With The Moonlight captures the Saratoga Oaks (G3) Aug. 7, 2022 (NYRA/Coglianese)
Ottoman Fleet and Warren Point Breeze for G1 Manhattan
NYRA Press Office
ELMONT, N.Y.— Trainer Charlie Appleby‘s With The Moonlight, Silver Knott and Siskany arrived in New York on Friday to join their Godolphin stablemates Ottoman Fleet and Warren Point for upcoming stakes engagements at Belmont Park.
The trio arrived at Belmont Park to the care of Appleby’s traveling assistant Chris Connett just after 11 a.m. Eastern and will be able to train on Sunday once having cleared quarantine. Multiple Group 3-winner Silver Knott is targeting the Grade 2, $200,000 Pennine Ridge, a nine-furlong turf test for sophomores on June 3 which offers the top-three finishers an automatic invite to the 10-furlong Grade 1, $750,000 Belmont Derby Invitational on July 8.
The multiple group/graded winner With The Moonlight will target either the 10-furlong Grade 1, $600,000 New York or the one-mile Grade 1, $500,000 Just a Game which are both slated for Friday, June 9 during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival; while Siskany has shipped for the two-mile Grade 2, $200,000 Belmont Gold Cup on the same card.
Silver Knott captured a pair of Group 3 tests as a juvenile, taking the seven-furlong Solario at Sandown Park and the one-mile Autumn at Newmarket. The Lope de Vega colt rallied to complete the exacta in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf in November at Keeneland, missing by a nose to Victoria Road. He was off-the-board in his seasonal debut in the Group 1 2000 Guineas on May 6 at Newmarket.
“I traveled with him over to the Breeders’ Cup where he was second. He ran a huge race and was a little unfortunate that day,” said Connett. “He was prepped as a Guineas horse but things didn’t quite go his way that day. Stretching out in distance might be just what he needs.”
Silver Knott is out of the Nathaniel mare God Given, who is a half-sister to multiple Group 1-winner Postponed.
The well-traveled With The Moonlight, a 4-year-old Frankel bay, made three starts in New York last year, winning the Grade 3 Saratoga Oaks Invitational between runner-up efforts in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational and the Spa’s Grade 2 Lake Placid. She has already made four starts this year, winning a pair of Group 2 events in Dubai in the Cape Verdi and Balanchine.
With the Moonlight, who has banked $916,154 through a 13-6-3-1 record, was second to a freewheeling In Italian in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley in April at Keeneland ahead of a distant sixth last out in the Group 2 Dahlia on May 7 at Newmarket.
“In Italian is a very good filly and I think we just got beat by the better horse on the day,” Connett said. “We’ll see which race Charlie wants to place With The Moonlight in and go from there. She’s versatile. She has enough speed to go a mile or she can stretch out to a mile and a quarter. She’s a handy filly.”
Siskany, a 5-year-old Dubawi gelding, captured the 12-furlong Godolphin in September at Newmarket and added the Group 3 Nad Al Sheba at 1 3/4-miles over good Meydan turf to his ledger in February. He was defeated a neck by Broome two starts back in March in the Group 2 Dubai Gold Cup and will make his North American debut from a close fifth in the 1 3/4-mile Group 2 Yorkshire Cup on May 19 at York.
“His run in Dubai in the Gold Cup was huge. Unfortunately, he just got caught by a very good horse in Broome. If he runs to that form he will take a lot of beating,” Connett said.
Ottoman Fleet, last-out winner of the Grade 2, $200,000 Fort Marcy here on May 7, and Warren Point, who finished fifth in his North American debut in the Grade 1 Man o’ War here on May 13, have had a busy week preparing for the 10-furlong Grade 1, $750,000 Resorts World Casino Manhattan on Belmont Stakes Day June 10.
Both horses breezed a half-mile over Big Sandy on Tuesday and followed this morning with solo five-eighths breezes over the inner turf under Richie Mullen, who guided Ottoman Fleet to his Fort Marcy score.
Ottoman Fleet, a 4-year-old Sea The Stars gelding, worked a half-mile on Tuesday in 49.09 and covered five-eighths in 1:00.98 this morning over the Belmont inner turf; while Warren Point, a 4-year-old Dubawi gelding, breezed a half-mile Tuesday in 50.98 and went five-eighths in 59.33 here this morning.
“Warren Point had a nice second piece of work since his run,” Connett said. “He did a little four furlongs breeze on the dirt on Tuesday and we backed him up on the turf today and he did five [furlongs] and we’re very pleased with him.
“Ottoman Fleet also did a little piece on the dirt on Tuesday and he went five eighths on the turf today,” Connett continued. “It was a regular maintenance work two weeks from the Manhattan.”
