SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. \u2013 Between them, Hall of Fame trainers Steve Asmussen and Todd Pletcher have won 10 of the 33 runnings of the Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga. There\u2019s a pretty good chance one of those two will add another Amsterdam to their trophy case when the Grade 2, $250,000 race for 3-year-olds at 6 1\/2 furlongs is run here on Friday.<\/p>\n
Asmussen, a six-time Amsterdam winner, will send out the 7-5 morning-line favorite Obliteration, who last summer won the Grade 3 Sanford here, one of three stakes on his r\u00e9sum\u00e9. Pletcher, who has won this race four times, sends out the lightly raced but full-of-potential Local Knowledge, who is listed at 5-1 on David Aragona\u2019s morning line.<\/p>\n
Obliteration, a son of Violence, has been well traveled throughout his 10-race career. This year alone he has raced at Oaklawn Park, King Abdulaziz in Saudi Arabia, Laurel Park, and Saratoga. After finishing second in the Saudi Derby at one mile in February, Obliteration ran, for the day, a very fast six furlongs \u2013 1:09.77 \u2013 at Laurel winning the Chick Lang Stakes.<\/p>\n
:: Get an edge with Saratoga Clocker Reports! View detailed comments and grades for morning workouts, straight from the track. Available every race day.<\/a><\/p>\n Matched against Englishman and Crude Velocity in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens at Saratoga on June 6, Obliteration finished third, 5 3\/4 lengths behind the freakishly fast Englishman \u2013 who equaled the track record for seven furlongs, 1:20.40 \u2013 while finishing a nose back of Crude Velocity for second.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought he ran really well, but he was obviously a little flat. He ran too fast at Laurel,\u201d Asmussen said. \u201cThe racetrack was pretty slow and I think he was a little flat for the Woody Stephens and he put himself a little farther back and the winner ran incredible. Sometimes they\u2019re pretty self-explanatory.\u201d<\/p>\n Asmussen has won this race with the likes of Yaupon, Jackie\u2019s Warrior, and Gunite. Obliteration has work to do to get in the league of that trio, but Asmussen believes \u201cthe best is ahead of him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Jose Ortiz rides Obliteration from post 7.<\/p>\n Local Knowledge, a son of Yaupon, won a hot maiden race last October at Keeneland, beating, among others, Commandment, who would become a Grade 1 winner. Local Knowledge was forced to the sidelines and returned in a first-level allowance here on June 6, finishing third as the 2-1 favorite.<\/p>\n \u201cI just think it\u2019s difficult when you\u2019re going from one start to running against horses with a lot more experience and seasoning,\u201d Pletcher said. \u201cI thought he ran well, subsequently has trained like he\u2019s capable of better if things go the right way. It\u2019s ambitious placing but I don\u2019t think out of line for the talent he\u2019s showed us in the mornings.\u201d<\/p>\n John Velazquez rides Local Knowledge from post 2.<\/p>\n Solitude Dude, a three-time listed stakes winner, paid the price for dueling with Englishman in the Woody Stephens, retreating to seventh in the nine-horse field. Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. is happy to be away from Englishman, who is training up to the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens on Aug. 29.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he deserves a chance. I think the horse is a good horse. Obviously he ran into a freak of a horse; freaks make good horses look average,\u201d Joseph said. \u201cI think the pace will be different [Friday].\u201d<\/p>\n Dallas Stewart won last year\u2019s Amsterdam with Smoken Wicked. Friday, he ships in American Man from Kentucky, where last out he finished second to the sharp Deep Flame in the Grade 3 Maxfield.<\/p>\n \u201cHe showed tenacity last time. He\u2019s got speed but he can be rated if he has to,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cI\u2019ll leave that up to [Flavien] Prat.\u201d<\/p>\n Gilded Bandit, trained by Bill Mott, was fourth in the Woody Stephens and has been a regular workmate of Chief Wallabee. Lincoln\u2019s Law, trained by Phil Bauer, beat Gilded Bandit when both debuted in a six-furlong maiden race at Gulfstream Park in February. Rockies Balboa beat Gilded Bandit in a June 25 allowance and trainer Dale Romans wheels Rockies Balboa back 12 days after running seventh in the Quick Call Stakes on turf.<\/p>\n White Smoke Rising has won his last two for trainer Charlie Baker.<\/p>\n :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF’s Handicapping 101<\/a> and Wagering 101<\/a> pages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. \u2013 Between them, Hall of Fame trainers Steve Asmussen and Todd Pletcher have won 10…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[101],"tags":[66439,199,66434,66441,66442,30375,200,66437,66443,66433,66440,66438,66435,66436,66444],"class_list":["post-137366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-amsterdam","tag-american-man","tag-amsterdam","tag-amsterdam-stakes","tag-gilded-bandit","tag-lincolns-law","tag-local-knowledge","tag-netherlands","tag-obliteration","tag-rockies-balboa","tag-saratoga","tag-smokem-wicked","tag-solitude-dude","tag-steve-asmussen","tag-todd-pletcher","tag-white-smoke-rising"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117005388746924499","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}