Pletcher team exits Super Saturday in good shape

Trainer Todd Pletcher reported Sunday morning that Grade 1 Beldame

heroine Princess of Sylmar, Grade 2 Kelso Handicap winner Graydar,

Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup runner-up Palace Malice and the rest of his Super

Saturday representatives all returned from their efforts in good order.

Pletcher was particularly pleased with the performance of three-year-old Princess of

Sylmar, who in her first outing against older horses upended two-time Eclipse

honoree and defending

champion Royal Delta in the 1 1/8-mile Beldame.

"Any time you take a three-year-old and run against older horses for the first time

and you're able to win, it's a great achievement," Pletcher said. "When the

horse that you beat is Royal Delta, it's an even greater accomplishment.

"It

further enhanced Princess of Sylmar's reputation and took what everyone

recognized as a remarkable three-year-old season to another level. We've been

blessed with quite a few good fillies, but certainly her three-year-old season

stacks up pretty well with anyone's."

"With the way yesterday's races are positioned, five weeks out from the

Breeders' Cup, it gives us time to sort out how everyone is doing and how

everyone came out of the races," he said. "Hopefully we can sit back and let

them tell us what the right decision is."

Immediately following the Beldame, Graydar came off a six-month layoff and

earned an all-fees-paid trip to the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile with a solid victory

in the Kelso.

"He broke a step slow but was able to position himself quickly," Pletcher

described.

"With five weeks and hopefully a good, steady series of breezes leading up to

the (Dirt) Mile, I think he has room to improve."

Belmont Stakes winner Palace Malice led a trio of Pletcher trainees in the Gold

Cup, in which Brazilian import Vitoria Olimpica finished fourth and Whitney Invitational Handicap winner Cross Traffic was seventh after a

disastrous start.

"He kind of did a spread-eagle coming out of the gate; remarkably, he did not

grab himself or pull a shoe," Pletcher explained. "His chances were eliminated at the

beginning, so you just have to draw a line through it and stick with the

original plan, which right now would be the Breeders' Cup Classic.