Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Salty, Abel Tasman do it again
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Salty already has lost twice to Abel Tasman in Grade 1 races this year, and she will try again when the two 3-year-old fillies head a seven-horse field for Sunday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga.
Salty will have some company in the starting gate from her own barn as trainer Mark Casse and owner Gary Barber supplemented Summer Luck and Corporate Queen to the 1 1/8-mile race, which serves as a stepping-stone to the Grade 1 Alabama on Aug. 19.
Salty finished fifth to Abel Tasman in the Kentucky Oaks, beaten four lengths. Abel Tasman overcame post 13 to win the Oaks, but Salty could not overcome post 14, encountering some traffic trouble.
“I took the Oaks and threw it out,” Casse said. “We had the same high opinion of Salty after the Oaks as we did before it.”
The two met again last month in the Grade 1 Acorn, where Abel Tasman again rallied from last, this time making an inside move under Mike Smith while Salty went four wide. Abel Tasman beat Salty by one length.
“The Acorn was won by Mike Smith,” Casse said. “I can remember watching the race. I was watching for Abel Tasman, saying, ‘Where is she? Where is she?’ And all at once, she went from last to first. While we were going around, Mike ducked in. We went from being in front of her to chasing her.”
Abel Tasman drew post 2, while Salty will break from post 7.
Summer Luck and Corporate Queen will be longshots in the race. Summer Luck is coming off a third-place finish in the Regret Stakes on turf. Corporate Queen was third in the Black-Eyed Susan. Both have won only a maiden race.
Of Summer Luck, Casse said: “She’s probably not good enough to beat Abel Tasman or Salty, but as we know, Saratoga is the graveyard – anything’s possible. Even American Pharoah got beat here.”
Daddys Lil Darling, second in the Kentucky Oaks, returns to dirt after finishing fourth in the Belmont Oaks on turf. Elate is coming off a minor stakes win at Delaware. Berned, fifth in the Delaware Oaks, completes the field.
Jamyson ‘n Ginger targets Test
Jamyson ‘n Ginger, recently purchased by Juddmonte Farms and transferred to trainer Chad Brown, did not enter the Coaching Club American Oaks and instead will aim to the Grade 1 Test at seven furlongs on Aug. 5.
Brown said he thought the Oaks was too tough a field, and at least right now, Jamyson ‘n Ginger might be better off racing around one turn.
“I’m still getting to know her,” Brown said. “She seems to have run both one turn and two turns well, but maybe I give her a little preference when I watch her one-turn races.”
Brown is also planning to run Your Love in the Test. Your Love, a half-sister to Economic Model, has won both of her starts.
Weekend Hideaway works
After winning the Commentator Stakes at Belmont Park for the second straight year, the hard-knocking 7-year-old Weekend Hideaway is ready to kick off the Saratoga session the same way he did last summer, in the 6 1/2-furlong John Morrissey for New York-breds next Thursday.
Weekend Hideaway, fourth as the favorite in the 2016 Morrissey, prepped for the race by breezing five furlongs over the main track in 1:00.87 here Thursday. The work was compromised a bit when the siren indicating that a horse had been injured on the track sounded shortly after the drill began.
“The Morrissey looks like a good return spot for him here again, rather than a race like the Vanderbilt,” trainer Phil Serpe said. “If he wins this race, then I’d be encouraged to come back and run in the Forego or the Vosburgh later on at Belmont like we did last year.”
Weekend Hideaway finished third last fall in the Grade 1 Vosburgh.
“He’s a remarkable horse,” said Serpe. “We were a little cautious with him today because of the siren going off while he was breezing. But he still throws bullets all the time in the morning, and he’s made $1 million. He’s the kind of horse people dream about having.”
◗ Richard Migliore, who left his position as a racing analyst for the New York Racing Association two weeks ago, has been hired as the East Coast correspondent for XBTV, an online horse racing network owned and operated by The Stronach Group.
◗ There is a general membership meeting of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association at the track Tuesday at noon behind the recreation hall on Union Avenue. A barbecue lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m. Those wishing to attend should RSVP at (516) 488-2337 or e-mail abelifiore@nytha.com.