Summer in Saratoga | Horse Racing Free Tips

Pegasus Filly & Mare Turf Could Lure Summer In Saratoga To Florida In Winter

Trainer Joe Sharp said he would like to run multiple stakes-winner Summer in Saratoga in the $500,000 Pegasus Filly & Mare Turf (G3) at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., on Jan. 29. He and co-owner Anderson Farms just want to make sure she fits.

“We're going to make a decision as it gets a little closer, but it's definitely under strong consideration,” Sharp said. “From what I'm gathering, it looks like her (handicapping) numbers will be pretty competitive in the Pegasus Filly & Mare Turf. As long as we're both comfortable taking a shot, that might be what we do.”

Summer in Saratoga was fresh off a victory for then-owner Highlander Training Center in Keeneland's Grade 3 Dowager Stakes when the mare was sold for $630,000 at Fasig-Tipton's November sale. Sharp figured that probably was the last time he'd see the daughter of 2007 Kentucky Derby runner-up Hard Spun. However, Anderson Farms owner David Anderson sent her back to Sharp. In her first and so far only start for her new owners, Summer in Saratoga won the $75,000 Blushing KD Stakes at the New Orleans Fair Grounds.

“Obviously you hope it would work out the way it did,” Sharp said of being able to keep Summer in Saratoga in his barn. “At that price range where she was expected to sell, most people would be purchasing her as a broodmare prospect. There was no guarantee you were going to get somebody who would want to continue to race her, let alone trust us to have her again. It really all came together nicely.”

Sharp had never before met David Anderson, who campaigns the now 6-year-old mare in the name of his farm in Ontario, Canada, and with Narola LLC. Success would come quickly, but not before facing a speed bump.

“We actually sent her up to New York,” Sharp said. “She got scratched in the paddock; she kind of sat down behind. So we brought her down to the Fair Grounds. She got herself back together and ran huge the other day. Corey (Lanerie, her regular jockey) happened to be in town. He knows her so well. It all worked out, basically first start for the new connections to get a win.”

Whether Summer in Saratoga races a full season or races a time or two before being bred would appear up to the 6-year-old mare.

“It's on a start-by-start basis, Sharp said. “From what I understood from Dave, as long as she's performing at a level that can add to her resume, then I think he's content to move forward with racing.”

Sharp has had Summer in Saratoga for all but her first two races. That span encompasses her seven victories, four coming in stakes – including in three of her last four starts.

“Honestly, this moment right now is probably my favorite version of Summer in Saratoga that I've been around,” he said. “There are probably a lot of different factors contributing to that, but mainly maturity. She has that being about her of a good horse that's very alpha and very confident. She makes my job easy.”

While Sharp's main winter base of the Fair Grounds has a series of turf stakes for fillies and mares, those purses don't come close to Pegasus Filly & Mare Turf's $500,000.

“The Fair Grounds series has been good to us over the years,” Sharp said. “But we get spoiled in the spring, summer and fall with the purse structure in Kentucky. So it's nice to have some big purse money to run for in January if you can be competitive. So we're grateful to Gulfstream for putting that on.”

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Bloodlines: A Summer In Saratoga Generations In The Making

Winner of the Grade 3 Dowager Stakes at Keeneland and a pair of other stakes this year, the 5-year-old Summer in Saratoga (by Hard Spun) is one of 86 stakes winners for her sire and is the eighth stakes winner of 10 mares going back in her direct female line going back to ninth dam Misty Isle (Sickle).

The dam of Summer in Saratoga is the Arch mare Love Theway Youare, winner of the G1 Vanity and second in the G1 Santa Margarita, and her dam is the stakes winner Diversa (Tabasco Cat). The line traces back to Ole Liz as the sixth dam.

Racing only at two, Ole Liz won six of her 12 starts, including the Bewitch at Keeneland, the Debutante at Churchill Downs, and the Lassie Trial at Arlington. In addition, Ole Liz ran second in the Arlington-Washington Lassie.

Ole Liz was bred by Joseph V. Tigani, who had purchased a colt named Double Jay (Balladier) and raced him with considerable success, having won six of 10 starts at 2 and being ranked as co-champion colt. Double Jay was never ranked quite so highly in subsequent seasons, but the colt was tough and brave and fast.

