Saratoga Race Course Notes<\/p>\n
Mark Grier\u2019s\u00a0Evershed\u00a0will look to tally her third consecutive victory when making her stakes debut in Saturday\u2019s Grade 2, $500,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Oaks Invitational, a 1 3\/16-mile Mellon turf test for sophomore fillies, at Saratoga Race Course.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trained by Arnaud Delacour, the Irish-bred daughter of Churchill finished a flat fifth on debut sprinting 5 1\/2 furlongs in October at Laurel Park, but relished added ground when stretched out to one mile on December 7 at Tampa Bay Downs to graduate by one length after stalking the pace and pouncing to the lead in the stretch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only bad race she has is when we ran her short the first time, and that was just because we wanted to give her a race,\u201d Delacour explained. \u201cThat was obviously not her cup of tea, and she needs some distance. She has done everything right since, including coming back off a layoff to win. I couldn\u2019t be happier with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
A $369,665 purchase at the 2023 Arqana Deauville August Yearling Sale, Evershed is a half-sister to dual group\/graded stakes-winner Bayrir, who captured the 10-furlong Grade 1 Secretariat in 2012 at Arlington Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The bay filly was away from the races until July 9, but showed no signs of rust when trying 1 1\/16 miles for the first time and annexing a first-level allowance by 1 1\/2 lengths at Colonial Downs to ace her first test against winners. The effort was awarded a career-best 79 Beyer Speed Figure, and gave Delacour the impression that Evershed should be just fine with even more ground on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt remains to be seen, but the pedigree is a European pedigree, a good Aga Khan pedigree,\u201d Delacour said of the filly who is out of the winning Darshaan mare Balankiya. \u201cOn paper, it looks like they [horses from the family] want distance and can go a mile and a quarter or more, but we\u2019ll see how it sets up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a bit of a setback and had to miss the first part of the year, but I\u2019ve always thought very highly of her,\u201d Delacour added. \u201cI think it is a good spot to try her at a better level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evershed will emerge from post 4 with Dylan Davis in the irons, and Delacour said he will leave tactics in the capable hands of her multiple Grade 1-winning rider as the field of six likely features a lone-speed contender in Opulent Restraint from the inside post.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of pace on paper, and so far we\u2019ve been trying to get some cover with her stalking and then make one run,\u201d Delacour said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s going to be possible, but it\u2019s up to Dylan to see how fast they are going and try to adapt to the pace scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evershed returned to the work tab on July 24 over the all-weather surface at Fair Hill, posting a bullet half-mile in 48.60 seconds. She came back to work over the turf there on August 1 with a half-mile in 53 flat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think she needed much more than that,\u201d Delacour said of the turf move. \u201cI was happy because she had a really good work a couple weeks after the race, so I just wanted to go out there and let her enjoy herself and that\u2019s what she did.\u201d<\/p>\n
May Day Ready points to G2 Lake Placid<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s Grade 1 Breeders\u2019 Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf runner-up\u00a0May Day Ready, hailing from the barn of Joe Lee for KatieRich Stables, worked at Saratoga on Sunday, breezing four furlongs over the Oklahoma turf in 49.62 seconds. The Tapit bay, last seen finishing a four-length fourth in the nine-furlong Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational on July 5 here, will point to the Grade 2, $400,000 Lake Placid on August 23 at one-mile for sophomore fillies.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe went well,\u201d Lee said. \u201cI\u2019m really happy with how she looks and her work.<\/p>\n
“After discussing it [the Belmont Oaks] with Frankie [Dettori], we felt that she would prefer a mile or closer to it as opposed to something farther. I think having a couple more weather-dependent works, next Sunday and the Sunday after, could be very good for her, as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The $325,000 blue-blooded daughter Group 1 Coronation runner-up Nemoralia – who placed in her own Breeders\u2019 Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf in 2015 – looks to improve upon four consecutive losses and return to the form that saw her win on debut at Saratoga by a nose last August ahead of stakes victories in the Listed Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies and Keeneland\u2019s Grade 2 Jessamine. Her run in the Breeders\u2019 Cup was of considerable credit, as she finished one length in front of Nitrogen and 1 1\/2-lengths behind four-time top-flight winner Lake Victoria.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A bold, but ultimately failed, attempt at Group 1 company in Japan capped her juvenile season and a sealed-track last-of-three run behind an imperious Nitrogen in the Grade 3 Wonder Again on June 7 here kicked off her campaign before the recent Belmont Oaks run.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my opinion, I know how far along she was in her training because she didn\u2019t really get much out of that Wonder Again when they took it off the turf,\u201d Lee explained. \u201cIt was a mile race, and she ran for maybe five-eighths and came home the last quarter in 29 seconds just galloping easy home and not getting much out of that; more of a work than a race. Going into the Belmont Oaks, to only get beat four lengths and having what was really her first real race back in six months – that wasn\u2019t a bad run at all, especially against the two best turf fillies on this side of the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s pretty much the same inquisitive and smart filly who does everything right,\u201d Lee concluded. \u201cIt\u2019s always good when fillies are mentally are the same from two to three. Physically, she\u2019s grown somewhat. She\u2019s not a big type of filly like Nitrogen, but she has grown and filled out and I\u2019m pleased with how she\u2019s doing as she matures. Hopefully these couple weeks here will give us that time to get even better and we\u2019ll be in good shape.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
May Day Ready, bred in Kentucky by White Birch Farm, has banked in excess of $1 million via a 7-3-1-1 record.<\/p>\n
Ocean Club looks for another graded score in G2 Ballston Spa<\/p>\n
Glen Hill Farm\u2019s Kentucky homebred\u00a0Ocean Club\u00a0is among an evenly matched field in Friday\u2019s Grade 2, $300,000 Ballston Spa, a 1 1\/16-mile Mellon turf test for older fillies and mares, at Saratoga Race Course.<\/p>\n
Trained by Tom Proctor, the 5-year-old Curlin chestnut enters from a pacesetting score in the one-mile Grade 2 Nassau on June 28 at Woodbine Racetrack. There, she defeated Ready for Shirl by three-quarter-lengths, and that rival returned to win the Grade 2 Canadian at the same site.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Proctor said he was encouraged by the victory, but acknowledged that Ready for Shirl was 10th-of-11 early and faced some traffic trouble in the lane.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s alright, she\u2019s doing good,\u201d said Proctor. \u201cIt would have been better if she won by more [laughs]. We were lucky to beat that filly. That filly got into a lot of trouble when we ran against her. Not many people, when they win a race, notice the horses behind them \u2013 that filly got in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ocean Club also wired the one-mile Grade 3 Noble Damsel in September at Belmont at the Big A for trainer Jack Sisterson.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is hard to say,\u201d Proctor said of her early positioning. \u201cI hope she is on the lead at the wire. That is all that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ocean Club is out of the Proctor-trained stakes-winner and dual graded stakes-placed War Front mare Theatre Star, a half-sister to Grade 1-winning millionaire Taris, who produced graded stakes-winner King Fury.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has gotten better. I\u2019ve been around her the whole time. She is doing good,\u201d Proctor said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ocean Club boasts a 20-6-3-4 record with $607,446 in earnings. She has drawn post 7 in rein to Ricardo Santana, Jr. and is tabbed at 10-1 on the morning-line.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saratoga Race Course Notes Mark Grier\u2019s\u00a0Evershed\u00a0will look to tally her third consecutive victory when making her stakes debut…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-50818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}