SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Last year, Got Stormy spun back off a week’s rest to take the Grade 1 Fourstardave in track record-setting fashion. In Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Bowling Green, Cross Border will attempt to notch a graded stakes victory in similar fashion for trainer Mike Maker.
Owned by Kirk Wycoff’s Three Diamonds Farm, Cross Border is unbeaten in four starts at the Spa, and arrives at the 1 3/8-mile Bowling Green off a victory in the Lubash on July 22, which he won by 6 ¼ lengths as the heavy favorite.
Maker said the winning effort did not take a lot out of the son of English Channel.
“It seemed like it was more of a workout. With a shorter field, we figured we would give it a shot,” Maker said.
Cross Border’s lone effort at the Bowling Green’s 11-furlong distance was a winning one, when he scored an allowance victory in November at Aqueduct.
Cross Border has won five starts for Maker, who began training the horse after being purchased from the Fasig-Tipton Horses of Racing Age Sale in July 2018. He made his debut for Maker off more than a year’s rest and finished second, beaten a head, at Belmont Park and followed up with three straight victories at Saratoga.
“He had an issue with the ribs and so he got some time off and he just came back a different horse,” said Maker.
Stablemate Marzo, who also bears the teal and yellow colors of Three Diamonds Farm, has not raced since finishing seventh to Factor This in the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial Classic on March 21 at Fair Grounds. He made his seasonal bow with a third-place finish to fellow Bowling Green aspirant Dot Matrix in the Grade 3 John Connally on January 26 at Sam Houston.
The son of Medaglia d’Oro will seek a second graded stakes triumph having won the Grade 3 Sycamore last October at Keeneland.
“It was a nice field that day,” Maker said of the Muniz Memorial Classic. “He got a vacation with the coronavirus and nowhere to run and he’s come back well.”
Maker also said last Sunday’s Grade 2 Bernard Baruch winner Somelikeithotbrown could be slated for Grade 1 action at Churchill Downs in the September 5 Old Forester Turf Classic.
“He came back well. We’re looking at the Old Forester,” Maker said.
NYRA Press Release
Photo: Cross Border winning the Lubash at Saratoga. Credit: Coglianese Photos