When Double Jay's trainer publicly bet other trainers at Churchill Downs that his colt would outrun the highly rated Education (Ariel) at every pole, one of the witnesses was A.B. “Bull” Hancock. He went to the races again the next day to watch Double Jay and Education in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, and Double Jay outran his competition at every pole and won the race. Hancock decided he needed to stand a horse like that.

So, when Tigani decided to send Double Jay to stud, Hancock wanted him for Claiborne, but the owner had raced the horse until he was six. That had rubbed off the luster of Double Jay's juvenile accomplishments, but Hancock managed to persuade Tigani to stand the horse without trying to syndicate him. When Double Jay hit immediately with juvenile champion Doubledogdare, the sire's fee went up to $5,000, and Tigani began having a really fine time as a breeder and owner.

As part of supporting his stallion, Tigani acquired stakes winner Islay Mist (Roman), who produced Ole Liz as her seventh foal in 1963. Once her racing career was over, Ole Liz put the ball out of the park with her first foal, Kittiwake (Sea-Bird), an eight-time stakes winner of very high class. Ole Liz then changed hands a couple of times before being acquired by John Gaines and Bunker Hunt, who bred successive stakes winners from the mare: Oilfield (Hail to Reason), winner of the G3 Knickerbocker and Brighton Beach Handicaps, and Beaconaire (Vaguely Noble), winner of a pair of listed stakes in France.

Both of those sold as yearlings through the Keeneland July yearling sale, the premier venue for select prospects at the time. Oilfield sold for $97,000, and the following year Beaconaire went rather higher, selling for $180,000.

In July 1981, Peggy Augustus attended to the sale with her mother, and “we bought Beaconaire for Jack Knight,” who married Augustus's mother. “He couldn't get to the sales,” Augustus continued, “so he told Mother to bid to a certain amount, and when she got to that point, said 'Oh, to hell with it. If he doesn't want her, I'll take her.' Then he ended up giving Beaconaire to my mother after the mare retired.”

In between, however, there was more to the story.

The following year, Augustus was in France to look at the young horses in training with John Fellows, and when a particularly unpromising youngster galloped past, she asked Fellows, “Tell me that isn't Beaconaire?” It was.

“Beaconaire had a terrible case of the slows,” Augustus said, “but she speeded up enough to win a couple stakes over in France.”

By the time the Vaguely Noble filly was three, she won the Prix du Nabob, and the following year, Beaconaire won the Prix des Tourelles.

Brought back to the States and bred to leading sire Lyphard (Northern Dancer), Beaconaire produced Sabin as her first foal. A chestnut of great elegance, Sabin went to the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale, where trainer Woody Stephens told Augustus that “she was so crooked that he didn't know how she'd stand training, but then she won a million dollars” and a dozen graded stakes for owner Henryk de Kwiatkowski, who had purchased the filly for $750,000 from Keswick Stables and Fourth Estate Stables.

Sabin was the top-selling yearling by Lyphard in 1981.

For de Kwiatkowski's Calumet Farm, Sabin produced a pair of stakes winners, as well as the winning Andora (Conquistador Cielo), and there are three dozen stakes horses so far from Andora's branch of the family alone.

With racemares like Summer in Saratoga, there inevitably will be more.

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Summer In Saratoga Shines In Dowager At Keeneland

After finishing seventh in the Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf Stakes over the Franklin, Ky., track's undulating course, Summer in Saratoga found much friendlier ground at Keeneland Race Course, taking the Grade 3 Dowager Stakes by a half-length.

Over a good turf course at the Lexington, Ky., track, the 5-year-old mare did not let a delayed start deter her in the 1 1/2-miles stakes. Under jockey Corey Lanerie, Summer in Saratoga broke cleanly and settled in toward the back of the field of 10. Eesha My Flower led the way, setting fractions of :23.80 for the first quarter, :48.93 for the half-mile, and 1:14.77 for six furlongs, an easy pace that allowed her to run on the lead around the far turn and into the stretch.

