Personal Ensign S. | Horse Racing Free Tips

After Skipping Shuvee, Secret Oath Returns In Personal Ensign

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY — Never shy about being a promoter, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas did not have to use his best pitch as he looked ahead to the GI Personal Ensign S. on Aug. 25 where he will saddle Secret Oath (Arrogate).

Always an important race that draws the top older dirt fillies and mares, the $500,000 Personal Ensign will once again have a strong lineup on Friday. Champion Nest (Curlin) and Clairiere (Curlin), who ran 1-2 in the GII Shuvee S. on July 23 are the obvious headliners. In addition to Secret Oath, the field could include Juddmonte's GII Delaware H. winner Idiomatic (Curlin). Three-time graded stakes winner Search Results (Flatter), the runner-up last year by a half-length to champion Malathaat (Curlin), was also nominated.

“This will be a Breeders' Cup prep. That's what this is,” Lukas said. “This may be the best race of the year up here.”

The field will be without one standout, Rigney Racing's Played Hard (Into Mischief). Trainer Phillip Bauer said Friday that she will skip the Personal Ensign. The GI La Troienne S. winner spiked a fever in July that caused her to miss the Shuvee, had a breeze interrupted when a rider on another horse was unseated and is not quite ready to return to top-caliber competition.

Lukas, 87, is anxious to run Secret Oath in the Personal Ensign. She opened her 4-year-old season with three strong races. She beat Clairiere by 2 3/4 lengths in the GII Azeri S., but Clairiere reversed the finish by a neck in the GI Apple Blossom H. Played Hard edged Secret Oath by a neck in the La Troienne.

In her fourth outing of the season, Secret Oath was a well-beaten fifth of six behind Clairiere and Search Results in the GI Ogden Phipps S. on June 10 at Belmont Park. Lukas said the filly's owners, Stacy and Robert Mitchell, wanted to pass on the Shuvee and have her ready for the Personal Ensign, the GI Juddmonte Spinster S. on Oct. 8 at Keeneland and the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.

Secret Oath, winner of the 2022 GI Kentucky Oaks, has been in Saratoga with Lukas throughout the meet and has breezed four times on the Oklahoma training track.

“She's doing everything right and working lights out,” he said. “But there's nothing like racing to keep them sharp.”

During the 76 days between starts, Lukas has made a point of giving her aggressive works. She turned in a bullet five furlongs in :59 flat (1/14) on Aug. 12 and will work again early Sunday morning. He was she was good, but laid back, so he is trying to tune her up.

“She has trained and put on weight and gotten a lot more relaxed mentally,” he said. “That kind of happens when you give them those long breaks. She's had an eight-week break, maybe even more, but she's really doing everything right. I'm hoping that she'll wake up.”

To that end, Lukas worked her five furlongs in 1:00.45 on Aug. 3, sent her out for a circuit of the track doing a two-minute lick on Aug. 7 and followed up with the bullet breeze. He will continue with that approach Sunday morning.

“I will let her work,” Lukas said. “They say, 'I just want a maintenance work.' I'll go :59, :58. That will be fine with me. I want a sharp one.”

Secret Oath was scheduled to be sold at auction last November, but Lukas encouraged the Mitchells to withdraw her and keep her in training this year. He argued that she could earn quite a lot of purse money and probably enhance her value. She has earned $576,350 this year, pushing her career total to $2,344,767 from 17 starts.

At Saratoga last summer, Nest easily handled Secret Oath in the GI Coaching Club American Oaks and the GI Alabama S., which sent her to the 3-year-old filly Eclipse Award. Lukas said that Secret Oath has improved in the last 12 months.

“She's stronger and bigger and she should run better,” he said. “Let me put it this way, I think this race will be good for her, really good, but the next one will be a lot better. I really feel like once she gets this one under her belt, she will be really tough in the Spinster.”

Bauer said he had to scuttle the plan to run Played Hard in the Shuvee and the Personal Ensign.

“We decided after a five-eighths drill the week before that we had really lost too much fitness with the time that she got sick,” he said. “We went back and forth on it, but basically landed on, if we're going to take on this type we better not have any reservations about it. We're just going to turn the page to the [Sept. 16 GIII] Locust Grove, which she won last year at Churchill. She's probably a work away from the Personal Ensign, which we may have achieved if the first work off the time off would have gone to plan. Everything kind of blew up on us for both of the races up here.”

