Freshly minted Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher sends GI Belmont Oaks Invitational S. runner-up Con Lima (Commissioner) to target the GIII Saratoga Oaks Invitational S., the middle jewel of NYRA's Turf Tiara Series and upgraded in its third edition this year to graded status. At 1 3/16 miles, Sunday's Saratoga Oaks is just a hair shorter than the July 10 Belmont Oaks, in which Con Lima led but yielded in the final strides to Santa Barbara (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), who hailed from the powerful Aidan O'Brien barn with Group 1 form just two weeks prior in Ireland.
Coming off consecutive victories in Belmont's June 3 GIII Wonder Again S. and Gulfstream's May 1 Honey Ryder S. prior to the Belmont Oaks, Con Lima has the highest Beyer–89–of the American runners in the field. Her record stands at a stellar 11 first- or second-place finishes from 12 starts for her ownership group–Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Joseph F. Graffeo, Eric Nikolaus Del Toro, and Troy Johnson–but she's up against a couple of formidable Europeans in this spot.
Creative Flair (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) hails from the Charlie Appleby stable with three wins from her last five starts. After consecutive mile scores and a mile listed stakes placing in England, she stretched out to 10 furlongs and promptly notched her first stakes win. She shortened up to nine furlongs for the G3 Prix Chloe in France, getting run down at the end for a third. The Godolphin homebred gets Mike Smith in the irons to share morning-line favoritism with Con Lima. Godolphin won this race last year with Antoinette (Hard Spun).
Peter Brant's Rocky Sky (Ire) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}) has done little wrong, never off the board in four starts in Ireland and now makes her first appearance since a 1 1/4-mile win in a listed event Apr 25. She makes her American debut for new trainer Chad Brown, who has a stunning record with European imports on the stateside lawn.
Lightly raced Higher Truth (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) is Brown's other runner here and has improved with every race. A second-out maiden win in April gave way to an allowance victory in June. She parlayed those two victories into a nose third behind Con Lima in her first stakes try in the Belmont Oaks.
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