Always Dreaming Primed for Big Jim Dandy Effort

July 28th, 2017 by Tom Pedulla

Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming makes his first start since the Preakness in Saturday's Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga. (Eclipse Sportswire)

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The 54^th running of the Jim Dandy Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets, which pits the Kentucky Derby champion against the Preakness winner for the first time since 1991, should be, well, a dandy.

Saturday’s marquee matchup at Saratoga Race Course features Always Dreaming, whose season-opening four-race winning streak culminated in a dazzling Derby triumph, versus Cloud Computing, who overtook Classic Empire by a stubborn head in the Preakness.

It only adds spice to the anticipated duel that Always Dreaming is overseen by Todd Pletcher while the Preakness victor will be saddled by Chad Brown. The two are perennially keen rivals for the Saratoga training crown. Brown, from nearby Mechanicville, N.Y., secured his first title last summer after Pletcher swept the previous six.

This is one of the most highly anticipated editions of the 1 1/8-mile Jim Dandy, a critical prep race for the Aug. 26 Travers, since Derby winner Strike the Gold entered the starting gate to oppose Preakness victor Hansel in 1991 (both chased Fly So Free in vain).

Cloud Computing after the Preakness. (Eclipse Sportswire)

The race will be part of a national telecast from 5-6:30 p.m. on Fox Sports 2. The undercard features the Grade 1 $350,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt, the Grade 2 $200,000 Amsterdam and the Grade 2 $250,000 Bowling Green.

There also will be plenty of activity away from the track. As part of Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund Day across America, fans will be able to enjoy a meet and greet with jockeys and obtain their autographs from 11:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Fans also can give their favorite riders a good soaking by dropping them into a dunk tank from 1-3 p.m. to raise funds for jockeys who sustained catastrophic injuries.

The Jim Dandy should be a telling race for Always Dreaming. He made the enormous jump from the allowance ranks to win the Florida Derby in commanding fashion and was most impressive when the brought home the roses at Churchill Downs. His lackluster eighth-place finish in the Preakness, however, was downright perplexing.

With the benefit of hindsight, Pletcher thinks he understands what went wrong. The run for the roses, after all, is one demanding race. So is the Preakness.

“He put so much into his training leading into the (Kentucky) Derby and then into the Derby,” Pletcher said, “that the two-week turnaround was just too quick.”

Track conditions at Pimlico Race Course for the Preakness may have done them no favors, either. “I don’t think he really cared for the drying out surface he ended up running over that day,” Pletcher said.

The trainer hopes a well-deserved rest will provide the answer.

“We’ve given him a nice break since then,” Pletcher noted. “He seems to be rounding back into form, so we hope he can come back with a big effort.”

Training a colt for a race such as the Jim Dandy represents a significant challenge. “We wanted to get here not just with a fresh horse but a horse hopefully fit enough to run a mile and an eighth,” said Pletcher, adding, “You also hopefully want something to build on and something left in the tank for the Travers.”

Pletcher is taking a radically different approach with Tapwrit, his version of a marathon man after the former $1.2 million yearling won the mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes. He has opted to skip race and go directly to the “Mid-Summer Derby” with Tapwrit.

“We felt we had a pretty steady campaign of races, so there was some risk by running him in the Jim Dandy that we could potentially not have him in peak form for the Travers,” he said. “We felt we could do enough with him in the mornings to have him run off the Belmont layoff. That’s what we’re hoping for, and we hope it proves to be right.”

Always Dreaming and Cloud Computing, Brown’s first winner in a Triple Crown race, are not the only Jim Dandy starters worthy of attention. Bill Mott, a Hall of Fame conditioner, has an intriguing entry in Good Samaritan, a graded stakes-winning turf runner who switches to dirt. He ran fourth in the Belmont Derby on July 8 in his most recent effort and likes to come from well off what Mott thinks will be a strong pace.

“The Preakness winner isn’t going to let the Derby winner shake loose on him, I don’t think,” Mott said.