Lanerie angled Summer in Saratoga off the rail on the far turn and then angled her out again in early stretch, finding a clear running lane two paths off the rail as Eesha My Flower flattened out and gave way. Summer in Saratoga overtook her midstretch, getting out to a two-length length as Luck Money accelerated to her outside. Summer in Saratoga held on to win the G3 Dowager, with Luck Money and Micheline rounding out the top three.

The final time for the 1 1/2 miles was 2:30.02. Find this race's chart here.

Summer in Saratoga paid $12.80, $5.20, and $4.20. Luck Money paid $3.40 and $2.80. Micheline paid $5.20.

Bred in Kentucky by My Meadowview LLC, Summer in Saratoga is by Hard Spun out of the Arch mare Love Theway Youare, a Grade 1 stakes winner. Owned by Highlander Training Center, the 5-year-old mare is trained by Joe Sharp. Consigned by Denali Stud, she was purchased by Larry Hirsch for $165,000 at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Summer Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale. With her win in the G3 Dowager, Summer in Saratoga has three wins in six starts in 2021, for a lifetime record of six wins in 16 starts and career earnings of $479,572.

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Kentucky Downs Takes Entries, Draws Post Positions For Sept. 11 Graded Stakes Card

The fields are set for the summer's biggest day of turf racing, as entries were taken and post positions drawn Saturday for the FanDuel Meet at Kentucky Downs' blockbuster Sept. 11 card featuring five graded stakes at the Franklin, Ky., track.

The Super Saturday is the marquee attraction among six huge days of racing Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sept. 11 and 12. First post is 12:20 p.m. Central. All the races will be shown on TVG.

Purses for next Saturday's 11 races total $4,692,000, of which $2.2 million comes from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund for registered Kentucky-bred horses. That's the vast majority of the horses running, but even the base purse that everyone competes for reflects some of the richest pots in the country.

“The card is amazing,” said Kentucky Downs Vice President for Racing Ted Nicholson. “Hats off to our racing office.”

The headliners are the $1 million Grade 2 Calumet Turf Cup at 1 1/2 miles and the $1 million Grade 3 FanDuel Turf Sprint at six furlongs. Both are “Win and You're In” stops on the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series and will be televised live by NBC. The Turf Cup winner will get a fees-paid berth in the $4 million Longines Breeders' Cup Turf and the FanDuel winner the same in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif., on Nov. 6.

Donegal Racing's Arklow, the 2020 and 2018 Calumet Turf Cup winner, renews his rivalry with Michael Hui's 2019 victor Zulu Alpha, who was sidelined after last year's stakes and is 0 for 2 this year. Arklow would be the first three-time winner of the race. But they'll have to beat another Grade 1 winner in Channel Cat, returning to Kentucky Downs for the first time since he captured the 2018 Dueling Grounds Derby. He's owned by stakes sponsor Calumet Farm.

Arklow won Churchill Downs' Louisville Stakes and most recently was seventh in the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap, but beaten only 1 3/4 lengths for everything.

Mike Maker, a five-time meet-leader and Kentucky Downs' record-holder in career wins, has five of the 12 horses in the body of the Calumet Turf Cup, headed by Zulu Alpha. The others are Tide of the Sea, a Kentucky Downs winner last year and Gulfstream's Grade 3 McKnight this year; Ellis Park's Kentucky Downs TVG Preview winner Bluegrass Parkway; Grade 2 Belmont Gold Cup third-place finisher Ajourneytofreedom, and Glynn County, third in Arlington Park's Grade 1 Mr. D, the race formerly known as the Arlington Million. A sixth Maker entrant, Dynadrive, needs three scratches to get in the field.

Also in the field: Breakpoint, a triple Grade 1 winner in his native Chile, goes for his first U.S. win in three starts; Irish Group 3 winner Crossfirehurricane; Grade 1 United Nations runner-up Imperador and United Nations third Epic Bromance. Big Dreaming, second in last year's Dueling Grounds Derby, needs a defection to get in.

