Adam Coglianese
Aqueduct’s Sunday feature, the $80,000 one-mile Fourstars Allstar Stakes for New York-breds, showcased two stars – the winner Saginaw, who scored his ninth victory in 11 starts, and runner-up Friend Or Foe, the record-setting Empire Classic winner who delivered a strong performance in his return to the races for the first time since August 6, 2011.
After the break Saginaw, 3-5 favorite in the field reduced to four by scratches, immediately adopted a stalking position in the three path under Ramon Dominguez, as Beautyinthepulpit vied for the lead with Johannesburg Smile. Friend Or Foe (9-5) sat three lengths off the pace, getting into an easy beat with long loping strides under John Velazquez.
After the completion of a half-mile in 46.71, Saginaw drew up even with, and passed the leaders, while Friend Or Foe overtook Johannesburg Smile to claim the third spot.
Once Saginaw kicked clear by three lengths at the top of the stretch, Friend Or Foe moved up into second and in the final sixteenth started gobbling up real estate, but ran out of room before Saginaw crossed the finish line with three-quarters of a length to spare. The final time for the mile on the fast Aqueduct main track was 1:35.62.
Saginaw was claimed by trainer David Jacobson, who owns the 6-year-old Peruvian gelding in partnership with Drawing Away Stable, for $30,000 out of a 13 1/4-length romp at Aqueduct on March 8, when he was equipped with blinkers for the first time by trainer Rick Dutrow, Jr., who had him for one start. He has been virtually unstoppable ever since.
Wearing blinkers in all 10 subsequent starts, Saginaw has added eight more victories to his tally, including four other stakes scores: the Carr Heaven and Affirmed Success at Belmont in April and May, Saratoga’s John Morrissey Stakes in August, and the Promenade All in Belmont in September. In the Hudson on Showcase Day, Saginaw ran second to the Mind Over Matter after a poor start. He has only failed to show up once in this period – in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont in May – and his career record now stands at 15-6-2 from 33 starts with earnings of $694,190.
Runner-up Friend Or Foe, winner of the Mike Lee and a stakes record-setter when he took the Empire Classic in 2010, has been sidelined ever since his fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Whitney Invitational Handicap at Saratoga in August of last year, first with a suspensory problem, then with foot ailments. The Chester and Mary Broman homebred made only one other start besides the Whitney in 2011, defeating Rail Trip in the Easy Goer in June at Belmont.
Saginaw was bred by Ted Taylor and foaled at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds and is one of three winners and two black type performers out of Devilzene, a Kentucky-bred winner by Devil’s Bag purchased by Ted Taylor for $21,000 as a yearling at the 2000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale. Saginaw’s full brother Sipsey is stakes placed ($97,194). Devilzene currently has a 2-year-old filly by Desert Warrior named Sinclair who has not started.
