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DeVaux holds strong pair in $150K Bernard Baruch

by Mary Eddy

Trainer Cherie DeVaux will have two chances to win her first Listed $150,000 Bernard Baruch with graded stakes-placed Taking Candy and the streaking Rebel Red in Sunday’s 1 1/16-mile inner turf test for 3-year-olds and up at Saratoga Race Course.

Lael Stable’s Taking Candy makes his second start off a 10-month layoff and was a last-out winner of a local optional claimer at the Baruch distance on the Mellon turf. Ridden by Jose Lezcano, the son of Twirling Candy stalked one length off the pace throughout before pouncing in the final turn and bravely battling a slew of challengers to prevail by a half-length over Tidal Forces. He earned a career-best 93 Beyer Speed Figure.

“I was really happy with that performance,” said DeVaux. “He’s a horse that’s always shown a lot of talent and ability, he’s just a horse that has had a couple different issues that have kept him away from the races. He’s doing really well, so with that race off the layoff, it was by design that we would wait until the end of the meet to run him again.”

The 4-year-old bay posted a productive sophomore campaign that saw him graduate at second asking last May at Churchill Downs two starts before a determined nose win in allowance company here. He closed out the year with a pacesetting runner-up finish to subsequent Grade 1-winner Carl Spackler in the local Grade 3 Saranac last September.

A $400,000 purchase at the OBS March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, Taking Candy is out of the Trappe Shot mare Taking Aim, a half-sister to multiple graded stakes-winner Tapizar.

Lezcano will ride again from post 7.

Like Taking Candy, John D. Gunther and Eurowest Bloodstock Service’s Rebel Red also enters from a last-out allowance-level score over at this distance. However, Rebel Red will have to overcome some recent adversity after losing his left eye in a stall accident shortly after his win on July 13.

“Physically, he’s been doing fine, but he’s had a significant life change since he last ran after losing one of his eyes in a freak stall accident,” DeVaux said. “He miraculously only lost two weeks of training, but he’s been training well and we’re trying to see how he adjusts to life and racing with his new situation.”

The 4-year-old son of Frankel enters off back-to-back wins this summer, led by a maiden win in his second start for DeVaux in June at Churchill Downs and following with his tidy one-length annexing of the allowance event here. Prior to his tenure with DeVaux, he made two starts in his native Great Britain when second and off-the-board in a pair of one-mile allowances for conditioner Ralph Beckett.

DeVaux said she is mostly looking at the colt’s competitiveness in this event to gauge his future.

“He’ll still wear blinkers, and we just put a cover over the eye that’s missing so when the grass hits him, it won’t startle him,” DeVaux explained. “He’s always been a nice horse. It’s hard for me to say right now with what has happened, and we’re really more interested in seeing how he handles this before we really try to push him anywhere.”

Taking Candy and Rebel Red worked in company on August 19 over the Spa’s Oklahoma dirt training track, covering a half-mile in 49.58 seconds.

“He’s had two works and he’s fit, we’re just going to have to see how he handles it,” DeVaux said of Rebel Red.

Manny Franco has the call from post 3.

Calumet Farm’s graded stakes-winner Running Bee [post 5, Irad Ortiz, Jr.] cuts back in distance as he seeks to rebound from a close sixth last out in the 11-furlong Grade 2 United Nations on July 20 at Monmouth Park for four-time Eclipse Award-winning conditioner Chad Brown.

The 5-year-old English Channel gelding entered the United Nations from a thrilling dead heat score shared with returning rival Fort Washington in the Grade 3 Monmouth on June 15 at its namesake oval and again utilized stalking tactics under Vincent Cheminaud last out. He attempted to forge a path forward in the final turn, but was overtaken by foes and defeated 2 1/2 lengths.

Running Bee has won twice and finished second twice in four starts at the Baruch distance, including a pacesetting 3 3/4-length optional claiming conquest in November at Aqueduct Racetrack. He holds a consistent 12-5-3-1 record with earnings in excess of $440,000.

Magic Cap Stables' Fort Washington also exits an off-the-board finish in the United Nations and a win in the Monmouth for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey. The 5-year-old War Front dark bay had dabbled in stakes company before, including a half-length win in the 2022 Tale of the Cat at Monmouth, but broke through at the graded level in the Monmouth when pouncing from off the pace under Kendrick Carmouche and hitting the wire in tandem with Running Bee.

The $260,000 2023 Fasig-Tipton July Horses of Racing Age Sale purchase will emerge from post 1 in rein to Carmouche.

A. Bianco Holding Limited’s Pioneering Spirit [post 4, Dylan Davis] looks to defend his title in this event after capturing last year’s running by 2 3/4 lengths for conditioner Linda Rice.

The 5-year-old American Pharoah gelding takes the same path to the Baruch as last year, wheeling back on eight days’ rest from a run in the Grade 1 Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer. Last year, he picked up graded black type for the first time when a 10-length third, and though he landed fourth in this year’s Sword Dancer, he finished a much closer 4 1/2 lengths back.

Pioneering Spirit is in search of his first win since coming out on the winning end of a match race edition of the off-the-turf Listed Knickerbocker in October at Belmont at the Big A. Since then, he has hit the board in 2-of-8 starts, including a third in the Grade 2 Fort Marcy in May at the Big A and a game runner-up effort to stablemate Film Star in the off-the-turf restricted Lure on August 3 here.

Completing the field are Repole Stable and St. Elias Stables’ graded stakes-placed Steady On [post 6, Flavien Prat] for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher and Three Diamonds Farm's three-time winner Beuys [post 2, Luis Saez] for trainer Mike Maker.

Film Star and Phileas Fogg are entered for the main track-only.

The Bernard Baruch is slated as Race 11 on Sunday’s 13-race program, which features the Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup in Race 12, a “Win and You’re In” for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic in November at Del Mar. First post is 12:05 p.m. Eastern. Gates will open to the public at 10:30 a.m.

Saratoga Live will present live coverage and analysis of the Saratoga Race Course summer meet on the networks of FOX Sports. For the broadcast schedule and channel finder, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule/.

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