STAKES ANALYSIS Bolton is short on experience, long on talent
By Jeff Scott SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » The field for Wednesday’s feature, the $100,000 Bolton Landing Stakes for two-year-old fillies, is of course short on experience. Still, it does include a horse who raced at Royal Ascot, two others with stakes experience and three entrants with recent successful debuts. The Bolton Landing is run at 5½ furlongs on the Mellon Turf course.
Sly Beauty is the 3-1 morning-line favorite. The Woodbine shipper, a Debby Oxley homebred daughter of Into Mischief, came up short in her opening effort on the Woodbine polytrack. She ran back on turf at six furlongs on June 18, winning going away by 4½ lengths.
Mentality (7-2) looked good in her career debut, going gate to wire at six furlongs on the Belmont turf. The New York-bred daughter of Freud was a $40,000 purchase at last year’s Fasig-Tipton NY-bred Preferred Sale.
Sugar Queen (4-1) has been up and down during her brief three-race career. After breaking her maiden on dirt at Belmont on May 3, she faded to fourth in the Astoria Stakes five weeks later. Most recently, she romped in an off-the-turf allowance here on July 24. The Bolton Landing will be the Gemologist filly’s first start on turf.
Buy Sell Hold (5-1) won her first two starts in Kentucky – including the ungraded Kentucky Juvenile Stakes – but faded badly in the Grade 3 Schuylerville here on opening day. Those three races were all on the main track. The Bolton Landing will be Buy Hold’s first go on turf.
Fairyland (5-1) broke her maiden at first asking (at 4½ furlongs on dirt) at Keeneland back on April 7. Thrown to the wolves in the Group 3 Albany Stakes at Ascot, the daughter of Scat Sell Daddy – who otherwise had a big meet at Ascot this year – finished 12th. Wesley Ward trains for Coolmore connections.
March X Press (8-1) runs back in 14 days after a successful debut here, where she came from nearly 10 lengths back to get up by a neck in a $73k maiden special weight. The daughter of first-crop sire Shanghai Bobby races for Golconda Stables.
Lifetime Citizen (12-1) and Madame X. (10-1) complete the field.