In his latest missive from upstate New York, Steve Dennis pays tribute to the nation’s top marathon runner after a hugely popular runaway success
In this Olympic summer, when we all succumb to the quadrennial fascination with arcane events such as skeet-shooting, synchronised diving and Greco-Roman wrestling, perhaps we should also recognise the niche achievement of the week on the racetrack.
Next does what he does better than any other horse does what it does, and he did it again when Sunday-strolling to victory in the black-type Birdstone by more than 22 lengths, at unplayable odds of 1-20.
The Birdstone is what the US audience calls a marathon, a mile and three-quarters on dirt, a discipline that caters for only a tiny number of competitors. Next, a six-year-old grey gelding, is their king, their emperor, their god.
The only thing he knows how to do is keep on keeping on, and although the Birdstone was not a thriller by any metric, with four runners, three finishers, 96 lengths between place and show, it was still a delight to watch Next go about his esoteric work.
Caller Frank Mirahmadi turned up the volume – “This is Next’s world, he’s all alone. Let him hear it from the crowd, ladies and gentlemen” – and the crowd accordingly rose in acclaim.
Next has won his last six races, eight of his last nine, following a carefully curated trajectory – because there really aren’t that many races written for this division – that comprises Isaac Murphy Marathon (1m4f), G2 Brooklyn (1m3f), Birdstone, and Greenwood Cup (1m4f). Those six wins have been gained by an average of just over 13½ lengths; Next makes it look easy because it is easy for him.
“As always, he showed up with his A-game,” said trainer Doug Cowans. “He outdoes himself every time and he’s just a nice horse, fun to be around, and I enjoy training him.”
Michael Foster enjoys owning him. “I’ve never had a horse with a personality like this,” he said. “Everybody’s in love with this horse. Not just because of the way he runs, but because of the way he is. He’s a unique horse.”
Luan Machado enjoys riding him. “You can’t even say how it really feels. Everybody dreams of riding a horse like this. I’m so thankful that he came to me, I am so blessed.”
Given the paucity of his options, Cowans is now considering cutting Next back to a more conventional test, with the Jockey Club Gold Cup over ten furlongs a potential target. He says he’s considering it, anyway, but the subtext is that he’d rather go for the Greenwood Cup, just let Next do what Next does so marvellously.
“We will see how things go. When we get home, we will make a plan,” he says. “I stick to what I’ve always said, the horse really enjoys himself out there, loves doing what he’s doing. So when I start to shorten him down, I don’t know how well he will like it, but maybe we will have to try it at some point.”
We thrill to the traditional Olympian ideals of higher, faster, stronger, but Next celebrates the equally worthy virtue of ‘further’. There he goes, out on his own in every sense, knowing the loneliness of the long-distance runner, and the exhilaration.
Good karma: Arthur, Bill and Karl
The Whitney is not the race of champions it once was but don’t talk about that in front of Bill Mott and Karl Glassman, nor yet Arthur’s Ride, who all revelled in a trifecta of feelgood firsts in Saturday’s feature.
Arthur’s Ride went straight into the G1 club on his stakes debut, making all to score by 2¼ lengths, his grey coat as clean at the wire as it had been at the gate; Mott was signing for his first Whitney, one of the few major races that had hitherto eluded him in an outstanding career; and owner Glassman welcomed back the first stakes-winner in his purple silks, a truly emotional moment for he and wife Cathi.
“This horse is named after my dad,” said Glassman. “He passed away a year and a half ago, he was 91, and he knew that I named the horse after him and he said, ‘you didn’t have to do that’. I said, ‘Dad, I really did. You had a great ride’. And he looked at me and said, ‘I have’.
“To share that with my sister and my siblings, to watch it and my dad watching it [from above] – it doesn’t get better than that. To be part of Bill Mott winning his first Whitney – my goodness, we’ll wake up but I don’t know when. I almost hope we don’t!”
If this isn’t good karma, the best there is, the Saratoga Stretch has no idea what is.
Bad karma: Aidan O’Brien
It’s a long way (back) to Tipperary. The master of Ballydoyle, who looks a little like Clark Kent but trains a lot like Superman, had planned a lightning raid on the weekend’s three-year-old turf highlights, but we all know what can happen to best-laid plans.
