Renegade Wins, Commandment Places, Silent Tactic Shows

Finally, with a clear shot at the line under Irad Ortiz, Jr., and no rugby scrums to wrestle through at the break or along the way, Renegade made his redemptive victory over Commandant in Saturday’s $500,000 Jim Dandy look rather easy. At post time the track money was still somehow in love with Commandant at 1-1, even money, who placed, and not especially remarkably so. In the race’s only rather moderate surprise, Silent Tactic finished somewhat brightly in show, leaving Jose Ortiz and Chip Honcho to digest the fact that they finished fourth. As expected, Asked and Answered brought up the rear.

The victory in the Travers prep augurs well for the colt in the big race at the end of August, but his big bright run brought a solid measure of redemption to trainer Todd Pletcher, who had, with superhuman patience, delivered pretty much constant explanations to an insistent press over the two months since the Belmont that Renegade had actually, in fact, had a very rough go in both his Triple Crown races but still managed to deliver quite an heroic Belmont effort that put him in show. It was a bad race for him, but not a bad race, was the trainer’s point, and that was proven at Saratoga this afternoon. Not least, Pletcher’s quite detailed conditioning over the two months paid off, and Renegade delivered a superb performance.

With the odds as tight and low as they were for the favorites, the payouts were predictably dismal: Renegade paid $4.72 on a $2 bet; Commandant, heading out of the gate at even money, paid a bleak $2.46 in place; and Silent Tactic paid $2.74 on a $2 show bet. There was only moderate relief in the exotics: a $1 exacta paid $4.72, and a $0.50 trifecta paid a flat $10.00.

The victory brought a measure of redemption to the equine athlete as well, chalking up another win against his chief rival Commandant. The Travers awaits them both with open arms. There are plenty of works to put in over the next four weeks, but at the moment, with this performance, the embattled Renegade retains the edge.