Any Given Saturday Triumphs
First 2007 Victory Elevates Any Given Saturday
Triple Crown hopefuls are training their way to that first Saturday in May. Any Given Saturday makes a strong case for his roses in May in his Sam F. Davis Stakes win.
The race is on. Up the ante time is in the offing, and Thoroughbred trainers are gathering their best guess game plans for their Triple Crown hopefuls.
Todd Pletcher's colt Any Given Saturday put himself squarely on the Kentucky Derby field map with an impressive win last Saturday, Feb 17 at Tampa Bay Downs, Florida. Any Given Saturday drew away in easy stride to a 2-3/4 length victory. Jockey John Velazquez prompted his dark bay mount through the 1-1/16 miles in a good time of 1:44.27.
It was Any Given Saturday's three-year-old debut race in the 2007 season. He's now a three-time winner from four starts that include his 2006 juvenile campaign. He's carrying a 2006 Experimental Free Handicap weight of 119 pounds, eight pounds less than top rated Street Sense, who was assigned high weight at 127 pounds. Weights determined for the year's three-year-old competitors are assessed by members of a racing committee which bases its assignments on the performance of colts and fillies in their juvenile (two-year-old) seasons.
Street Sense won last fall's Bessemer Trust Breeder's Cup Juvenile by a roaring ten lengths. In turn, he won the 2007 top weight assignment, the highest load handed down since Favorite Trick received 128 pounds in 1997. All weighing aside, no Breeder's Cup Juvenile champ has raced to victory in the following year's Kentucky Derby.
So Any Given Saturday is clear of that jinx. In 2006, Any Given Saturday won his maiden race by a nose, won again by three lengths in an allowance race, then took on a mighty challenge against Tiz Wonderful in his first stakes run. Any Given Saturday suffered his only setback at the hooves of the talented Tiz Wonderful, a colt bred by 2000 Horse of the Year and Three-Year-Old Male Champion Tiznow, who also captured the 2001 Handicap Male championship.
A top trainer, Pletcher has 31 other horses besides Any Given Saturday nominated for the 2007 Triple Crown races that begin with the Kentucky Derby in Louisville on May 5. Tiz a Saturday, is May 5, as usual. Perhaps, Any Given Saturday can make it an unusual day. Pletcher and WinStar Farm are hopeful.
Other notable prospects for Pletcher include Ravel, who has hard-to-look-past credentials, Circular Quay, and Scat Daddy. Ravel and Any Given Saturday have A.P. Indy, a great racer and sire, in their corner.
Any Given Saturday, optimistically named, is a son of Distorted Humor, a champion sprinter in graded II stakes. Pletcher has Any Given Saturday on the same schedule he chose for WinStar's Bluegrass Cat in 2006. Bluegrass Cat chased Barbaro to a second place finish in last year's Derby.
Any Given Saturday performs next in the March 17 Tampa Bay Derby (gr. lll), 1-1/16 miles, then heads to the (Toyota) Blue Grass Stakes (gr. l), a 1-1/8 mile test at Keeneland on April 14.
Weekend in July is Any Given Saturday's dam, an A.P. Indy mare. A.P. Indy is the most successful son of Seattle Slew, the 1977 Triple Crown champion. Horse of the Year in 1992, A.P. Indy triumphed in the Belmont Stakes, as well as in the Breeder's Cup Classic. He has sired ninety-six stakes winners and was North America's leading progeny sire in 2003 and in 2006. Among A.P. Indy's sons are Bernardini, 2006's Preakness champion and Three-Year-Old Male champion, and Mineshaft, 2003 Horse of the Year.
The other half of Any Given Saturday's breeding equation, Distorted Humor, sired (first crop) Funny Cide, winner of both the Derby and the Preakness in 2003. Seattle Slew's granddaughters were dams to Any Given Saturday and Funny Cide. Distorted Humor has sired Flower Alley, a graded l distance getter who ended 2005 behind Saint Liam in the Breeder's Cup Classic and as the second vote collector for Horse of the Year.
Also found in Any Given Saturday's near dam lineage is Whow, a stakes winning daughter of Spectacular Bid, who won the Derby and the Preakness in 1979 and Horse of the Year honors in 1980.
When the first stakes wins come easily, or impressively, and the pedigree runs as deeply as Any Given Saturday's, expectations quickly excelerate. Pletcher admits, "...we're excited about him."
In a sense, since his only loss was to the highly pedigreed Tiz Wonderful, pedigree may also have accounted for Any Given Saturday's shortcomings in his lone defeat. Mostly, pedigree shows up at the races.
In any case, when Any Given Saturday strides out on any given Saturday afternoon at this spring's races, anything might happen. Pletcher and WinStar Farm are most likely thinking of a given Saturday in May for a memorable happening.
