Jim Dandy Could Be a Bang Up Stakes Race

The 47th Jim Dandy Stakes could be a bang up stakes race featuring several runners coming into the summer season with high hopes.

Trainer Nick Zito is sending out Fly Down that’s been on the upswing since capturing the Dwyer on May 10 at Belmont Park by six lengths over Drosselmeyer.

The son of Mineshaft came less than a length short of winning the Belmont Stakes on June 10 over the Dwyer runner-up.

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Since then Fly Down has been training like a horse on a mission, workingexceptionally well at Saratoga.

On Monday he was clocked in 47. 30 seconds handily for four furlongs over the training track guided by regular rider Jose Lezcano, aboard both victories at Saturday’s distance, 1 1/8 miles.

His fifth work since June 21 was the best of more than 70 on the training track.

And it was a fifth of a second faster than 70-plus works over the main track.

“I thought he was very good, excellent, from what I saw,” Nick Zito told the media. “It was exactly what I wanted.He’s coming off a mile-and-a-half race, and you have to do things like that.

“Obviously, we know his fitness is there, so I’m not worried about that. He’ll definitely get the journey. You just hope he’s a little sharp for the race and things work out good for him. He’s a very good horse.”

Several other likely starters in the $500,000 Grade 2 also worked Monday on the main track.

Aikenite, who rallied from last to notcha two-length triumph in a one-mile Belmont allowance contest on June 19 after hitting the board four times out of eight consecutive graded stakes, went a half-mile in 48.66 seconds.

The son of Yes It’s True will be one of the longshots, but nowhere near the odds of the 3-year-old that the race honors.

It was back in 1930 when Jim Dandy tackled Triple Crown champ Gallant Fox, the 1-2 favorite in the Travers.

Jim Dandy went off at 100-1 and destroyed the field “over a track deep with sticky mud.” Gallant Fox ran second eight lengths back.

Losing trainer Jim “Sunny” Fitzsimmonslater said, “It’s the last time that Gallant Fox will race on a muddy track,”

The weather forecast for the weekend at Saratoga Springs is mostly sunny in the high 70s with only a 10 percent chance of showers.

It took 34 years for Saratoga to page homage to Jim Dandy’s upset with an appropriate prep for the Travers. Malicious won the inaugural in ’64 when the distance was a mile.

Unbeaten Friend or Foe was the fifth fastest going four furlongs in 47.33 seconds.

The son of Friends Lake recorded his third victory in the Mike Lee Stakes for New York-breds at Belmont on June 20 at seven furlongs, but has only been sprinting.

A Little Warm, victorious in a Delaware Park allowance race on June 29, went five furlongs in a minute flat, Back in March the son of Stormin Fever was runner-up in the Louisiana Derby.

The Jim Dandy field is expected to include:

Afleet Alex, who comes off an impressive victory in the 1 1/16-mile Pegasus on June 19 at Monmouth Park, his third win in five starts.

Stormy’s Majesty, undefeated in three races, but none longer that a mile and 70 yards, including a pair of allowance contests.

Steinbeck, a British-bred grass invader making his American debut on dirt after finishing off the board since breaking his maiden last year.