Greenfinch was withdrawn from Friday’s Saratoga Oaks – won by Cinderella’s Dream for Godolphin – owing to a foot abscess, and Diego Velazquez was foiled by the Irish-style weather that caused the postponement of Saturday’s Saratoga Derby. Now they’re both back home in the old country, wondering what it was all about. Well, at least they saw Saratoga.
One to watch: Ferocious
Beyer speed figures are the lingua franca of the racetrack, a code that everyone can crack, so the news that Ferocious earned the best juvenile Beyer of the year – a hefty 96 – for his romping score on his debut in a six-furlong maiden on Saturday carries particular heft.
The Flatter colt, who cost connections $1.3 million after coming on like a hurricane at a breeze-up sale, stalked the pace over a muddy, sealed track until unwinding through the stretch to hit the wire 7¾ lengths clear in a quick time. His trainer Gustavo Delgado, who won the 2023 Kentucky Derby with Mage, may well have another headliner in the barn.
“We knew he was the right kind of horse,” said Delgado. The G1 Hopeful is the target.
Week 4 in numbers
110 Beyer speed figure for Arthur’s Ride – another big number for the Whitney winner after the 111 on his previous outing (in an allowance race at Saratoga on June 7); top Beyer of 2024 is Ova Charged’s 113 at Fair Grounds
2 big wins with distaffers for Chad Brown and owner Seth Klarman: Ways And Means in the G1 Test and McKulick in the G2 Glens Falls
6 wins in a row for Deck Of Cards, who landed a claimer on Saturday
11¼Two Sharp hosed the opposition when breaking her maiden on Friday
13 races taken off the turf (and two more postponed for a week)
19 wins so far for Chad Brown, and a seven-win advantage in the trainers’ standings
26 winners for Irad Ortiz at the meet, putting him two ahead of Flavien Prat at the top of the jockeys’ table
Quotes of the week
“He shows up every time. He’s the kind of horse you love, because they win.”
Neat is four-for-five in stakes this year after his narrow win in Friday’s G2 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes, and trainer Rob Atras loves him.
“She wasn’t 40-1, so the pressure was on.”
The Queens M G has won twice at odds of 45-1 and 44-1, so trainer Saffie Joseph was sweating when she was 5-2 for Sunday’s G3 Adirondack. She strolled by nine lengths.
“I was praying for rain last night.”
Someone up there likes trainer Linda Rice, because the rain came, the Lure came off the turf, the plan came together, and Film Star cruised to an easy victory.
“I was in a good sixteenth-of-a-mile sprint with him, I didn’t let him go.”
Here’s a new event for the Olympics, synchronised man-horse running. Arthur’s Ride unshipped Junior Alvarado when galloping out after the Whitney, but the jockey landed on his feet, kept hold of the reins, and got a little exercise.
“There’s no sense in hiding any of the superstars. Let’s show them off.”
Top-class filly Thorpedo Anna has become public property, trainer Kenny McPeek welcoming her fans to the Oklahoma circuit each morning to watch her exercise.
The ‘where are they now?’ file
He became almost as much a part of Saratoga as the canoe on the infield lake, but Casa Creed is not at the Spa this year, ending a six-year tenure that made him one of the most popular horses on the grounds.
The Bill Mott-trained ace broke his maiden here in 2018 and added four more victories at the track, including two editions of the G1 Fourstardave, a race in which he also finished third twice.
“He loves Saratoga and he’s a great champion. This horse should be remembered for a long time,” said co-owner Mike Francesa after Casa Creed’s victory in last year’s Fourstardave.
He did, he was, and he will be. Casa Creed was retired last month and will stand at Mill Ridge Farm in Lexington, and summer doesn’t feel quite the same without him.
Coming soon
Saturday at the Spa has been made much more compelling with the rescheduled G1 Saratoga Derby and the G2 Troy added to the program. The day’s highlight remains the $500,000 Fourstardave Handicap at a mile, in which Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Master Of The Seas (with high-weight of 126 lb) and barnmate Ottoman Fleet give Godolphin and trainer Charlie Appleby a strong maritime-heavy hand against main rival Carl Spackler, a Chad Brown trainee who is three-for-four at the track.
• Visit the NYRA Saratoga website
Week 3: No excuse needed as the real Fierceness stands up – plus McPeek takes the plunge
Week 1: It’s still Chad Brown’s world at Saratoga … we’re just living in it!
What They’re Thinking: Christina Blacker – I wish I could go back and relive Zenyatta again
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