NYRA Press Office
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.— A winner of four straight races since being put back on the grass this spring, A. Bianco Holding Limited’s 4-year-old gelding Pioneering Spirit will face stakes company for the first time Saturday at Saratoga Race Course in the Grade 1, $750,000 Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer.
A “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the Grade 1, $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf November 4 at Santa Anita, the 1 1/2-mile Sword Dancer comes three days after Pioneering Spirit was originally scheduled to make his stakes debut in Wednesday’s $135,000 John’s Call, where he was the program favorite but scratched.
“My client, John Bianco, is from Canada and he was really excited. He said, ‘It’s been my dream to run in a race on Travers Day, and we’re excited about having a chance,’ so we passed on the John’s Call. He’s bringing his whole family down from Canada for the day,” trainer Linda Rice said. “It’s a terrific day to run a horse.”
By 2015 Triple Crown champion American Pharoah, Pioneering Spirit is a grandson of Giant’s Causeway, who won five Group 1 races on the grass in Europe in 2000 to be named Cartier Horse of the Year. Claimed for $40,000 out of a runner-up finish March 24 at Aqueduct, Pioneering Spirit hadn’t raced on turf since his juvenile season when he was fourth on debut in July 2021 at The Curragh and sixth in an Aqueduct maiden special weight that December after coming to the U.S.
“It had been a year and half since he ran on the turf,” Rice said. “It was very young in his career and now he’s 4. When I got him he was pretty sore behind and wasn’t breaking well from the gate. As soon as I switched him to the turf he got over those breaking problems, got over the discomfort. I think he was just struggling with the surface.
“He’s been just a terrific little horse,” she added. “When we claimed him he had been running on the dirt and he’d had a long six-month layoff, and his races on the dirt had been just ordinary. With his pedigree, I switched him over to the turf and he’s just taken off. He loves it, and he looks like one of those unusual horses that can handle longer distances. He relishes it. It’s very unique as far as I’m concerned.”
Pioneering Spirit graduated in a one-mile maiden claimer May 11 at Belmont Park, his 13th start and first back on the grass. He returned to win a pair of allowance events 20 days apart respectively going nine and 10 furlongs, and stepped up to capture a 1 3/8-mile second-level optional claimer July 27 at Saratoga.
“When we started the meet, he won the maiden, the starter and the a-other-than at Belmont. He came up here and got through the two-other-than pretty gracefully,” Rice said. “Each race has been at a longer distance. We’ve been gradually giving him longer distances and he seems to be thriving on that, so we’ll give it a go.”
Pioneering Spirit drew Post 5 of seven in the Sword Dancer and is listed at morning-line odds of 8-1. Among the competition are 6-5 program favorite Stone Age, third by less than a length in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby July 9, and multi-millionaire Channel Maker, running for the sixth time in the Sword Dancer, a race he won in 2020.
“It looks pretty tough, but it’s Saratoga,” Rice said. “It’s a big step up in company but it’s something that my client was really excited about doing.”
A Sword Dancer victory would put an exclamation point on what has been an outstanding meet for Rice, whose 25 wins through 31 days are second only to Chad Brown’s 29 heading into Friday’s card. Already she has won five more races than she did when she became the first and still only female to lead the Saratoga trainer standings in 2009.
That year Rice edged Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher by one win with 20; in the 13 years since, it has taken an average of 37.7 wins to lead the Spa standings. Six times the winner had 40 or more including Brown’s record of 46 in 2018.
“Times have changed. The so-called super trainer barns got bigger and bigger and the top end of the trainer standings doubled,” Rice said. “Any way you look at it, it’s been a good meet, and Belmont was very good, as well, so I can’t complain. It’s been a good year for us.”
Rice has horses entered in five races Saturday and six on Sunday’s New York Showcase Day program including Amanda’s Folly and Ichiban in the $200,000 Fleet Indian, Sheriff Bianco and Un Ojo are both MTOs in the $200,000 West Point presented by Trustco Bank and El Grande O in the $200,000 Funny Cide presented by Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital.
“There are some tough spots in there, but we’re proud to be able to take part in races like these,” Rice said.
