The options for Lord Miles , a 3-year-old colt trained by Saffie Joseph Jr. were this:
Stay at Saratoga Race Course, where he has been stabled, and run in the $500,000 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial (G1) Aug. 26, Travers Day.
Or ship 6 1/2 hours to Hollywood Casino At Charles Town Races in West Virginia and run in the $350,000 Robert Hilton Memorial.
Both races are seven furlongs.
Joseph has decided he is going to ship Lord Miles to West Virginia and he’ll make the 6 1/2 hour drive to watch the horse run.
“This seemed like a better spot, to give him a chance,” Joseph said outside his barn on the Saratoga backstretch Aug. 23. “The race here is super tough. The race here would do more for him because it’s a grade 1, but the chances of him winning are very slim to none. It will still be a tough race there, but we think he will be more competitive…”
Lord Miles, a son of Curlin , is owned by Vegso Racing Stable, which also bred the colt.
He has only won one race this year, but Lord Miles made a loud statement when he did it. On April 8, he won the Wood Memorial Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct Race Track, at odds of 59-1, beating Hit Show by a nose.
The horse was being pointed to the Kentucky Derby (G1) but was scratched a few days before the race after the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and Churchill Downs refused to allow horses trained by Joseph to run. That came after two of Joseph’s horses died in the first few days of the Churchill meet.
Joseph was reinstated by Churchill Downs two months later following an investigation by the KHRC and the release of necropsy reports of the two horses that died. Those reports found no conclusive causes into the deaths,
Lord Miles has run twice since the Wood, finishing fourth in the Ohio Derby (G3) and sixth in the West Virginia Derby (G3). Lord Miles has two wins in seven career starts.
Joseph said he plans on traveling back to Saratoga following the races at Charles Town and estimates he’ll arrive around 5 a.m. ET Aug. 26.
“I have a driver,” he said. “If he wins, I won’t sleep. If he loses, I will definitely sleep.”
Joseph said that Lord Miles will be ridden by California-based jockey Tiago Josue Pereira.
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