Wonderful Music, continued

YOU BET

You and Cashier's Dream turned the Adirondack Stakes into a two-horse race on Aug. 13, finishing better than 15 lengths in front of Magic Storm. Hooking up right from the start, the two fillies battled through hot fractions of :21.65, :44.62, and 1:08.71.

Cashier's Dream, unbeaten in three career starts, held a slim lead until deep stretch, but You wore her down to win by a neck. The time of 1:15.16 for the 6 1/2 furlongs was a stakes record.

"I thought 1:15 for 6 1/2 would be enough," said Steve Asmussen, trainer of Cashier's Dream. "She's still a tremendously fast filly. She was just beaten to the wire.

"She was obviously the speed in the race. I was concerned with how fast she was going early, but You is the filly that was on her all the way. It isn't like some moderate horse tackled you early and you picked up the pieces. You is the one who tackled her and the one that beat her."

Team Valor and the Bill Heiligbrodt Racing Stable purchased Cashier's Dream after she won her first two starts. She broke the track record for 5 1/2 furlongs in the Debutante (gr. III) at Churchill Downs on July 7 in her first start for Asmussen. She carried 122 pounds in the Adirondack; You had 115.

Frankel didn't expect to run into Cashier's Dream at Saratoga.

"I was sad to see her in the race when I entered," he said. "I didn't think she was here. When I saw we were getting seven pounds, I said, 'Well, maybe we've got a chance.' "

START OF SOMETHING SPECIAL

Jump Start, a striking son of A.P. Indy, attracted a lot of attention in the paddock with his good looks and came on in the stretch to edge Heavyweight Champ by three-quarters of a length in the Saratoga Special (gr. II) on Aug. 15. The time of 1:17.35 was better than two seconds slower than You's winning time in the Adirondack.

A big, developed Overbrook Farm homebred trained by D. Wayne Lukas, Jump Start had just one career race, a maiden victory at Churchill Downs on June 23, before the Special.

Heavyweight Champ jumped out to grab the lead and held it through fractions of :21.57 and :44.52. When Heavyweight Champ began to tire and turned in a third quarter of :25.92, Jump Start moved into contention on the outside under jockey Pat Day and got the lead about 40 feet from the wire.

"I think this one could take us to the Promised Land," Lukas said. "I like this horse. I really feel like we've got a real nice set of 2-year-olds. I'm not trying to rate him, but I know this is one of the nicer ones. We've had some excellent races out of our 2-year-olds. The nice thing about 2-year-olds is they become 3-year-olds. We're pretty optimistic.

"His pedigree says longer (he's out of the Storm Cat mare Steady Cat). I think the Belmont races are going to fit him. We've got the Breeders' Cup races there. There are a lot of things that will probably fit for this horse. We're still trying to find out a little bit about Truman's Raider, Call to Duty, some of the others we've won with. But this one has got the ingredients to be anything."

Bashford Manor (gr. II) winner Lunar Bounty never was able to get into contention and finished fifth of sixth, beaten more than 17 lengths.

APTITUDE ON HIS GAME

Jockey Jerry Bailey had the $300,000 Saratoga Breeders' Cup Handicap figured out and gave Aptitude an aggressive ride so the closer wouldn't be too far back. He took Aptitude to the lead in the far turn of the 10-furlong race and had a half-length at the quarter pole that expanded through the stretch. The winning time was 2:01.55.

"I was just thinking, it looked like a lot of pace on paper, but it really wasn't grade I or II pace," Bailey said. "And if it came up a slow pace and my horse was slow early I was going to take him early, before the three-eighths pole if it came up like that.

"But even the quarter pole for him was kind of early. I thought it might be the best thing to do. I don't know if it was that, or he was just much better than these or the track made the difference, but he was certainly on his game."

Perfect Cat finished second and A Fleets Dancer was third. It was Bailey's 10th stakes victory of the Saratoga meet.

Frankel had visited Saratoga in the past, winning a pair of stakes, but never had the kind of presence that he has had this summer. Flute was the main reason he asked for barn space, but he also wanted to get Aptitude out of California.

"I thought he'd be a little different horse on these tracks; that's why I shipped him back here," Frankel said. "I think he just handles these tracks better. My experience with certain horses is they don't handle the West Coast tracks or vice versa. Different surfaces. Aptitude always ran good on the East Coast. That's why I brought him back here. I thought he'd step up a little bit."