Bobby's Kitten Cuts Back for Hall of Fame

Bobby's Kitten looks ideally suited for the $200,000 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes (gr.  IIT) Friday, Aug. 8, at Saratoga Race Course, where he cuts back in distance and class.

 

Bobby's Kitten is one of seven entered (including main-track only entrant Matterhorn) for the Hall of Fame Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on turf. The race is the ninth on the 10-race card, with an approximate post time of 5:15 EDT. 

 

Forwardly placed in the July 5 Belmont Invitational Derby (gr. IT) about 1 1/2 lengths behind two frontrunners, Ken and Sarah Ramsey's homebred 3-year-old Kitten's Joy   colt looked over his head stretching out to 1 1/4 miles as he weakened in the drive, finishing a well-beaten eighth. The effort followed a comfortable win over Global View in the May 31 Penn Mile Stakes.

 

The Chad Brown trainee won twice at the Hall of Fame distance in back-to-back turf races as a 2-year-old, capturing his maiden win at Saratoga before a 6 1/4-length romp in the Pilgrim Stakes (gr. III) at Belmont Park. He subsequently finished third as the favorite in the one-mile Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (gr. IT) at Santa Anita Park after setting the early pace.

 

In his 2014 bow March 8, Bobby's Kitten won a one-mile allowance race at Tampa Bay Downs and then finished 12th in the April 12 Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I) going 1 1/8 miles on Keeneland's Polytrack in his start prior to the Penn Mile. His record stands at 4-0-2 from eight career starts.

 

Challengers include Tim E. O'Donohue Racing's Wallyanna who makes his graded stakes debut. He won the May 17 James W. Murphy Stakes at a mile at Pimlico Race Course to cap a three-race win streak and enters off a fourth in the Centaur Stakes at the same distance July 7 at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino.

 

Trainer Tom Bush will send out Patricia Schuler's So Lonesome, third in the June 28 Manila Stakes after setting a swift early pace through six furlongs in the one-mile turf race at Belmont. He won a 1 1/16-mile allowance/optional claiming race on the turf there May 31 following a seventh in the Blue Grass. Last year, the New York-bred colt won a restricted stakes on the turf at Aqueduct Racetrack.

 

Trainer Bill Mott has Watchel Stable and George Kerr's two-time stakes winner Long On Value, who seeks a graded stakes breakthrough. He was runner-up in the May 24 Arlington Classic (gr. IIIT) at the Hall of Fame distance and outfinished So Lonesome in a runner-up finish in the Manila Stakes. 

 

Rosedown Racing's Bashart was fifth in the Manila in his 2014 debut for trainer Christophe Clement. He was sixth in the Juvenile Turf after winning the With Anticipation Stakes (gr. IIT) last summer at Saratoga and finishing second at Keeneland in the Bourbon Stakes (gr. IIIT) last October, both at 1 1/16 miles.

 

Also entered is Sagamore Farm's Give No Quarter, an allowance/optional claiming winner at 1 1/16 miles July 9 on the Belmont turf.

 

Trainer Todd Pletcher has Matterhorn ready to run after a fourth in the Peter Pan (gr. II) and subsequent eighth-place finish in the Belmont Stakes (gr. I), if the race is moved to the main track.