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Malathaat Back on Top in Star-Studded Personal Ensign

Shadwell Stable's 'TDN Rising Star' Malathaat (Curlin) had settled for second to re-opposing Clairiere (Curlin) in both the GI Ogden Phipps S. downstate June 11 and local GII Shuvee S. July 24, but she got rolling in the Saratoga stretch Saturday to blow past the talented tandem of Search Results (Flatter) and Letruska (Super Saver) and post a half-length victory over the former in the GI Personal Ensign S. Clairiere, the 8-5 favorite, acted up in the gate then lagged far back while seemingly not herself.

Having bested Search Results by a neck in last year's GI Longines Kentucky Oaks, Malathaat–a $1,050,000 KEESEP yearling–was narrowly upset in her next start, the track-and-trip GI Coaching Club American Oaks that July. She atoned a month later when defeating Clairiere in the GI Alabama S., and was a close third (a head better than Clairiere) in November's GI Breeders' Cup Distaff at Del Mar, which featured a meltdown pace that did in champion older mare Letruska.

Crowned champion 3-year-old filly at the Eclipse Awards, Malathaat resurfaced to take Keeneland's GIII Doubledogdare S. Apr. 22 before her back-to-back rematches with fellow Stonestreet-bred Clairiere.

Let go as the 16-5 fourth choice in this field of five, Malathaat had only Clairiere beat early as Letruska showed the way with Search Results prompting through sensible splits. Malathaat snuck up the fence under Hall of Famer John Velazquez to take over third from Crazy Beautiful (Liam's Map) down the backside, but seemed out-footed slightly by the top two as they entered the stretch. Velazquez steered Malathaat out into the clear as Search Results headed Letruska, and the hulking Malathaat built up a full head of steam by midstretch to reel in Search Results like she had in last year's Oaks.

“It was very, very nice to see her come back to prove how good a horse she really is,” said Velazquez, who on Thursday became the first rider to reach 1,000 Saratoga wins. “We know she's a good horse. It's hard to tell why she was so dull last time. But today, I just made sure that she was in the game and she showed it. When I pulled her out at the three-sixteenths pole and asked her, she was in the game… Riding good horses is what keeps you coming back. I'm blessed to have this opportunity and to still be doing this.”

Pletcher, who was celebrating his third Personal Ensign victory, said, “It's all about seeing her perform to her capabilities and with all due respect to the rest of the field, we always feel like when she shows up and runs her A-race, that she's the top 4-year-old filly in the country and I think she showed that today.

“I was glad that Search Results was at least keeping some pace but one of my concerns going in was the potential to not be a good pace set up and we've added the blinkers (before the Shuvee) more to keep her more focused than to add more speed and just let her run her race. I thought Johnny rode a super race.”

As for Clairiere's head-scratching performance, jockey Joel Rosario said, “She broke well and then they were kind of getting away from me. She took a long time today to find her stride. She was still coming in the end. She was acting with a little energy [in the gate] and sometimes those things happen. She jumped up a couple times but she was OK. It was not her day, I guess.”

Saturday, Saratoga
PERSONAL ENSIGN S.-GI, $558,000, Saratoga, 8-27, 4yo/up, f/m, 1 1/8m, 1:48.30, ft.
1–MALATHAAT, 124, f, 4, by Curlin
                1st Dam: Dreaming of Julia (GISW, $874,500), by A.P. Indy
                2nd Dam: Dream Rush, by Wild Rush
                3rd Dam: Turbo Dream, by Unbridled
($1,050,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-Shadwell Stable; B-Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC (KY); T-Todd A. Pletcher; J-John R. Velazquez. $320,000. Lifetime Record: Ch. 3-year-old filly,12-8-3-1, $2,378,825. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Search Results, 122, f, 4, by Flatter
                1st Dam: Co Cola (GSP), by Candy Ride (Arg)
                2nd Dam: Yong Musician, by Yonaguska
                3rd Dam: Alljazz, by Stop the Music
($310,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-Klaravich Stables, Inc.; B-Machmer Hall (KY); T-Chad C. Brown. $112,000.
3–Letruska, 124, m, 6, by Super Saver
                1st Dam: Magic Appeal (GSP), by Successful Appeal
                2nd Dam: Call Her Magic, by Caller I. D.
                3rd Dam: Malibu Magic, by Encino
O/B-St. George Stables, LLC (KY); T-Fausto Gutierrez. $60,000.
Margins: HF, 2, 6. Odds: 3.20, 3.10, 2.40.
Also Ran: Crazy Beautiful, Clairiere.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPshttp://www.equineline.com/tdn/pedigree.cfm?tk=SAR&cy=USA&rd=09/07/2015&rn=9&de=D &ref=9104432. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