The FanDuel Turf Sprint brings back last year's top three finishers in Imprimis and the dead-heat runners-up Bombard and Front Run the Fed, who finished a neck behind the winner. But the favorite is likely to be boys-beater Got Stormy, winner of last year's Kentucky Downs Ladies Sprint over very soft turf in her first attempt at sprinting. Got Stormy is the only filly or mare to win Saratoga's Grade 1 Fourstardave, having done so in her last start and in 2019 after taking second last year. She has been second in three other Grade 1 starts against males, including in the 2019 Breeders' Cup Mile.

“We've never backed down from a challenge,” says Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse, who acknowledges his desire to pad Got Stormy's own Hall of Fame credentials.

Other challengers: Casa Creed, winner of Belmont's Grade 1 Jackpocket Jaipur at the six-furlong distance; multiple graded stakes-winner Diamond Oops; the blossoming Fast Boat, a past winner over the course who last out won Saratoga's Grade 3 Troy Stakes, and Born Great, who last year won a Kentucky Downs maiden and allowance race in the span of a week.

The Richard Baltas-trained Venetian Harbor ships in from California for the $600,000 The Mint Ladies Sprint. The 4-year-old filly has been worse than second only once in 10 starts. In two turf races, she was second in her debut and won Santa Anita's Grade 2 Monrovia.

Also in from the West Coast is the multiple stakes winner and graded stakes-placed Superstition for Hall of Famer Richard Mandella. John Sadler sends out Santa Anita stakes-winner Constantia in the overflow field of 14.

The beer will be flowing in Henderson if Yes It's Ginger prevails. There were so many people connected to Henderson beer distributor Mike “Hotdog” Utley, as well as the Brilliant Racing and Tagg Team Racing partnerships, that the winner's circle presentation had to move to the main track after “Ginger” prevailed in the Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Ladies Sprint, which gave her a free roll in this 6 1/2-furlong race.

The Casse-trained Jeanie B lost a Grade 2 stakes at Woodbine by a nose in her last start for owner CJ Thoroughbreds, whose managing partner Corey Johnsen was president and part-owner of Kentucky Downs before its sale to Ron Winchell and Marc Falcone.

Violenza enters the race off victory in a $100,000 turf sprint at Colonial Downs in her stakes debut for trainer Ian Wilkes and his son-in-law jockey Chris Landeros. The Maker-trained Jakarta has been off form but won a starter-allowance race here last year.

The $750,000 Kentucky Downs Ladies Mile is headlined by 5-for-6 Princess Grace, winner of three straight stakes capped by Del Mar's Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon. The Mike Stidham-trained Princess Grace shares the 126-pound high-weight with 2020 One Dreamer winner Dalika.

She'sonthewarpath, an eight-time winner out of 19 starts, is in peak form off of two stakes victories at Ellis Park. Florida trainer Saffie Joseph has the horse to catch in Shifty She, a two-time stakes-winner at Gulfstream and a good third in Saratoga's De La Rose won by 2020 Ladies Mile winner Regal Glory.

Summer in Saratoga, an allowance winner here last year for trainer Joe Sharp, won Indiana Grand's Indiana General Assembly Distaff in her last start.

With The Lir Jet, Qatar Racing will try to win the $600,000 Franklin-Simpson for the third straight year, and the first time with the stakes a Grade 2. Qatar Racing won last year's stakes with Guildsman, who like The Lir Jet is trained by Brendan Walsh, and in 2019 with the Doug O'Neill-trained Legends of War. The Lir Jet won Royal Ascot's Group 2 Norfolk as a 2-year-old but is winless since. He makes his debut both in the United States and as a gelding.

Sharing high weight status of 124 pounds with The Lir Jet is the Eddie Kenneally-trained Point Me By, winner of Arlington Park's Grade 1 Bruce D. Stakes (formerly the Secretariat).

The field of twelve 3-year-old stakes-winners, with three others on the also-eligible list, includes the filly Miss Amulet, a Group 2 winner in England and a close second in a Group 1. Other contenders in a talented field: Woodbine's Grade 3 Marine winner Easy Time; the Wesley Ward duo of Churchill Downs' War Chant winner Next and Ellis Park's Dade Park Dash victor Into the Sunrise, and American Derby winner Tango Tango Tango. Other stakes-winners are Bodenheimer, King of Miami, Omaha City, and County Final. Last year's Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint runner-up Fauci, also trained by Ward, needs a scratch to get in the field.

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