Sam’s Treasure struts her stuff to break her maiden second time out (Susie Raisher)
Ward still mulling options for Eye Witness
Saratoga Race Course Notes
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Breeze Easy’s Sam’s Treasure provided her connections with an emotional six-furlong maiden special weight victory on Sunday at Saratoga Race Course with a strong 5 3/4-length romp that garnered a 78 Beyer Speed Figure.
Trained by Wesley Ward, the daughter of Munnings is named for late Breeze Easy partner Sam Ross, who passed away in December at the age of 79.
“I’m really, really happy for the owner – Mike Hall from Breeze Easy,” said Ward. “Unfortunately, Sam Ross passed away and he was always looking forward to having a filly like this. It’s such a shame he isn’t here to enjoy it. We’re very excited for this filly.”
Sam’s Treasure scored the victory with a professional stalking trip under Hall of Famer John Velazquez and pounced on pacesetting rival Life’s Joy at the half-mile call to power home under a hand-ride in late stretch. The effort came on the heels of a debut runner-up finish to Cynane in a five-furlong turf sprint on May 11 at Belmont Park where she was defeated 2 3/4 lengths after a similar stalking trip.
“She came out of it really good,” said Ward. “Early on, she was a big filly and we didn’t want to run her at Keeneland because she was maturing – those races in April, you’ve got to be quick out of the gate and smaller and agile. She had shown some grass affinity early on in her training at Palm Meadows and we were hopeful to win at Belmont, but we were beaten soundly with no excuses. With the experience she got and as sound as she came out of it, we were really pointing to Saratoga and hoping she had an effort in her like the one she showed the other day.”
Ward said Sam’s Treasure will remain on dirt and is likely to point to the Grade 1, $300,000 Spinaway on September 3 at the Spa, where she would stretch out to seven furlongs for the first time.
“She’s at Keeneland at my main base and my main rider Julio Garcia will ride her in training and hopefully get her there to the Spinaway,” said Ward. “Looking at her race at six furlongs, she didn’t show any signs of stopping. It will be tougher in the Spinaway, but she just kept bounding along last time.”
Sam’s Treasure adds to a strong hand of stakes performers Ward holds this summer, including dual stakes-winning New York-bred Eye Witness, who was last seen taking the open-company Paradise Creek by a head on May 20 over yielding turf at Belmont Park.
Owned by Westerberg, Mrs. John Magnier, Jonathan Poulin, Derrick Smith and Michael Tabor, the son of City of Light was entered in the Quick Call presented by the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation on July 16, but scratched when the race was moved to the main track.
“It’s quite unfortunate they took the race off the turf that day,” said Ward. “We were really looking forward to running him, especially on the soft turf as he proved he could handle that in his previous start. It is what it is.”
Ward said Eye Witness now has two options for his next start, either cutting back to 5 1/2 furlongs in the open-company Mahony on August 13, or competing with state-breds in the 1 1/16-mile Rick Violette on August 17, the latter of which would see Eye Witness stretch out beyond sprint distances for the first time since graduating at one-mile over Turfway Park’s synthetic in January.
“We’re sort of leaning towards keeping him in state-bred company right now,” said Ward. “He’s proven that he can go a distance of ground when he broke his maiden, so we’re looking forward to him and hopefully he can move forward from there. He’s doing very, very well.”
Ward added that he will wait for Eye Witness to work over the Oklahoma training track’s turf course again before deciding whether to cut him back or stretch him out for his next outing.
Ward’s other potential upcoming stakes contenders include AMO Racing USA’s Go Bears Go and Three Chimneys Farm’s Princesa Celina. The former could target the Grade 3, $300,000 Troy sprinting 5 1/2 furlongs over the Spa turf on August 5, while the latter is on track for a start in the Grade 3, $200,000 Adirondack sprinting 6 1/2 furlongs on August 6.
Go Bears Go has made two starts since being transferred to Ward this spring, including a rallying third-place finish in the Grade 2 Twin Spires Turf Sprint in May at Churchill Downs. He followed with a distant off-the-board finish in the Grade 1 Jaipur on June 10 at Belmont where he stalked the pace in third through the first two points of call under Jose Ortiz and faded after a troubled trip to finish 10 1/2 lengths behind the victorious Caravel.
“He got checked and whatnot in the Jaipur and was in a good position, but he got a rough trip turning for home and I think Jose just kind of raised the white flag with all the trouble he had,” said Ward. “That race was a throw out.”
Ward said he will make a decision “shortly” on whether Go Bears Go will contest the Troy, where he would likely face returning rival Caravel.
Princesa Celina, a 2-year-old daughter of Quality Road, was much the best in her May 4 debut when graduating by 6 1/2 lengths in a five-furlong sprint over a muddy and sealed Big Sandy. Ward said the bay filly continues to train forwardly towards the Adirondack for her first test against winners.
“She’s extremely talented and I’m very excited about that filly,” said Ward. “I’m pretty good at talking, but I’m not going to say any more. We’ll let her do the talking.”