Pedigree Notes:

Malathaat is one of 90 stakes winner and 48 graded winners for her sire, who was represented earlier on the card by new Grade I winner Cody's Wish in the Forego S. She is bred identically to stablemate Nest (Curlin), who looks a lock to provide her sire and trainer with a second consecutive champion 3-year-old filly trophy.

Malathaat was the most expensive yearling filly by Curlin in 2019 (co-fifth among both sexes), and the market certainly hasn't cooled off on the Hill 'n' Dale resident since then. A $600,000 Curlin colt topped the Fasig-Tipton July sale, and he had three fetch seven figures earlier this month across the street, including a $2-million filly bred on the same cross. Curlin's next two highest sellers at that Fasig auction were out of daughters by A.P. Indy sons.

Malathaat's dam annexed the 2012 GI Frizette S. and earned a gaudy 114 Beyer when airing by 21 3/4 lengths in the 2013 GII Gulfstream Park Oaks. The daughter of MGISW Dream Rush has a 2-year-old full-sister named Julia Shining who last breezed up in Saratoga last Friday. Next in the pipeline is a Medaglia d'Oro filly, followed by another Curlin filly foaled Apr. 4. Dreaming of Julia was bred to Into Mischief for 2023.

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Runhappy Travers Tops Super Saturday at the Spa

The GI Runhappy Travers S. is one of the summer's most highly anticipated events and for the past several years it has been the centerpiece of a Super Saturday card at Saratoga that serves as a Breeders' Cup preview. The Travers is one of five star-studded Grade Is on the 14-race card, which also includes the GII Ballston Spa S. for turf fillies.

Intriguing storylines abound in this year's eight-horse renewal of the summer centerpiece for sophomore colts, which is topped by GII Jim Dandy S. winner Epicenter (Not This Time). The GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness S. runner-up looks to provide Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen with his first Travers and add another bullet point to his hot young sire's resume.

“I love the race that he ran over this racetrack. I like him at a mile and a quarter,” Asmussen said. “Nothing but respect for some extremely good 3-year-olds, but I think we have the right one.”

Chad Brown's best previous Travers finish was third with Miles D (Curlin) in last year's renewal. He saddles three this year in Preakness winner Early Voting (Gun Runner); GI Toyota Blue Grass S. winner and Jim Dandy runner-up Zandon (Upstart); and impressive Curlin S. winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Artorius (Arrogate).

“The only reason I'm in this profession is from coming to Saratoga with my family as a kid,” Brown said. “It doesn't get any bigger than that, to win the jewel of their meet and the history surrounding the race. Coming to the Travers with my parents when I was knee-high is the only reason I'm here in the first place.”

Artorius is the lightest-raced horse in the field, but his late sire had just two more starts under his belt, and none in stakes company, when he powered home to a record-setting 13 1/2-length victory in this event in 2016. The last Travers winner to sire a Travers winner was 2004 victor Birdstone, who is responsible for 2009 scorer Summer Bird.

“The horse brought himself here since we got him to his debut at Keeneland,” Brown said. “Moving forward, he's always worked right on schedule, and he's done everything that we've asked him to do. He's been stretching out nicely and his first two-turn race was impressive, his best race. I have a lot of optimism that horse will be able to carry another eighth of a mile.”

Brad Cox captured last year's Travers with champion Essential Quality (Tapit) and looks to take the elusive GI Haskell Inviational S./Travers double this year with Cyberknife (Gun Runner). His phenomenal young sire could only manage third behind Arrogate in the 2016 Travers, but proved 10 furlongs was well within his wheel house when taking the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

The feel-good story of the year could add another chapter Saturday as Kentucky Derby upsetter Rich Strike (Keen Ice) looks to rebound from a sixth-place finish in the GI Belmont S. Saturday at the Spa.

