Kantharos just ‘Special’
SARATOGA SPRINGS — There may be a better 2-year-old colt in the east than Kantharos, but if there is, no one has seen him yet.
The chestnut son of Lion Heart, trained by Steve Asmussen for Rachel Alexandra’s owner, Jess Jackson’s Stonestreet Stables, ran his record to 3-for-3 yesterday winning the 105th running of the Grade 2, $150,000 Saratoga Special, and he’s run off the TV screen in all three.
First time out May 13 at Churchill Downs, Kantharos romped by 11¾ lengths, then he won Churchill’s Grade 3 Bashford Manor by 9½. With Garrett Gomez replacing the injured Robby Albarado in the saddle for the Saratoga Special, Kantharos overcame some race-riding by Alan Garcia on Bail Out the Cat to score by 7 1/4 lengths, the 6½ furlongs run in 1:18.63 over a muddy, sealed track.
Bail Out the Cat, who was off in a tangle to finish sixth as the 9-5 favorite in the Sanford here July 25, veered out at the break this time, carrying out Kantharos, and he continued very wide down the backside and around the turn as Blue Right By angled in to set the pace. Bail Out the Cat and Kantharos moved as a team turning for home and dueled to mid-stretch, when Kantharos took command. He opened at 1-9 in the betting and stayed there, paying $2.30 to win on top of a $3.40 exacta.
“You like a horse a lot, and like how he’s doing, but it’s the variables you have no control over,” Asmussen said. “Garrett said it took him a while to get into it, but late (in the race) he looked really good and smooth, like he’ll go further, which is what everybody wants to know right now.”
Asmussen won the Saratoga Special with Cuvee in 2003 and Kodiak Kowboy in 2007, and his assistant, Scott Blasi, saddled Chace City to win in 2006 when Asmussen was serving a suspension. None of those horses stretched out beyond a mile, which Kantharos will likely attempt to do in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 6 at Churchill Downs.
