Pandagate outruns Doc Sullivan late to win Sunday’s Albany Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. NYRA Photo.
They didn’t need a party bus this time.
A little more than a month removed from making the 202-mile trek to Finger Lakes in a “party bus” to watch Pandagate win the New York Derby, the Arrogate colt’s many owners turned out in force Sunday for New York Showcase Day at Saratoga Race Course.
They brought the party without the bus – specifically in the Jim Dandy Bar area of the clubhouse’s first floor – and received a similar result. Pandagate won for the fourth time in six starts and second straight in the featured $242,500 Albany Stakes. The 1-length win over Doc Sullivan and three others in the 9-furlong Albany set off a wild celebration in the clubhouse that spilled into the winner’s circle when the gray colt came back under Dylan Davis.
“He made it a little bit interesting at the end there,” said Matt Cutair, who heads up the Adelphi Racing Club that co-owns Pandagate with Madaket Stable, Corms Racing Stable and On The Rise Again Stable. “It seemed like maybe he got to looking around just a little then when he heard the other horse he went on again. I could breathe again after that.
“Every Adelphi partner on the horse was here today. And every other partner is here as well. It’s the biggest winner’s circle I’ve been a part of. We had a big one in Finger Lakes when we took the party buses up there. That was cool, but this is like, insane.”
Joe Krong of the Amsterdam-based On The Rise Again Stable soaked in the scene with the nearly three dozen partners, friends and associates in the winner’s circle.
“Incredible,” Krong said. “My parents and I have been in this game forever. When I won a $12,500 claimer I felt like I won the Travers. Now I feel like I won the Kentucky Derby. I’m in Saratoga, with my family and friends and had this incredible moment. He ran well. The Clements are doing great with the horse. We don’t question anything they do.”
Trained by Christophe Clement and his son and assistant Miguel, Pandagate won the New York Derby as the 7-10 favorite. He also remained unbeaten in four starts against New York-breds, dating to a debut maiden win during the Belmont at the Big A meeting in October and the Gander Stakes in late February at Aqueduct.
The Gander victory convinced Pandagate’s connections to think big and they sent the colt out of the Sky Mesa mare Kitty Panda to Dubai for the $1 million UAE Derby in late March at Meydan. He finished third, beaten only 6 3/4 lengths by Japanese star and eventual Kentucky Derby third-place finisher Forever Young.
Pandagate didn’t return until the July 15 New York Derby, where he closed from fifth around the far turn to defeat Doc Sullivan by three-quarters of a length.
“That was terrific,” Miguel Clement said. “He is very consistent. He just keeps delivering every time, and I don’t think we’ve seen the best of him yet.”
Bred by Fred Hertrich III, who also co-bred maiden winner North End Lady with John Fielding to close Sunday’s card, Pandagate picked up $137,500 to boost his bankroll to $434,550.
Bloodstock agent Joe Migliore picked Pandagate out of the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale and Christophe Clement, agent, signed for the colt. Pandagate is the fifth foal out of the stakes-placed Kitty Panda. A homebred for Oak Bluff Stables and Clement, Kitty Panda won two of nine starts and finished third in the 2013 Bouwerie Stakes.
Hertrich purchased Kitty Panda in foal to Blame for $160,000 at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky February mixed sale. Pandagate is one of three New York-bred winners out of Kitty Panda, also the dam of three-time winner and $151,380-earner Panster and the two-time winner Countable. Kitty Panda is also the dam of the Kentucky-bred 2-year-old City of Light colt City Panda. – Tom Law
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Landed storms to victory in Sunday’s Fleet Indian at Saratoga. NYRA Photo.
And that makes three.
Landed won her third consecutive race and second straight stakes taking the Fleet Indian Stakes at Saratoga Race Course Sunday. Owned by Lael Stable and trained by Wesley Ward, the New York-bred filly stretched her speed to 1 1/8 miles with another front-running gem under John Velazquez.
Landed led every step to easily hold off Dolomite and My Shea D Lady in the $200,000 stakes. Landed finished in 1:51.99. Bred by Final Furlong Racing Stable and Maspeth Stable, the 3-year-old daughter of Omaha Beach and the Medaglia d’Oro mare Glory Gold improved her record to four wins from six starts for $290,410.
Final Furlong purchased Glory Gold’s daughter Espresso Shot at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred sale in 2017. The daughter of Mission Impazible won four stakes and $516,0625.
In 2018, Final Furlong purchased Glory Gold for $13,000 at Keeneland November. On her seventh time through the sales ring, Glory Gold was carrying Venti Valentine. The daughter of Firing Line went on to win six stakes and $893,600. She finished sixth in Sunday’s Yaddo, her first start on the turf. Two years year after producing Venti Valentine, Glory Gold landed Landed.
“Initially owning Espresso Shot and then partnering with Shaun (Nettleton) on the dam, Glory Gold, brought us Venti Valentine,” Final Furlong’s Vincent Roth said. “And now, we bred Landed. Just to be here with the owners of her as well was just an unbelievable experience on Showcase Day.”
Landed made sure of it.
“Every dream as a breeder is (to) get them into the big races, watch the family flourish,” Nettleton said. “We’ve been here for all the steps, and I remember visiting this horse when she was born in the winter at Saratoga. To be in the winner’s circle two times with her here, can’t ask for any more.”
Purchased for $220,000 by Sewanne Investments at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November mixed sale in 2021, the bay filly sold to Lael Stable for $500,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale of selected yearlings the following summer.
Landed broke her maiden at Aqueduct in November and finished second in the Maddie May at Aqueduct in February. She won an allowance race at Keeneland in April and added the Bouwerie at the Belmont Racing Festival in June at Saratoga.
“I was a little concerned coming from seven eighths to a mile and an eighth that she was going to be a little keen, but she actually came back to me pretty easy, she got a little hold on me, but nothing crazy. I was very happy with her,” Velazquez said. “I was pretty confident; she was going pretty easy. She doesn’t open up, I wait for them and then she goes again. I wait for them and she goes again. The last eighth of a mile, I get busy on her, ‘Come on, now you’ve got to run.’ Wait, wait, wait and then go.” – Sean Clancy
