Whether running on wet track or a fast surface, Patch Adams is the best 3-year-old stakes sprinter at Saratoga Race Course this summer.
After prevailing by 2 1/4 lengths over a muddy strip on Belmont Stakes day in the June 7 Woody Stephens Stakes (G1), CHC Inc. and WinStar Farm's Patch Adam scored a follow-up victory Aug. 23 over a dry Saratoga main track in notching a gritty nose victory over longshot Captain Cook in the $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes (G1). Both the Woody Stephens and H. Allen Jerkens were contested at seven furlongs.
Drawn inside in the field of eight, jockey Luis Saez allowed the rail draw to work to his mount's advantage, saving ground throughout from a stalking position. He kept tucked in a stalking position behind pace-setting Midland Money, who set fractions of :22.38, and :44.52, and when that rival drifted out in early stretch, Patch Adams received the opening he needed, and he surged inside. But a pace-pressing Captain Cook was still going strong, and had now taken over the lead from Midland Money with a six-furlong split timed in 1:08.61.
To his inside on the rail, Patch Adams, a bay 3-year-old son of Into Mischief trained by Brad Cox, doggedly wore him down, inching past in the final strides, timed in 1:21.61 for seven furlongs. By comparison, Hope Road ran the same distance in 1:21.93 a race later in capturing the Ballerina Stakes (G1) for older female sprinters.
Patch Adams paid $7 to win.
"Wow. He really put me right there, and we got lucky. We got the rail, we got through, and he fights so hard and he took us to the winner's circle," Saez said in a post-race interview with FOX Sports.
Saez won the H. Allen Jerkens Memorial for the second time after an initial victory aboard the Dale Romans-trained Promises Fulfilled in 2018. It was Cox's first H. Allen Jerkens victory
San Vicente Stakes (G2) winner Barnes, making his first start for trainer Bob Baffert since finishing fifth in the Santa Anita Derby (G1) in April, shook clear of traffic on the turn and finished evenly for third, 1 1/2 lengths behind the runner-up and two lengths ahead of late-running grade 1 winner Chancer McPatrick in fourth.
Patch Adams improved to 4-0-1 in five sprints. His only two off-the-board finishes came when he finished fourth in both the Jan. 25 Southwest Stakes (G3) and March 8 Tampa Bay Derby (G3)—two qualifying races at 1 1/16-mile routes on the Road to the Kentucky Derby.
"We thought he was a big-time horse—he is a big-time horse, a dual grade 1 winner now," Cox said. "We thought he was a horse that could pick off a Derby prep. It wasn't to be with the Southwest and the Tampa Bay Derby. We cut him back and he's responded really well."
Cox said Patch Adams would be pointed to a Breeders' Cup race Nov. 1 at Del Mar, either the $2 million Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) at six furlongs or the $1 million Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) around two turns.
Bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm out of the stakes-winning Distorted Humor mare Well Humored, Patch Adams adds yet another 2025 accomplishment for Spendthrift Farm's elite stallion Into Mischief. The leading sire in North America over the last six years, Into Mischief is again on top this year, his progeny earnings buoyed by the achievements of grade 1-winning 3-year-olds such as Sovereignty and Patch Adams. Into Mischief stood this past breeding season for $250,000.
Video: Personal Ensign S. (G1)
