Mullikin won the 2024 edition of the Forego. (Adam Coglianese/NYRA)
Saratoga Race Course Notes
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Dennis Narlinger’s Over and Ollie will make his top-flight debut in a stacked renewal of Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Forego, a seven-furlong sprint for older horses, at Saratoga Race Course. The Forego, which offers a “Win and You’re In” berth to the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar, features a field of 11 led by Book’em Danno and defending race winner Mullikin.
Over and Ollie, a 5-year-old Cairo Prince grey, boasts a 12-4-2-0 record. He joined the Rick Dutrow, Jr. barn for his most recent outing when edging clear to a frontrunning four-length win under Irad Ortiz, Jr. in a 6 1/2-furlong optional-claimer on July 4 here. That effort came nearly six months after a distant second to Kavod in his stakes debut in the 5 1/2-furlong off-the-turf Duncan F. Kenner over sloppy and sealed footing at the Fair Grounds while in the care of trainer Al Stall, Jr.
“When I picked the horse up off of Al Stall, he told me, ‘Rick, the horse is doing great, and he loves Saratoga,’” Dutrow, Jr. said. “I sent him into Belmont, and he was just training like a regular fella, but when I put him in up there, my God, he ran big. He just came out of the gate and buried that field. My goodness.”
Over and Ollie, bred in Ontario by A&A Farms, is undefeated in three local starts, having graduated in a maiden claiming turf route last July ahead of an off-the-turf optional-claiming win traveling one-mile out of the Wilson Chute over a muddy and sealed track one month later.
Dutrow, Jr. said Ortiz, Jr., who was aboard for the off-the-turf score here last summer, was suitably impressed with Over and Ollie’s recent win. However, with Ortiz, Jr. slated to ride Bishops Bay on Saturday, it will be Jose Ortiz, who piloted Over and Ollie to an 8 3/4-length allowance romp over sloppy and sealed footing in December at Fair Grounds, that picks up the mount from post 9 with a 30-1 morning-line assessment.
“All the riders that get on him in the morning say, ‘this is a grass horse,’” said Dutrow, Jr., with a laugh. “Irad loved him when he breezed him a couple times ago. We got his brother, who is just on fire up there, for Saturday, and he’s ridden the horse one time and won by eight or nine lengths, so those two get along well. We’ve got a lot of things going our way there.”
Dutrow, Jr. pulled off a 10-1 upset here in the 2023 Grade 1 Whitney with White Abarrio and is bullish on Over and Ollie’s chances after his strong effort off the layoff that registered a career-best 95 Beyer Speed Figure.
“He’s in a tough spot. This might be the best sprint of the year, but he’s doing fantastic,” Dutrow, Jr. said. “We’re looking for him to run big. I know he’s in an impossible spot, but still, he’s got a very good chance of showing up because of the dynamics. He loves it up there. I don’t know what it is [about Saratoga] and I don’t care, but he’s on it.
“I loved his last race up there,” Dutrow, Jr. added. “I’d love to win another big race with a white horse up there, that would be beautiful.”
Also, in a difficult spot Saturday for Dutrow, Jr. is Black Type Thoroughbreds, Swinbank Stables, Judy Hicks and Scott Rice’s McAfee [post 5, John Velazquez], who is listed at 20-1 on the morning line for the Grade 1, $1.25 million DraftKings Travers. The 10-furlong Travers for 3-year-olds drew a field of five headlined by dual Classic-winner Sovereignty.
McAfee, a Cloud Computing dark bay, looks to finish one better than his half-sister Thorpedo Anna did when second to Fierceness in last year’s Travers en route to a win in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff and Horse of the Year honors.
McAfee has finished on-the-board in a trio of nine-furlong graded events in his last three outings, including a three-quarter-length second to Hill Road in the Grade 3 Peter Pan in May at Belmont at the Big A and a last-out second to Chunk of Gold in the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby on August 3 at Mountaineer. Those efforts surrounded a third to Mo Plex in the Grade 3 Ohio Derby in June at Thistledown.
“Now that he’s fit – and racing fit – he’s a nice enough horse,” Dutrow, Jr. said. “We see the horses going in there, we’re hoping we can beat one or two of them and be happy with a third place. Anything can happen up there. Our horse might love the track and maybe somebody might not like it that day.”
Dutrow, Jr. said he is cautiously optimistic that he’s yet to have seen the best of McAfee.
“I’m hoping not. I’m hoping we’ll see that this Saturday – just to see him grab a hold of the bit turning for home, I’d love to see that,” Dutrow, Jr. said.