Jackie and Jack Headline Grade I Sprints

The first Grade I of the day should set the mood quite nicely as champion Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) looks to take his Saratoga record to six-for-six in the GI Forego S. The fleet-footed bay is four-for-four this year, including a sizzling last-out score in this venue's GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. July 30.

“He's immortal,” Asmussen said. “He's the only racehorse ever to win a Grade I three years in a row at Saratoga. The only horse, ever, at Saratoga.”

None of the other six competitors even come close to being able to run with the Eclipse winner on paper, but GIII Westchester S. romper Cody's Wish (Curlin) appears best of the rest.

Just 117 minutes later sophomore sprinters get their turn, but once again it looks like a one-horse affair with the presence of 'TDN Rising Star' Jack Christopher (Munnings). The speedy chestnut suffered his first loss when attempting two turns for the first time last out in the Haskell. Undefeated around one turn, including a 10-length demolition of the GI Woody Stephens S., the chestnut will be just about impossible to catch at his best.

“I thought the horse ran great in the Haskell. He ran a fast three-quarters in 1:09 and change and he fought on nicely,” Brown said. “He just didn't have quite enough late, but I thought it was a really good race. The horse has never disappointed me in a race. I'm happy to cut him back on a track that I know he likes. I hope he gets a good, clean break.”

He is joined by GII Amsterdam S. one-two Gunite (Gun Runner), winner of the GI Hopeful S. last term, and the chalk's stablemate Accretive (Practical Joke).

Short, But Sweet Personal Ensign

Clairiere | Sarah Andrew

Four of the five runners from Belmont's June 11 GI Ogden Phipps S., including regular rivals Malathaat (Curlin) and Clairiere (Curlin) face off yet again in a five-horse renewal of the GI Personal Ensign S.

Clairiere has come out on top in her last two meetings with champion and GI Kentucky Oaks winner Malathaat, edging her by a head in the Phipps and besting her in this venue's GII Shuvee S. July 24. Her dam Cavorting closed out her career with a decisive score in the 2016 Personal Ensign.

“She's racing royalty and she's in great form,” Asmussen said. “She's capable. It's within her and she continues to get better. I expect another huge race against great mares in the Personal Ensign. Letruska and Malathaat are as good as race mares can be.”

Champion Letruska (Super Saver) looks to defend her title in this event. While she was well beaten by her younger foes when folding her tent in the Shuvee, the bay did triumph over Clairiere earlier this season in the Apr. 23 GI Apple Blossom H. at Oaklawn.

GIII Molly Pitcher S. winner and Phipps third Search Results (Flatter) and Shuvee third Crazy Beautiful (Liam's Map) round out the quintet.

BC Qualifiers Coast-to-Coast

Rounding out Saturday's Grade I action at Saratoga is the Sword Dancer S., a “Win and You're In” for the GI Breeders' Cup Turf S. at Keeneland in November. When Aidan O'Brien ships one in, it's a horse worth paying attention to and he saddles Group 1 winner Broome (Ire) (Australia {GB}) here. Winning the G2 Hardwicke S. at Royal Ascot June 18, he wheeled back just five days late to be fourth in the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S.

Gufo (Declaration of War) adds blinkers for this title defense and Chad Brown saddles three–Adhamo (Ire) (Intello {Ger}), Rockemperor (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}) and Tribhuvan (Fr) (Toronado {Ire})–in search of his fourth win in this event.

The West Coast also plays host to a Breeders' Cup qualifier in the GII Pat O'Brien S., which grants the winner a spot in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile starting gate. Bill Mott makes the journey to Del Mar with an imposing contender in GI Carter H. winner Speaker's Corner (Street Sense), who hit the board behind the country's top two racehorses, Flightline (Tapit) and Life Is Good (Into Mischief), in his last two outings.

His biggest competition here comes from GI Bing Crosby S. and GII Triple Bend S. winner American Theorem (American Pharoah).

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Gutierrez Retains Full Confidence In Letruska

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – By trainer Fausto Gutierrez's calculation, a clunker every once in a while surely does not tarnish champion Letruska (Super Saver)'s glittering string of accomplishments.

