6/19-20 (BEL): New York S. (G2); Mike Lee S.

[Linny]

This is a series that was swept once. FoF is 3 for 3 sprinting and is by a G1 route winning son of AP Indy o/o an Unbridled mare. I recall Unbridled Star as a pretty nice filly so like most of the Broman's NY breds, this one is very well bred to go a distance.
With the crop as shoddy as it is, it makes sense to take a shot in open company. If he were to sweep the Triple, it's worth about $250k. Running well (even without winning) in major events like the Jim Dandy and Travers will establish FoF near the top of the division. As Andy said, if he come up short in the Jim Dandy, the King's Bishop is a fallback option and hat is a serious "stallion makers" race. As a horse owned by the breeder (who also campaigned and, I think still owns the sire and dam) establishing this horse's level within his crop might be more important that sweping the Triple.
In a perfect world, I'd love to see FoF have a try at a 1 turn mile at Belmont or even a race like the 2 turn Long Branch at MTH, before the Jim Dandy, but they just don't run them like that any more.
I don't think that Kimmel is snubbing or "dissing" the NY program, but he's right, graded races are "bigger and better" than restricted stakes. He's got a colt he thinks is graded quality. If he were hiding him away in the statebred races everyone would be wailing about him not testing the colt.