Kupuna fresh and ready for Listed Bernard Baruch
Grade 3-placed Kupuna returns from a more than six-month layoff in Thursday’s Listed $200,000 Bernard Baruch, a 1 1/16-mile Mellon turf route for 3-year-olds and up, at Saratoga Race Course.
Trained by Norm Casse for Jay Provenzano’s Flying P Stable, the 7-year-old Hard Spun gelding was haltered for $100,000 out of a fourth-place finish on dirt in September 2025 at Churchill Downs. He hit the board in four subsequent turf starts, including an optional-claiming win against a salty field of graded-stakes regulars in November at Churchill before shipping to Fair Grounds Race Course for a runner-up try in the Listed Buddy Diliberto Memorial in December and a deep-closing score over well-regarded Lagynos in the Listed Colonel E. R. Bradley in January.
Kupuna was last seen finishing a wide-rallying 2 3/4-length third – a half-length back of Listed stakes-winner Montador - in the nine-furlong Grade 3 Fair Grounds on February 14, which was won by Lagynos, who exited that effort to win four consecutive stakes.
“If he had been able to tuck in a little bit and save any type of ground or was more forwardly placed and got to drop in that way, maybe things could have played out differently,” Casse said. “But he also didn't run as well as we were hoping regardless and that's when Jay decided he wanted to give him a little break.”
Kupuna made his first 26 starts, all but one on the main track, for trainer Bret Calhoun, topped by a score in the 2024 Evangeline Mile.
Casse said the claim of Kupuna has been a fortuitous one for the team.
“The price was right on him - he's a high-level, useful horse. It was a four-way shake that day and we were lucky enough to win the shake,” Casse said. “Honestly, the idea was that he would be a nice older-horse division type horse at Oaklawn, but we went back in his PPs and saw he did have one start on the turf that was sneaky good.
“Another lucky happenstance for us is the only race he was eligible to run in at Churchill after we claimed him was a turf race,” Casse added. “He won that race impressively and ran really well for us this winter on the turf at Fair Grounds.”
Kupuna returned to the work tab in June at Churchill and has breezed regularly at Saratoga since July 26 when he covered a half-mile over the Oklahoma training turf in 49 seconds flat. He worked a sharp half-mile in 48 flat August 2 over the Oklahoma training turf in company with Rothschild, who subsequently won an optional-claimer here over the inner turf to provide jockey Luis Saez his 4,000th career win.
“Ever since we got him back from the farm and got him up to Saratoga and worked him on the grass, he's been doing really well,” Casse said. “He needed a little bit of a break after Fair Grounds, and this seemed like an ideal spot for him to come back.”
Ricardo Santana, Jr., who guided Rhyme Schemes to victory in the 2023 Grade 2 Saratoga Special for Casse, will have the call from post 2. However, Casse did tip his cap to Saez, a regular pilot for his barn, who rode Pretty Birdie to victory here for him in the 2021 Grade 3 Schuylerville.
“Luis Saez is a world-class rider and an even better human being. To be a small part of that was really cool,” Casse said of the 4,000 win milestone. “That was a big moment for him personally, and we were happy to be a part of it.”
Casse has quietly enjoyed a successful summer at the Spa, posting a 6-2-1-0 record.
“We didn't have the same type of numbers to come up there this summer, so it was very strategic the horses that we sent,” Casse said. “They were well meant when we sent them and that's really the way you have to approach Saratoga anyways.”
Kupuna is out of the winning Malibu Moon mare Hanalei Hailey, a half-sister to multiple stakes-winner Exaggerated. He has banked $713,278 through a 30-7-9-4 ledger.
Five-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown will have three chances in 2024 Baruch-winner Running Bee [post 5, Dylan Davis], Grade 1-winner Salamis [post 4, Flavien Prat] and stakes-debuting Risk Tolerance [post 7, Manny Franco] to notch his third Baruch score, having also previously won with Emaraaty [2022].
Calumet Farm’s Running Bee returned from a more than one-year layoff last out to finish a nose second to Air Recruit in the 1 1/16-mile Oceanport on August 8 at Monmouth Park. The 7-year-old English Channel horse had last been seen finishing a 1 1/2-length fifth to his victorious New York-bred stablemate Spirit of St Louis in the Grade 1 Turf Classic in May 2025 at Churchill.
