TDN's Senior Racing Editor Steve Sherack reveals a pair of selections for the first Saturday of the Saratoga meeting.
Race 1, Msw, $136k, 2yo, 5 1/2f, post time: 1:10 p.m. ET
There's every chance that National Treasure (Quality Road)'s half-brother and rail-drawn 4-5 morning-line favorite Pirate (Omaha Beach) turns out to be a complete monster, but I'll be taking a shot against him with fellow firster Special Element (Copper Bullet).
There's plenty of precocity in Special Element's pedigree. His freshman sire Copper Bullet, winner of the 2017 GII Saratoga Special S., is off and running with three winners and his dam It's High Time (Gone Astray) was a runaway 2-year-old spring winner at Gulfstream (and subsequent stakes winner) and her first foal Fourteeneightyfour (Straight Fire) also romped at first asking at two at Delaware.
Special Element brought $260,000 from Pin Oak Stud after a powerful-looking :10 breeze at OBS April. Hall of Famer Bill Mott's debuting 2-year-olds have come out firing so far at this meet with the very impressive debut winner Sugar Hi (Twirling Candy) on opening day and runner-up Book of Wisdom (Solomini) on Friday. Selection: #4 Special Element (7-2).
Race 3, Msw, $136k, 3yo/up, f/m, 1 1/16mT, 2:16 p.m. ET
Vanished (Speightstown) has run well enough to win in both of her prior efforts as the beaten favorite, including a debut second over the Churchill lawn May 13, and will be awfully tough to catch as the controlling speed in this big field beneath Luis Saez over the inner turf course. Her multiple stakes winning dam Elusive Pearl (Medaglia d'Oro) won the Riskaverse S. over the Saratoga lawn in 2011. Selection: #5 Vanished (3-1).
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