since. On Sunday, he covered the distance in 49.73 seconds solo.

“He did super. He’s in a nice rhythm,” said Brown. “He galloped out with good energy. That’s just what I’m looking for six days out. Really solid and well within himself.” 

Brown said Sierra Leone has developed into a good solo workhorse. He worked in company prior to his Belmont Stakes effort. 

“He’s been working solo on the training track– I’m liking it. For right now, at this point of his campaign, it’s working for him taking him out of company for a little bit,” said Brown. “He’s very fit and I’m just looking to bring him to the race healthy and focused.”

In the Belmont defeat, Sierra Leone matched his career-best 99 Beyer, earned when defeated by a nose by Mystik Dan in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby after battling with Forever Young in the stretch drive. 

Although denied in his pair of Triple Crown efforts, Sierra Leone successfully closed to win his first start this year, when adding blinkers, in the nine-furlong Grade 2 Risen Star in February at Fair Grounds. He followed with a rallying score in the Grade 1 Blue Grass in April at Keeneland– both at Saturday’s distance. 

Brown entered Sunday’s card as the leading trainer at the Spa meet with seven wins, including victories this week with Unmatched Wisdom in Friday’s restricted Curlin and with the promising maiden Incentive Pay on Saturday.

Brown said that he is hopeful there will be pace to chase for his late-running charge.

“I’m hoping for a fair-run race where horses can win from anywhere,” Brown said. “I had a horse win wire-to-wire in the Curlin, I had a baby win from off-the-pace yesterday. I think the track has really come around and is playing a lot more fair for any type of horse a trainer may enter.”

The $2.3 million Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale purchase, out of the Grade 1-winning Malibu Moon mare Heavenly Love, has earned a field-high $2.1 million through a 6-3-2-1 record. He is campaigned by Mrs. John Magnier, Peter M. Brant, Michael B. Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg, and Brook T. Smith. 

To the delight of over 2500 shareholders, MyRacehorse’s Seize the Grey [post 2, Jaime Torres, 124 pounds] was a pacesetting 2 1/4-length victor of the Grade 1 Preakness on May 18 at Pimlico Race Course. Trained by Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, the Arrogate gray successfully stretched out to 1 3/16 miles after taking the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile on May 4 at Churchill. 

Seize the Grey showed the way once again last-out in the Belmont before fading to seventh. In his other local effort, Seize the Grey, a $300,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale purchase, graduated at second asking with a 1 3/4-length score over Dornoch in July 2023. 

Seize the Grey is out of the stakes-placed Smart Strike mare Smart Shopping, a half-sister to dual graded stakes-winner Power Broker and stakes-winner Fierce Boots. He has earned over $1.8 million from a record of 11-4-0-3.

Juddmonte’s Kentucky homebred Batten Down [post 3, Junior Alvarado, 120 pounds] is the lone member of the field to enter off a graded victory, earned in the nine-furlong Grade 3 Ohio Derby on June 22 at Thistledown. Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, the Tapit gray set the pace and held off returning foe Gould’s Gold by 1 3/4 lengths. 

Batten Down won by 8 3/4 lengths to graduate fourth-out going 10 furlongs against elders on April 30 at Churchill. Both scores earned a career-best 93 Beyer.

“When you have a horse like that, you look at all the options and think of where you fit. We felt it was time to reach out and take a chance in the Jim Dandy,” said Mott. “It is [a step up], with Sierra Leone, it makes it a tough race.”  

Out of the multiple Grade 1-winner and 2014 Champion Older Mare Close Hatches, Batten Down is a full-brother to the Mott-trained multiple graded stakes-winner Tacitus, who was a close second to Tax in the 2019 Jim Dandy. He is also a full-brother to multiple graded stakes-winner Scylla, who is still active for Mott. 

4 G Racing, Lance Gasaway and Magdalena Farm’s Gould’s Gold [post 5, Brian Hernandez, Jr., 118 pounds] enters from the Grade 3 Ohio Derby as well for conditioner Kenny McPeek. The Goldencents gray was also second in the Sir Barton on May 18 at Pimlico to Corporate Power, who exited to run second to the 3-for-3 Unmatched Wisdom in the Curlin on Friday here at Saratoga. 

McPeek said Gould’s Gold will have to improve to top this talented field, but it is not out of the question after a sharp half-mile breeze in 47.60 seconds on Saturday over the Oklahoma. 

“He’s certainly one of the better 3-year-olds, but he’s got to find four or five lengths. We’re ambitious to try him, and we like the work he’s been doing,” said McPeek. “We might as well try him and then later in the season we have the option to go back to allowance condition. But right now, there’s that window of time to work through if he’s next level. He trains like he is.”

Gould’s Gold has also been the workmate of multiple Grade 1-winning sophomore filly Thorpedo Anna, including a five-eighths breeze in 1:01.55 over the Oklahoma next to Saratoga on July 13. 

Rounding out the Saratoga field is last-out maiden-winner Pony Express [post 4, Joel Rosario, 118 pounds] for trainer John Sadler. Owned by Talla Racing, Three Chimneys Farm and West Point Thoroughbreds, Pony Express ships from Santa Anita off a nine-length victory traveling 1 1/16 miles on June 15 there. The Gun Runner chestnut, out of the dual graded stakes-winning Quiet American mare Quiet Temper, was making his third start, having sported blinkers in all.