Running Bee is 2-for-2 on the Spa turf, including a third-out graduation in August 2022 and a stalking 1 1/2-length score over returning rival Taking Candy in the 2024 running of the Baruch. The consistent bay boasts an 18-8-4-1 ledger for $806,093 in purse earnings topped by Grade 3 scores in the 2024 Monmouth in a dead-heat with returning foe Fort Washington and last year’s Tampa Bay at their namesake tracks.
Juddmonte’s Kentucky homebred Salamis capped last year’s 3-for-5 campaign with a rallying neck win in the nine-furlong Grade 1 Hollywood Derby in November at Del Mar, adding to a victory in the Gio Ponti that September at Belmont at the Big A.
The 4-year-old Speightstown colt has made two starts here this year, including a fourth in the Grade 3 Poker in June and a neck win in a nine-furlong optional-claimer last out on July 23.
Salamis is out of the Brown-trained Juddmonte color-bearer Antonoe, a daughter of First Defence who captured the Grade 1 Just a Game in 2017 at Belmont Park. Antonoe also produced the dual Grade 1-winning Ghostzapper filly Segesta for these same connections.
Klaravich Stables’ Risk Tolerance steps into stakes company for the first time from a rallying three-quarter length allowance win traveling one-mile over firm footing on August 6 here.
The 5-year-old Kingman horse, who has banked $183,393 through an 8-3-3-0 ledger, is out of the Pivotal mare Loving Things – a half-sister to the Brown-trained Grade 2-winner Serve the King.
Magic Cap Stables’ Fort Washington [post 1, Junior Alvardo] is a five-time graded stakes-winner, who broke through in Grade 1 company in last year’s Arlington Million at Colonial Downs.
Trained by Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, the 7-year-old War Front horse arrives from a troubled fifth in his Arlington Million title defense on August 1 where he stumbled at the start and landed 3 3/4-lengths back of the victorious Burnham Square.
Fort Washington [34-8-3-8, $1,594,316] has made five starts this campaign with his lone on-the-board effort coming in a successful title defense in the Grade 3 Dinner Party in May at Laurel Park.
Pin Oak Stud’s Pass the Hat [post 3, John Velazquez] has made his last two starts at one-mile in Grade 3 company here, taking the Poker by a nose over recent optional-claiming winning stablemate Capitol Hill on June 7 during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival and following last out with a two-length third behind dead-heat winners Zulu Kingdom and the New York-bred Mi Bago in the Kelso on July 5.
Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, the 5-year-old Collected horse also began his career on the main track before making a permanent shift to turf in January at Gulfstream Park when a three-quarter length fourth in an optional-claimer.
Bred in Kentucky by Bobby Flay, Pass the Hat, out of the Mizzen Mast mare Veronique, is a half-sister to stakes-winner Nashville.
Lael Stables’ Taking Candy [post 8, Jose Lezcano] ran second in this event in 2024 when 1 1/2-lengths back of Running Bee.
Trained by Cherie DeVaux, the 6-year-old Twirling Candy gelding has won a pair of optional-claiming events here along with a runner-up try in the 2023 Grade 3 Saranac in five turf starts at the Spa. He won the Grade 3 Fair Grounds last February as part of a five-start campaign that included a three-quarter length second to Brilliant Berti in the Grade 2 Wise Dan at Churchill.
Taking Candy, a half-brother to Grade 3-placed Rascality and stakes-placed Salty Senorita, is out of the Trappe Shot mare Taking Aim – a half-sister to 2012 Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Tapizar. Taking Candy will race as a first-time gelding.
Rounding out a solid field is Uncle’s Gold [post 6, Javier Castellano], a last-out second to multiple Grade 1-winning multimillionaire Program Trading in the Grade 2 United Nations on July 18 at Monmouth Park for trainer Michael Trombetta. Yo Daddy and Bank Frenzy are entered for the main-track only.
The Bernard Baruch is slated as Race 9 on Thursday’s 10-race card. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern.
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