Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Serengeti Empress will get heat in Ballerina
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Looking over the past performances for Saturday’s $300,000 Ballerina at Saratoga and one fact jumps off the page – all the speed that has signed on for the Grade 1 dash for older fillies and mares.
Nobody knows that more than trainer Tom Amoss, whose 122-pound highweight, Serengeti Empress, has had her most success when on the lead, as was the case when she captured the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks. Or his colleague Shug McGaughey, whose late-running Pink Sands figures to be a major beneficiary should a contested pace develop, as expected, in the seven-furlong Ballerina.
A field of seven was drawn for the Ballerina, a group that includes defending champion Come Dancing and three-time Grade 1 winner Bellafina. Florida invaders Cookie Dough and Letruska, both blessed with plenty of early foot themselves, and Victim of Love, winner of the Grade 3 Vagrancy Handicap earlier this summer at Belmont Park, complete the lineup.
Amoss faces a double-edged sword with Serengeti Empress, who not only figures to find herself dogged on the front end from the outset, but must overcome the dreaded inside draw, breaking from the rail with her nemesis Cookie Dough leaving directly to her outside.
“Obviously, the post is not ideal. We were hoping for an outside draw and the ability to use her best weapon, which is her speed, while at the same time not being committed to the lead, which is possible,” Amoss said. “Now it’s a whole different ballgame. From the inside you can’t take a chance losing your position and getting in behind horses. That would not be ideal for her. So we have to go and use as much horse as we have to, just to get that spot.”
But Amoss is heartened by the fact Serengeti Empress ran one of the best races of her career here a year ago when second in the Test behind Covfefe, despite setting a contentious pace after breaking from the rail that day as well.
“Arguably, the Test was her best race ever,” Amoss said. “Seven furlongs is her distance, and she’s really thrived up here. She’s doing great. Winning this race won’t be easy, but certainly it’s not an impossible task.”
On the opposite side of the coin, McGaughey is hoping for as much pace as possible to develop in front of Pink Sands, who rallied from last to win both the Grade 3 Rampart going a mile and the Grade 2 Inside Information at seven furlongs this winter at Gulfstream Park.
She missed 4 1/2 months, due primarily to the COVID-19 pandemic, before returning to finish a disappointing fifth in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps in her most recent start.
“I was going to Keeneland with her to run her in the Madison, but we missed that and then there was nowhere to run,” McGaughey said. “Just throw her last race out. She ran terrible, I don’t know why. I gave her some time off after that, and she seems to be fresh and good now. It is a short field with a lot of speed, and the owners are anxious to try to make her a Grade 1 winner. That’s why we’re in here Saturday. She worked awfully well here the other day, although I’d like to have another work in her. I just hope she’s not a work short.”
Come Dancing also should appreciate a contentious pace, having rallied from fourth in a five-horse field to a convincing 3 1/2-length decision as the 3-5 favorite in the 2019 Ballerina. She has started just four times since and is exiting a secondplace finish as the 4-5 choice behind Victim of Love in the Vagrancy.
Bellafina, who figures to race well placed herself from the second flight, returns to Saratoga hoping to make amends for her third-place finish as the tepid favorite in last year’s Test. She stretches out to seven furlongs for the first time this year, a distance at which she’s never been off the board in five starts, including her secondplace finish behind Covfefe in the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.