Trainer Jim Ryerson said he knows that Miss Marissa is facing the biggest challenge of her career in Saturday's Grade 1, $600,000 Personal Ensign Presented by Lia Infiniti for older fillies and mares at Saratoga, yet he's optimistic that she will give a good accounting of herself.
“The race is very, very tough. There couldn't be a tougher filly and mare race anywhere,” Ryerson said of the nine-furlong test stacked with nine multiple stakes winners and three Grade 1 winners. “But we're here to participate. This race is so tough, but she deserves a chance to run with these and we'll see what happens.”
The Personal Ensign field includes three-time Grade 1 winner and reigning Champion 3-Year-Old Filly Swiss Skydiver, who beat the boys in last year's Grade 1 Preakness and took the Grade 1 Alabama on this track last year; Letruska, who won the Grade 1 Apple Blossom, the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps, and the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis in her last three outings; and Harvey's Lil Goil, the 2020 winner of the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on the grass. Add dual Grade 2 winner As Time Goes By, whom Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert is so confident in that he sent her here from Southern California, to the mix.
That lineup is mighty fearsome but Miss Marissa, whom Alphonso Cammarota bought for the bargain price of $11,000 as a yearling, might have a surprise in store. She's done it before.
Sent off at 10-1, she was a neck winner over Bonny South in the 2020 Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan in October. She outran her odds again last time out when she took the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap on July 10 and Bonny South disappointed as the odds-on favorite with a fifth place finish. Incidentally, the Brad Cox-trained, Grade 3 winning Bonny South is also entered in Saturday's Personal Ensign.
“Marissa jumped up those times in those Grade 2s. Absolutely,” her trainer said. “She's been very consistent over the last year and done very well running two turns.”
What is also beneficial to this filly is her familiarity with her Saratoga surroundings and her affinity for the racing strip. In a pair of Saratoga starts she finished first in an optional claiming allowance race at nine furlongs in August 2020 and was the runner-up in a maiden special weight race in 2019.
“She ran good on this track and won that allowance race on this track last year. That race she ran here last year was her coming out party. She really improved in terms of her speed and her ability to run a mile-and-an-eighth, and that race propelled her into the Black-Eyed Susan,” Ryerson said. “I think that she has grown up both physically and mentally this year. She's more relaxed, she's put on weight, she's grown. She's matured like you would want a filly to move from three to four. I think that's why you see those two efforts since we stopped her in January and gave her a freshening. Those were real solid efforts and she's going in the right direction. Whether she's good enough, we'll find out on Saturday.”
The Personal Ensign is a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff at Del Mar in November. Ryerson last had a Breeders' Cup runner when multiple graded stakes winner Park Avenue Ball competed in the 2007 Dirt Mile. He is best known as the trainer of 1995 Breeders' Cup Juvenile with Unbridled's Song, who also captured the Grade 1 1996 Florida Derby.
“When you're lucky enough to have a nice horse, they make things different for you and for the whole crew. Everybody gets excited. This is some important stuff,” said Ryerson.
Daniel Centeno has been Miss Marissa's partner for the wins in the Black-Eyed Susan and the Delaware Handicap and Ryerson will leg him up again on Saturday.
“Daniel has done great with her and they team up well. We're sticking with him. He deserves this chance and Marissa deserves this chance,” he said.
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