US racing tips: Shane Ketteridge with two selections at Saratoga

Search Results
9.32pm Saratoga
1pt win

Epicenter
10.44pm Saratoga
2pts win

Saratoga's summer meeting is reaching its climax on Saturday as the New York-based track hosts the much-anticipated $1,250,000 Grade 1 Runhappy Travers Stakes, known as the 'midsummer Derby', the pinnacle on a fantastic card on the penultimate weekend of racing in Saratoga Springs.

This time last month I tipped a horse to win the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes at this course, and often used as a prep for the Travers, and that horse in question is Steve Asmussen's colt Epicenter, who came through that race with flying colours.

It was a prep, but a strong field went to post, two of whom reoppose here in Preakness winner Early Voting and Kentucky Derby third Zandon, but this son of Not This Time came from last to first to win easily under a hand ride from Joel Rosario, who knows him well.

Epicenter has some outstanding form in the book coming into this. Second-place finishes in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness came before that Jim Dandy win, and in all of his starts he has shown a lovely attitude and is versatile when it comes to tactics.

He is a colt of superstar potential who is improving all the time and has looked a million dollars in recent workouts at this course, and he can notch a first career Grade 1 to give Asmussen a first win in this race before a potential bid for the Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland in November.

A field of five high-class females are set to go to post for the $600,000 Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes in which there is a case to be made for any one to win on their best form, none more so than Search Results, who has yet to reach the ceiling of her capabilities.

This 1m1f contest on dirt will take some winning, but I have seen something in Search Results that leads me to believe she is thriving and can improve past Malathaat, who beat her in last year's Kentucky Oaks.

She showed a blistering turn of foot to put the field to bed at the top of the stretch in the Grade 3 Molly Pitcher at Monmouth Park last time out, and if she turns up in the same mood, she could be hard to stop.

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