Wise Dan records final Fourstardave move; King Kreesa breezes a half-mile

Wise Dan records final Fourstardave move; King Kreesa

breezes a half-mile

Horse of the Year Wise Dan is sitting on "go" for the Grade

2, $500,000 Fourstardave Handicap on August 10 at Saratoga following a half-mile breeze

over the Spa's good main track on Saturday morning.

Out shortly after the track opened at 5:30 a.m. (EDT), Wise Dan

went four furlongs in :49 2/5 seconds, galloping out five-eighths in 1:02

according to NYRA clockers, ranking 28th of 49 horses at the distance.

The move came one week after a sizzling five-furlong work

over the firm Oklahoma training track turf course in :57 1/5, after which

trainer Charles LoPresti was undecided whether to give Wise Dan another breeze

before the one-mile Fourstardave.

"I just wanted to do something easy with him," said LoPresti, who trains the

six-year-old Wiseman's Ferry gelding for owner/breeder Morton

Fink. "I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I didn't want to take him to the

turf again. I just wanted a nice, easy work for him, just something to keep him

ticking over to next week."

LoPresti said he wasn't concerned about the time of the

work but is more focused on how Wise Dan is coming into his return to Saratoga.

Wise Dan began his seven-race win streak, which includes five Grade 1 victories,

in last year's Fourstardave.

"He's perfect," LoPresti stated. "He could have gone so much faster, but we

didn't want him to do that. He did that last week. That was the work that

prepared him for this race. This was just something to tick him over."

LoPresti is following a similar schedule this year with

Wise Dan, whose older half-brother, Successful Dan, is running in Satuday's Grade

1, $750,000 Whitney Invitational Handicap. A graded stakes winner on three

surfaces, including Grade 1 wins on dirt and turf, Wise Dan was also nominated

to the Whitney.

"I think he would be very hard to beat in the Whitney," LoPresti said. "I

just feel that way. He's trained well over this track."

Also on the Saturday worktab for the Fourtstardave was King Kreesa,

who will step up in class off wins in Belmont Park's July 4 Poker and

June 1 Kingston for New York-breds.

With jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, King Kreesa breezed four

furlongs on the firm Oklahoma turf course in :47 1/5 in company with stablemate

The Big Deluxe.

"It was a nice breeze, and Irad was real happy with him," trainer Jeremiah Englehart

said. "He puts a lot into his training, so I wasn't too worried about him

needing to get a lot out of the work."

Owned by Gerald and Susan Kresa, King Kreesa set the pace

in both his 2 1/4-length Kingston victory and 1 1/2-length Poker triumph. Although

King Kreesa was on the lead in those races, Englehart believes the four-year-old

son of King Cugat doesn't need it and will let the gelding race wherever he is most comfortable in

the Fourstardave.

"He's much more mature in his races this year; he allows Irad to settle him," Englehart

explained. "The trainer in me wants to believe he can race off the pace, but

everybody has been telling me he does his best when he races on the lead. I'm a

little biased, but I think he'll be OK just off the pace. I'd be stupid to say I

know he'll be fine racing off the pace, so we'll just let him do his thing."

Englehart acknowledges that the Fourstardave will be a

stern test for King Kreesa, a four-time stakes winner who is 5-3-2 in 14 starts.

"I have a lot of respect for what Wise Dan has

accomplished," Englehart remarked. "The nice thing about horse racing is that

there are a lot of variables, and we feel like this is our time to take a

chance."

Trainer John Shirreffs on Saturday said he is looking

forward to running Mr. Commons in the Fourstardave based off how the son of

Artie Schiller exited his fifth-place finish in an optional claiming race on July 24 at

Saratoga.

"He's eating well, he's training great, the rider is

commenting that he came out of that race with a lot of energy," Shirreffs stated.

"It looks like this next race should be really good."

A two-time Grade 2 winner on the turf, Mr. Commons finished

1 1/2 lengths behind the winner in the optional claimer. It was the

five-year-old bay's first

start since the St. George Farm Racing colorbearer finished third in the Maker's 46 Mile in April at Keeneland

behind Wise Dan.

Mr. Commons was scratched out of the

Jaipur in June at Belmont after the race was transferred to the main

track.

"His last race was a good comeback race, probably better

than his placing indicated," Shirreffs remarked. "I'm looking forward to running

him. He needed a race -- he had one work in a month (a four-furlong breeze in

:49 2/5 on July 17 at Belmont Park). We had a lot of bad weather and the timing

was never right, but the nice thing is he came out of this race really well. He

recovered quickly. The whole point of the allowance race was to get him ready

for the Fourstardave. We knew he would need a prep race."

Shirreffs added that he wants Mr. Commons to get an outside

trip in the Fourstardave.

"When those horses came outside of him (in the July 24

race) he didn't really like that," Shirreffs noted. "If we can get the outside

and make a run, I think he'll do very well."

Mr. Commons will breeze on Sunday, according to his conditioner.

Also expected to line up next Saturday in the Fourstardave are Grade 3 winner Lea, runner-up to Wise Dan in the Firecracker at Churchill Downs

last out on June 29; Grade 2 victor Skyring, most recently sixth in the July 6 United Nations at Monmouth

Park; and dual Grade 3 conqueror Za Approval, most recently second in the Shoemaker Mile.

Grade 1 hero Willyconker, who was claimed just two back, is questionable, according to NYRA stakes

coordinator Andrew Byrnes.

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