Ultimate Empire and Tiznowforamerica found their way to the winner’s circle on closing day of the Saratoga 150th Anniversary meet. It was a closing day double for WPT/Tom Albertrani/Javier Castellano.
Ultimate Empire and Tiznowforamerica found their way to the winner’s circle on closing day of the Saratoga 150th Anniversary meet. It was a closing day double for WPT/Tom Albertrani/Javier Castellano.
Our 3-year-old NY-bred was back with a vengeance after crossing the wire first only to be disqualified for interference on July 29. Dispatched as the second choice in the off-the-turf allowance event on Monday, he had a comfortable stalking trip before taking over in the stretch and driving to a clear cut win under the meet’s leading pilot Javier Castellano.
Ultimate Empire has shown an affinity for the slop, he splashed home to break his maiden by 13 lengths on May 9 at Belmont. The chestnut son of Utopia (Jpn) has earnings just shy of $150,000 and a record of 2-3-4 from 11 starts.
September is a rainy month in New York, so it’s very likely you’ll find Ultimate Empire in a statebred second level allowance…in the slop.
Later in the closing day card, Tizwnowforamerica broke his maiden in style in a 5 1/2 furlong maiden special weight for 2-year-olds. It’s a great time of year to have a promising juvenile in the barn.
Also ridden by Javier Castellano and trained by Tom Albertrani, the bay son of Tiznow took the lead from the gitgo and never looked back. He’s now under strong consideration for the $500,000 Foxwoods Champagne Stakes (G1) run at a flat mile on the dirt on Saturday, October 5 at Belmont.
“Javier got off after his first race and told us we’d be very tough to beat second time out,” says WPT president Terry Finley. “Tom didn’t have him fully cranked and ready to run over the top on debut and he still ran a very strong third. Being by Tiznow, you wouldn’t expect his best distance to be five and one half furlongs. He did what he had to do today, and it looks like there’s plenty more in the tank.”