When last seen in competition, the 6-year-old mare was running last as the 3-5 favorite in the GI Ogden Phipps S. June 11 at Belmont Park. As usual, she set the pace, but on that afternoon could not finish and was passed by the four others in the field. Gutierrez said that Letruska wasn't herself that afternoon, possibly a nervous reaction to shipping from Kentucky.

“She had a bad race at New York, on Belmont Day,” he said. “But I think this is part of the game.”

Letruska returned to Saratoga this week to see if she can win the GI Personal Ensign S. for the second consecutive year. Two horses have won the race twice: Politely in 1967-68 and Beautiful Pleasure in 1999-2000. She handled the Personal Ensign challenge in 2021, edging Bonny South (Munnings) by a half-length. It was the fourth of five straight graded-stakes victories that carried her to the Eclipse Award for the older female dirt division. Gutierrez said she looks good to him for the nine-furlong race.

“She has come in in very good form and I think she's ready to show it,” he said. “I'm very happy how she's trained and [she] is ready to go.”

Letruska's championship season of six wins and a second in eight starts with earnings of $1.9 million ended with a distant 10th in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff. That day at Del Mar, she hooked up in a speed duel with Private Mission (Into Mischief) through brutally fast fractions of 21.84, 44.97 and 1:09.70. The Japanese mare Marche Lorraine (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) was the lucky beneficiary and held off Dunbar Road (Quality Road) by a nose at 49-1. Private Mission was the only horse Letruska beat that day.

“With that that kind of rhythm or pace for the race, of course, it would help if she's in the middle,” Gutierrez said, noting that horses that go that fast early in a 1 1/8-mile race aren't typically in contention at the end.

“When you are a trainer, you see how it started and you are just waiting for the fractions,” he said. “When you see :21, :22 you know that the race is finished for you.”

Letruska started the 2022 season on Feb. 26 at Gulfstream Park and led from gate to wire in the GIII Royal Delta S. by three lengths. She followed that success with a 1 1/4-length win over Clairiere (Curlin) in the GI Apple Blossom H. Apr. 22 at Oaklawn Park. The Phipps, which she won handily in 2021, was her next start.

“We need to remember to she has been five years in a row running. We have two, three, four, five and now six,” Gutierrez said. “Before the Belmont race, she had one of the most spectacular races that she's had, the second Apple Blossom she won in a row. Big numbers with I think the second- or third-fastest time in the history for the Apple Blossom. And after we had a bad race.”

Gutierrez said that he and his crew noticed that she didn't seem herself in the days leading up to the Phipps.

“She's a very temperamental horse. She's very special,” he said. “And when we arrived to Belmont, she was a little bit [depressed]. It's complicated sometimes to scratch a horse like her. It's not an excuse, but when you live with a horse five years in a row you know when it's not the same horse you know. Something like this happens. I repeat, it is not an excuse. The fractions for that race, the quality for the horses to run in these is the high level and she's a horse who wins and has lost races. That day we had a bad start. Like when you are a pitcher in baseball and one day in the second inning you go out. But you won 19 games before.”

Gutierrez smiled as he used the baseball analogy. He was referring to Letruska's career record of 19 wins in 26 starts.

Since the Phipps, Letruska has worked seven times at Churchill Downs. Four of the breezes were the fastest of the day at the distance. In Friday, she breezed a half-mile in :48, the third- fastest of 107 works that morning.

Gutierrez said that Letruska traveled well from Kentucky and that jockey Gabriel Lagunes, who has ridden her in training this week, told him she is a different horse from the one he was up in June at Belmont Park. Gutierrez said the St. George Stable homebred is ready for the Personal Ensign, which he acknowledged is another stiff assignment.

“She hasn't had an easy race in the last two years,” Gutierrez said. “She just runs [in graded stakes] and races where she is the focus. We run with the most high-quality horses: Clairiere, Malathaat (Curlin), Search Results (Flatter). Any one that wants to run in that group is a tough horse.”

Gutierrez said that he likes Letruska's chances in the $600,000 Personal Ensign. She drew the rail in the field of five.

“I do I have the feeling and the perception that we can see again the same Letruska,” he said. “She has a lot of people who follow her and like her form, that she fights every single race.”

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