Abel Tasman no certainty to return for Alabama Stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Abel Tasman, the winner of Sunday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Coaching Club American Oaks, shipped back to Southern California on Monday. Whether she returns to Saratoga for the Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama here on Aug. 19 will be determined at a later date.

Abel Tasman has already shipped three times this year and posted Grade 1 victories in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs, the Acorn at Belmont, and the Coaching Club, which she won by a head over Elate.

“We’ll play it by ear, see how she is,” Bob Baffert, the trainer of Abel Tasman, said Sunday from California. “I want to have a fresh horse for the Breeders’ Cup. If she’s doing really well, I’ll do it. These horses, you run them when they’re doing well.”

:: Christmas in July! Take 20% off PPs, Clocker Reports, and more

It was not Baffert’s initial intention to run Abel Tasman in the Coaching Club, but she was doing so well following the Acorn that he called an audible and shipped her across the country. In the race, jockey Mike Smith called an audible when he sensed a slow early pace and sent Abel Tasman to the lead with 5 1/2 furlongs to go in the 1 1/8-mile race. She put away the pace-prompting Summer Luck and then held off a determined Elate.

Smith tightened things up on Elate and jockey Jose Ortiz in the stretch, prompting Ortiz to lodge an objection and the stewards to light the inquiry sign. After several reviews of the replay, the stewards made no change in the order of finish.

Abel Tasman, the clear leader of the 3-year-old filly division, earned a 92 Beyer Speed Figure.

Abel Tasman resided in John Terranova’s barn while at Saratoga, and Terranova said the filly appeared to come out of the race in good shape.

“She looks great,” Terranova said Monday. “She was bouncing and playing this morning.”

Bill Mott, the trainer of Elate, felt the stewards could have gone either way in their decision. Regardless, he was happy with his filly’s performance and said he’s looking forward to the Alabama, whether or not Abel Tasman is in the starting gate.

“I think she ran a super race,” Mott said. “That’s the filly we thought we had when we started out. I thought when we started out this spring, she was more of an Alabama-type filly than a Kentucky Oaks filly. I said that in January and February, and it looks like she’s coming around at the right time. If our filly’s doing good, we’ll be raring to go.”

Mott said Elate stepped on herself when she stumbled soon after the start. He doesn’t think it will impact her preparation for the Alabama.