Lady Luck can be oh so fickle, especially at a racetrack.
Good fortune is well known to come, or go, with the snap of a finger.
And for much of the $485,000 Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) it looked like good luck had abruptly deserted trainer Todd Pletcher and owner Mike Repole.
Going into the Aug. 1 featured race at Saratoga Race Course, Pletcher had won four of the nine previous Saturday races at the Spa.
Repole owned three of those winners.
In the Jim Dandy, which Pletcher had won eight times in the past, they were teamed once again with Kentucky Derby (G1) runner-up Renegade, who was the close second choice in the 1 1/8-mile stakes for 3-year-olds.
Chalk up another win?
"I was worried. The last thing I wanted was to win three races and then lose the Jim Dandy," Repole said.
Well, on the backstretch of the Jim Dandy, which was billed as paceless, Renegade was 11 1/2 lengths behind Preakness Stakes (G1) third-place finisher Chip Honcho, who posted a comfortable :47.82 opening half-mile.
"The live odds on him were 10-1 then," Repole said about the colt he co-owns with breeders Robert and Lawana Low.
But as quickly as fate seemed to be on hiatus, it returned.
Showing the same strong closing kick he displayed while winning the Arkansas Derby (G1) and losing by a neck to Golden Tempo in the Run for the Roses, Renegade gobbled up ground with gusto in the stretch and notched a half-length victory over Commandment.
It reversed the finish of the Belmont Stakes (G1), when Commandment was second and Renegade was third behind the victorious Golden Tempo
"It's a relief," Repole said. "No one is going to feel sorry for Mike Repole. Losing the Derby the way he did. The Belmont was a disappointment. This is a big win. I felt joy for the first 10 or 15 minutes after the race but now that it's sunk in, it's a relief. The last 20 seconds of this race were special."
The Jim Dandy set up what promises to be a highly anticipated rematch in the Travers Stakes (G1) of Renegade and Golden Tempo, who Repole would have loved to see in the Jim Dandy field. Instead, the dual classic winner is training up to the Aug. 29 1 1/4-mile Midsummer Derby at the Spa.
"I was upset (Golden Tempo) wasn't here. The best 3-year-old in the country right now is Golden Tempo. How can I say he's not. So, of course, I wanted a shot at him here, but we'll get a shot at the Travers," Repole said.
For Pletcher, Renegade's win allowed him to notch a second five-win day at the Spa, duplicating his feat of Aug. 30, 2004.
"We kind of saved a bunch of them up for one day," the Hall of Fame trainer said.
It also whet his appetite for a showdown in the Travers.
"He's had a really good two months since the Belmont and hopefully we can have another good month until the Travers," Pletcher said.
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With just five starters and none of them speed mavens, the pace in the Jim Dandy was a prerace concern.
Chip Honcho took the early lead and led by a length early over Silent Tactic, who was making his first start since March 28 when he was second to Renegade in the Arkansas Derby. Wathnan Racing's grade 1 winner Commandment was tracking in third, 1 1/2 lengths behind, and then it was a long way back to Renegade and Irad Ortiz Jr.
"I was just concerned that he was so far back," Pletcher said, "but that was part of the strategy that Irad and I talked about. It was let him be him. Don't overthink the pace scenario. Don't take him out of his style. Let him do his thing. Hats off to Irad to have that much confidence in a horse to allow him to get that far back and ride him patiently."
Renegade was still 9 1/2 lengths behind after 6 furlongs in 1:12.30, then kicked into top gear in the stretch. Commandment had forged to the front over a game Silent Tactic at the eighth pole, but Renegade was only about 2 lengths back at that point.
As Renegade ($4.72) surged in the final furlong, favored Commandment tried to fend him off but had to settle for second by a half-length in 1:49.08 for the 1 1/8 miles on a fast track.
"It was a solid run," said Brad Cox, who trains Florida Derby winner (G1) Commandment, like Renegade a son of Into Mischief. "I'm very happy with the effort. He just came up a little short."
Cox was noncommittal about the Travers, saying the shorter Pennsylvania Derby (G1) could also be an option.
John Oxley's Silent Tactic, a son of Tacitus trained by Mark Casse, was 2 lengths behind Commandment in third.
Renegade, out of the Curlin mare Spice Is Nice, was bought by Repole for $975,000 out of the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment at the 2024 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Repole then worked out a deal with the Lows which allowed them to retain a share of their homebred colt.
