Disposeablepleasure gets all the allowances and can’t be ruled out but she will do well to see off Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Filly winner Stephanie’s Kitten
Graeme North takes you through the best of Sunday's action in the second part of his weekend preview...
Sunday's main event at Saratoga is the G2 Woodford Reserve Lake Placid Stakes (16:55 local time, 21:55 BST) for three-year-old fillies over nine furlongs on the turf and, with a couple of G1 races open to the same horses the day before, it's no surprise it has attracted just six runners.
Leading trainer and jockey at Saratoga, Todd Pletcher and Ramon Dominguez respectively, team up with Timeform top-rated Disposeablepleasure. All her best form, however, which includes a second to Zo Impressive in the Mother Goose at Belmont in June, has been achieved on dirt and she could only finish fourth on her only turf start so far which was more than a year ago. Disposeablepleasure gets all the allowances and can't be ruled out but she will do well to see off Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Filly winner Stephanie's Kitten, who was unlucky to finish only fourth in the Lake George Stakes (a race contested by Irish 1000 Guineas winner Samitar) here last month.
Nearly all the protagonists that day take each other on again but that result shouldn't be taken at face value- there was plenty of trouble in running which the winner Centre Court and second Better Lucky avoided and Stephanie's Kitten and Somali Lemonade didn't, all on the back of an overly strong pace set by the previously progressive Medolina whose rider had a lapse of judgement.
Medolina is worth another chance given the deep impression she created in her previous win at Belmont given she is much more likely to get her own way in front this time, but the longer distance will be in Stephanie's Kitten and a repeat of her previous best will probably be good enough. An exacta boxing her and Medolina might be the smart play.
There is European interest at Woodbine on Sunday when Andreas Wohler's Scalo runs in the G2 Sky Classic (16:44, 21:44 BST) over a mile and a quarter. He settled the Gerling-Preis at Cologne last year with a good turn of foot, returning a Timeform rating of 120 in the process, but he has run only three times since and was some way below his best on his reappearance at Dortmund in June. At his best he'd take all the beating and Morning Line forecasts of 2.6 reflect that, but the claims of the reliable Smart Bid are just as convincing.
Graham Motion's six-year-old is a regular at the top level in States and finished ahead of the former Luca Cumani trained Forte Dei Marmi in the Colonial Turf Cup at Colonial Downs back in June. He didn't need to be at his best when landing a non-graded stakes event at Penn National last time and is going to be very hard to keep out of the first two.
Chokurei, who won four races for Clive Cox last year culminating in a Nottingham handicap off a BHA mark of 82, makes her first North American start in the Belle Mahone Stakes (15:39, 20:39 BST) but she looks to have a fair bit to find on ratings. Mike Maker's Juanita, who won the G2 La Troienne Stakes at Churchill Downs back in May, has 5lb in hand on Timeform's weight-adjusted figures but, though she has won on turf, she has never run on Tapeta and has shown all her best form on dirt. Second top-rated Moment of Majesty has won on the surface but her recent improvement has come on turf so all in all this is a tough race to call.
It's not often that Emerald Downs is on this column's radar but the Seattle venue plays host to the G3 Longacres Mile Handicap on Sunday. Several of the eleven runners have presumably been entered more in hope than expectation but a weight spread of 9lb helps bring the field together.
Top weight and veteran Awesome Gem was back to somewhere near his best last time on his first start this year on dirt when third in the Cornhusker at Prairie Meadows. That race, won by the subsequent G1 Whitney Handicap winner Fort Larned, is strong form in the context of this race but more important to Awesome Gem's chance is the prospect of a strong gallop- Fort Larned dictated the five-runner Cornhusker at a very slow tempo by dirt standards but three of the field in the Longacres has an average early position figure 90 or higher promising a very strongly-run race. That should be enough to make Awesome Gem's class tell, though Hudson Landing, who won here last time and was one place behind Awesome Gem in the G3 Berkeley Handicap at Golden Gates in May, is respected.
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