Now that Kingsbarns has thrown himself into contention in a seemingly wide-open older male dirt division, his connections will have some decisions to make as to how to proceed with the second half of the 4-year-old’s campaign. Following his sharp 2 1/2-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 1 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs, Kingsbarns was scheduled to return on Tuesday to his summer base of Saratoga, where he will train toward another likely lucrative Grade 1 opportunity. At Saratoga, there is the $1 million Whitney on Aug. 3 and the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup on Sept. 1. The Whitney is run at 1 1/8 miles, the Jockey Club at 1 1/4 miles. The latter could be used as a stepping-stone to the Breeders’ Cup Classic to be run on Nov. 2 at Del Mar. Kingsbarns earned a fees-paid berth in the Breeders' Cup Classic with Saturday's Stephen Foster victory. “I’ll talk to the guys at Spendthrift,” Pletcher said, referring to Spendthrift Farm, which owns Kingsbarns, “and come up with a plan. I think he’s the kind of horse that runs well fresh. One scenario could be the Jockey Club and Breeders’ Cup.” :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. The Stephen Foster gave Kingsbarns the Grade 1 victory his resume was lacking. At 3, he won the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby and earlier this year the Grade 3 Ben Ali at Keeneland. His lone loss this year from four starts was a runner-up finish to Pyrenees in the Pimlico Special. Kingsbarns defeated Pyrenees in the Stephen Foster. “The Pimlico Special was kind of an odd race,” Pletcher said. “The fractions were a little slow. Luis [Saez[ might have learned a little something about how he wants to be ridden. He maybe held him up a little too much that day. I think that’s why at the quarter pole [in the Foster] he had momentum and he kind of blew the race open.” Kingsbarns has six wins and two seconds from nine starts. The off-the-board finish was a 14th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby where he got caught up in a speed duel. His only race after the Derby at 3 was a runner-up finish in the Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park, where he was beaten a neck. In subsequent training towards the Haskell, Kingsbarns didn’t show Pletcher what the trainer needed to see, so the decision was made to stop on him. “He’s made a nice progression from 3 to 4,” Pletcher said. “He’s always been a good-looking horse. He’s held his condition a little better, strengthened.” While Pletcher said it has no bearing on where Kingsbarns runs next, Pletcher does have Bright Future pointing to the Whitney. Bright Future won last year’s Jockey Club Gold Cup before finishing sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Bright Future came off a seven-month layoff to win the Grade 3 Salvator Mile at Monmouth on June 15. Meanwhile, Pletcher will be represented in Friday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Brooklyn Stakes at Aqueduct with Crupi, who will take on Next, last year’s Brooklyn winner. Crupi is coming off a victory in the Grade 2 Suburban at Saratoga on June 8. Hall of Fame or Secretariat next for Neat Neat and Deterministic are likely to go their separate ways following their one-two finish in Saturday’s Grade 3, $242,500 Manila Stakes at Aqueduct. Neat, who won the Manilla by three-quarters of a length, will likely remain at the one-mile distance for his next start with the Grade 2, $500,000 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame on Aug. 2 at Saratoga or the Grade 2, $500,000 Secretariat at Colonial Downs on Aug. 10 among the likely options. “We’ll nominate to both and see how he’s doing,” trainer Rob Atras said. Atras was pleased with how Neat came out of the Manila, a race for which he earned an 86 Beyer Speed Figure. “He’s a good doer, he ate up everything, he jogged sound this morning, those are things you look for right away, right?” Atras said. Atras indicated Neat might not be limited to a mile later on. “I talked to Junior [Alvarado] and he said he knew [Deterministic] was coming but he said even on the gallop-out he had horse,” Atras said. “He said he wasn’t looking for the wire.” Meanwhile, trainer Christophe Clement said he wasn’t disappointed in Deterministic’s second-place finish as the favorite in the Manila, his first start on turf. Clement said he would definitely look to run the horse beyond a mile in his next start, though where and when that would be are to be determined. Saratoga has the Grade 1, $600,000 Saratoga Derby at 1 3/16-miles on Aug. 2 and Colonial hosts the Grade 2, $500,000 Virginia Derby at 1 1/8 miles, but not until Sept. 7. “It was a good race first time on the surface,” Clement said. “We got plenty of major races going long, we’re in good shape. There’s no doubt he wants to go farther the way he finished and galloped out.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.