Nijinksy defeating stablemate Legendary Hanover again — this time in the Simcoe — should make things interesting in Delaware, OH.

by Brett Sturman

There has been an abundance of stakes races going back to last Thursday’s (Sept. 5) Pennsylvania Sire Stakes finals for 2-year-olds through Monday’s (Sept. 9) PASS finals for 3-year-olds, with no shortage of action whatsoever in that five-day span across a multitude of other tracks and states. The most high-profile race was of course the $1 million Yonkers International Trot, but other races conducted over the same period will help shape upcoming races, most notably the Little Brown Jug which is suddenly just eight days away.

Starting with Saturday’s Yonkers International Trot, I was out to lunch (both literally and ironically) early in the afternoon, totally unaware that the International came early in the day in race 5. I saw a social media post that stated horses were out on the track for the International and assumed it meant they were warming up for later, but lo and behold it was already nearing post-time.

I assume the earlier post time at 2 p.m. ET was to accommodate a simulcast of the race to Europe. France and Italy are six hours ahead, making the race an 8 p.m. start in those countries. I don’t have a particular issue with the start time (what’s the difference between 2 or 4 p.m.?), but if the time is going to be structured to presumably maximize international viewing, why not at least have the wagering pools co-mingled with the international money? This way, instead of having a win pool of $31,000 and an exacta pool of $41,000, those pools could have been in the hundreds of thousands.

Another potential area to reconsider for next year was choice of saddlecloth colors. This looks like the first year that Yonkers elected to go with all horses having the exact same yellow color saddlecloth; again, presumably, to conduct the race in a European manner. It doesn’t work here as most people who watch Yonkers, or any North American track, are accustomed to the traditional color system to identify horses. If you didn’t have the announcer volume up, it was impossible to distinguish between horses and the graphics didn’t keep up well either.

Right from the start to the end, the race went about the only way that it could, with Jiggy Jog S dominating on the front and a razor sharp Periculum doing all he could do from the second-tier post to close for second. Fortunately for me, last week’s column about the international stars lacking proved correct for a change, with five out of the six invaders finishing sixth through 10^th.

The idea for the International is a good one but racing on the Yonkers half-mile makes it increasingly more difficult to attract top overseas talent. There’s just so much that can go wrong related purely to post position and racing luck. It’s a lot asking horses to be parked around six turns in the extended race when in normal races there, the turns are so disadvantages that no one moves until after the third one of four. Could a “Yonkers International Trot at The Meadowlands” ever be a thing?

Switching gears and looking ahead to next week’s Little Brown Jug, top contenders were all in action this past weekend. Most notably, the two highest-rated Jug eligibles — Anthony Beaton trainees Nijinsky and Legendary Hanover, who went head-to-head in Saturday’s Simcoe Stakes at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Just as he did at that track in the North America Cup, Nijinsky was able to spring the minor upset over the 1-5 backed Legendary Hanover. Having brushed to the lead first before yielding, Nijinsky tracked every move of his stablemate past the three-quarters time of 1:21.2 and went by confidently to win by over a length in a time of 1:48.4. Maybe because Nijinsky has raced in Canada all year except for his Meadowlands Pace races he seems a tad overlooked here in U.S. circles, but he deserves a ton of respect having only been once beaten this year, with that being a runner-up finish in the Meadowlands Pace. He’s quietly built an impressive resume and post-position notwithstanding he will be the favorite heading into Delaware, OH, next week, with Legendary Hanover still being right there too.

Captain Albano had been one of the higher-rated Jug contenders and still is, but it’ll be interesting to see how he rebounds from his $252,000 PASS final on Monday at Pocono. Following wins in the Adios and Hempt, he made a completely unforeseen break around the final turn after being used throughout in a race where the fractions were :25.4, :54.2 and 1:22.1. Fellow Jug-eligible horse Gem Quality was in the pocket at the time, but he was tired by the time the stretch arrived from the earlier fractions and faded.

Not to be lost in that race was the performance of the longshot winner Sweet Beach Life. He was in the midst of a monster middle move from way out of it and was still grinding when the favorite broke, but I’m not certain that he wasn’t going to go by anyway. In retrospect, he’s had poor posts in almost all of his stakes tries since July and shouldn’t have been entirely dismissed as he was, especially with Matt Kakaley driving for Travis Alexander. He’s Jug eligible and I’d imagine he’ll be there on the heels of the sharp Pocono win. Alexander has another Jug possibility as well in Howlenthehills, who again with Kakaley, had little problem overcoming post 8 at Yonkers Saturday in his $225,000 NYSS final. The barn is firing on all cylinders, and even Huntingforchrome could be included in the mix too.

Elsewhere as far as notable Jug-eligibles, Captain Luke jogged at The Red Mile on Monday in 1:49.1 against a small field of undermatched horses. Captain’s Quarters qualified at Woodbine Mohawk Park last Friday to a near 10-length score in 1:50.4. It seems like ages ago when Clever Cody was one of the top North America Cup contenders, but he came through with a nice post-9 score a few days ago at Scioto in an OHSS leg and we’ll see if he gives the Jug a shot.