The track didn’t like him back so much in the Grade I Jockey Club Gold Cup last year, at least not from a results standpoint.
But, facing a stakes-caliber field in the ninth race on opening day of the 2024 meet on Thursday, Warrior Johny won comfortably under jockey Joel Rosario despite being bumped around after the start.
It was an allowance optional claiming race, but carried a $120,000 purse and included horses who had competed in races like the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Travers and Met Mile, not to mention Warrior Johny’s seventh-place finish in the Jockey Club Gold Cup last summer.
Bauer gave his gelding, now 5 years old, and although Warrior Johny was a little slow to regain winning form, but is rolling now, and will be back to stakes company next time out.
“He loves it here,” Bauer said. “Probably his two best races on his form are here, including this one. We had enough confidence to try the Jockey Club last year, just from the way he trained up here. I thought this race was jam-packed with talent. Very, very happy to get the win, but certainly didn’t expect it.”
After winning an allowance optional claimer at Saratoga in 2022, Warrior Johny has dabbled in stakes company, and had been giving every indication that he was ready for a big effort in the Jockey Club Gold Cup last year.
Ridden by Junior Alvarado, he got to the front early and fell back to seventh, 10 lengths behind Bright Future.
“I was actually really disappointed,” Bauer said. “The horse trained as well as he could going into it. I think a lot of people signaled on it, as well, especially the clockers. Every breeze was as good as you’d want one going into a race like that.
“Maybe, if you dissect it, you rush him off his feet to get him towards the front is maybe not the best thing. There was a lot of stuff where you put a line through it, knowing it was a Grade I.”
On Thursday, going a mile and an eighth, Warrior Johny slipped up the rail, took the lead at the eighth-pole and won by four lengths over Salute the Stars.
Film Star, who was second in the Woodward last year, was third, and Blazing Sevens, who was second by a head to National Treasure in the Preakness last year and was coming off a sixth in the Met Mile last month, finished fourth.
It was too soon for Bauer to commit to the next start for Warrior Johny, but another crack at the Jockey Club Gold Cup seems logical, if not taking a shot at the Whitney on Aug. 3.
Either way, “I’d like to keep him here for the rest of the meet. It’s just the greatest place for a horse,” Bauer said.
‘STAR OF MYSTERY’ TO QUICK CALL
Trainer Charlie Appleby told the New York Racing Association that he is opting to run the Godolphin 3-year-old filly Star of Mystery against males in the Quick Call on Sunday.
She is also entered to run against fillies in the Coronation Cup on Saturday.
This will be her sixth straight start against males this year, including a third to Cogburn in the Grade I Jaipur during Belmont Stakes Day at Saratoga on June 8.
Her other four starts were in Dubai, and she won the Group 2 Blue Point Sprint at Meydan in January.
Star of Mystery is the 9-5 morning-line favorite in the Coronation Cup and is the 4-5 favorite in the Quick Call. Both races are run at 5 1/2 furlongs on the Mellon Turf Course.
BELLS BEACH WILTON FAVORITE
Trainer Chad Brown used the one-mile Wilton as a steppingstone to the Alabama with Randomized this year; he’d like to make a similar leap with Bells Beach.
The Wilton was inaugurated just two years ago as a race to utilize the new Wilson Chute for one-mile dirt races.
Randomized won it last year on her way to a victory in the Grade I Alabama.
Brown had nominated Ways and Means, an impressive allowance winner going a mile at Saratoga on June 6, to the Wilton, but said last week that he preferred to run a filly in the Wilton that he plans to stretch out in distance next time out. That’s Bells Beach (he’s aiming Ways and Means for the seven-furlong Test).
Bells Beach has raced just twice, breaking her maiden by 5 1/2 lengths at Churchill Downs on June 1.
At 5-2, she’s a slight favorite in the Wilton over Striker Has Dial and Miss Justify at 3-1.
Striker Has Dial actually was the runner-up to Ways and Means in that June 6 allowance, by 8 1/4 lengths.
Miss Justify, a daughter of 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify, won by 2 1/2 lengths at Churchill on June 1 while stretching out to a mile for the first time.