Saratoga Diary: Week Four Wrap-Up

By DICK POWELL

The first four weeks of Saratoga racing are in the books and now we have three full weeks to finish up the meet on Labor Day.

In week four, field size was 7.16 and the average win price was $10.39. Favorites recovered their form in week four winning 22 of 59 starts for a 37.3% rate. There were 17 races run on the turf and 42 run on the dirt. Of the 42 on the dirt, 16 were off-the-turf races so the original entries were supposed to have 33 of 59 on the turf but they only were able to run 17.

Chad Brown has closed out the trainers’ race. He has 25 wins to Todd Pletcher’s 14 with over $1 million more in earnings. Chad had seven wins in week four while Todd had four.

Javier Castellano had a chance to cut into Irad Ortiz Jr.’s big lead in the rider standings when he stayed home on Arlington Million Day. He picked up three wins that day and for the week, Castellano had eight winners and Irad six. Jose Ortiz had eight and Luis Saez six. Manny Franco continues to ride well with five winners as did Junior Alvarado.

When I look at the full 22 days of racing, a couple of issues get highlighted. Field size is 7.51, the average win price was $10.99 and favorites have won 32.88%.

Rider standings with some notes:

Irad Ortiz Jr. has 29 wins, including six for Brown, four for Jason Servis and three for Rudy Rodriguez. Amazingly, his total of 29 wins came for 18 different trainers. Seventeen were favored, 12 were not.

Castellano has 24 wins. Twelver came for Brown and four for Pletcher. Thirteen were favored, 11 were not.

Saez has 23 wins and four came for Joe Sharp. Six were favored, 17 were not.

Jose Ortiz has 18 wins. Four came for Brown and he had wins for 12 other trainers. Five were favored, 13 were not.

Franco has 17 wins and they came for 14 different trainers. Five were favored, 12 were not.

Joel Rosario has 16 wins and they came for 13 different trainers. Five were favored, 11 were not.

Johnny Velazquez has 14 wins and seven came for Pletcher. Five were favored, nine were not.

Alvarado has 13 wins and five came for Bill Mott. Five were favored, eight were not.

Rafael Santana has 13 wins and 10 came for Steve Asmussen. Four were favored, nine were not.

David Cohen has nine wins and all came on the dirt. None were favored.

As for the trainers:

Brown has 25 wins, 13 coming on turf. His 12 dirt wins would rank second in the standings.

Pletcher has 14 and 10 came on dirt.

Asmussen has 11 wins and nine came on dirt.

Mott has splits 10 wins equally between dirt and turf.

Jeremiah Englehart has seven wins and five came on dirt.

Sharp has six wins and four came on turf.

Rodriguez has six wins and five came on dirt.

Here are the leading sires after 22 days of Saratoga racing:

Tapit:		7
War Front:		5
English Channel:		5
Into Mischief:		5
Flatter:		4
Candy Ride:		4
Bernardini:		4
Union Rags:		4
Twirling Candy:		4
Speightstown:		4
Shanghai Bobby:		4
Malibu Moon:		4
Tiznow:		3
Smart Strike:		3
Scat Daddy:		3
More Than Ready:		3
Medaglia d’Oro:		3
Macho Uno:		3
Frost Giant:		3
Freud:		3
Cape Blanco:		3
City Zip:		3