Bernard Baruch Preview: Halladay Looks to Keep Streak Alive

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Harrell Ventures’ Halladay streaks into town off of back-to-back career-best efforts as he makes his first graded stakes appearance in Sunday’s $150,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap (G2) at Saratoga.

The Bernard Baruch is a 1 1/16-mile inner turf route for horses 4 and up. This year’s edition attracted six entries and has a local post time of 5:46 PM Eastern while slated as the penultimate event on Sunday’s 10-race card.

Here is a look at the full field for the Bernard Baruch:

1. Seismic Wave 6/1 – At his best, he has proven to be a threat from off the pace while facing stakes foes in his past 11 starts. With a clean trip and a sharp early pace, his third start of 2020 could give him his first victory of the calendar year, but the distance might be a touch too much for him – 2 of his 3 wins came going 1 mile.

2. Good Governance 9/5 – The morning line favorite makes his second attempt at the graded stakes level after missing last August’s Saranac Stakes (G3) by a neck. The lightly-raced Chad Brown trainee broke his maiden on debut while going a mile on the local inner turf and defeated allowance rivals at Belmont Park in his 2020 debut last month.

3. Somelikeithotbrown 4/1 – The New York-bred broke his maiden while going 1 1/8 miles over the local outer turf and has shown a great affinity for both turf and synthetic surfaces. While that inaugural victory represents his only grass success, he was within 1 length of winning the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) and nearly won the Fort Marcy Stakes (G2) in his return from a decent layoff.

4. Mr Dumas 12/1 – The longest shot on the board must demonstrate that he can win a turf race not held at Churchill Downs, the site of all 3 of his lawn victories (including the 2019 Commonwealth Turf [G3]). He faces one of the toughest fields of his 11-race career, but trainer Mike Maker is always dangerous on turf (17% winners from over 1,100 runners since 2019) and his most recent work was a sharp 5-furlong move in 59 seconds flat.

5. Olympico 9/2 – The “other” Brown runner won his North American debut in the 2019 Fort Marcy Stakes (G3) but failed to repeat in 4 subsequent starts, including finishing a distant fifth in last year’s Bernard Baruch. Unraced since last October, he is a threat off the bench (Brown wins at 29% after similar layoffs) and new jockey Joel Rosario should be a perfect match for this gelding’s late running style.

6. Halladay 2/1 – He earned triple-digit Beyer speed figures in his past 2 starts, first when defeating optional claimers while going 1 mile, then in the Sunshine Forever Stakes at 1 1/16 miles. Both wins came while running on the front end at Gulfstream Park, whereas Saratoga’s turf has played largely against early speed horses, but he defeated three next-out graded stakes winners in the Sunshine Forever and must be respected despite any biases.

Watch the latest episode of “Dr. Miranda Previews…” for Dr. Miranda’s best bets on this race!