Ballston Spa field stacked with talent

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The Grade 2 Ballston Spa on Saturday at Saratoga is a bit light on numbers but that doesn't make it an easy race.

The six-horse field includes four graded winners, including Grade 1 winner Centre Court.

Dayatthespa, winner of the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Keeneland, was scratched Saturday morning and will instead race in the Yaddo Stakes for New York-breds on Sunday. Nellie Cashman is cross-entered in the Grade 3 Violet at Monmouth Park, but trainer Francis Abbott III said she would run in the Ballston Spa.

The turf course was listed as good for the beginning of Saturday's Travers Day card.

Of the others, Strathnaver missed winning the Grade 1 Just a Game by a nose at Belmont Park in June and Nellie Cashman is an almost-Grade 2 winner, having crossed the wire first by a nose in last summer's Lake Placid only to be disqualified.

The horse with the most upside, however, has never started in a graded race. Filimbi, a 4-year-old Juddmonte Farms Kentucky-homebred, began her career in France but has made her last three starts in the United States with trainer Bill Mott.

In reality, the $250,000 Ballston Spa will not be a class jump for Filimbi, who has won five of her last seven starts. In her U.S. debut, she finished second to Somali Lemonade in a third-level allowance race at Keeneland in April. Somali Lemonade has come back to win the Grade 3 Gallorette at Pimlico and the Grade 1 Diana here at Saratoga.

Following a third-level optional-claiming win at Belmont Park, Filimbi finished strongly to defeat Dayatthespa in the De La Rose Stakes, which was restricted to nonwinners of a graded stakes in 2014.

Mott is pointing Filimbi for the Grade 1 First Lady at Keeneland on Oct. 4 and selected the Ballston Spa as an intermediate step rather than wait for the Grade 3 Noble Damsel at Belmont on Sept. 13.

"She will be running back on three weeks' rest Saturday but she is doing well," Mott said. "We were also considering the Noble Damsel but there are three weeks between that race and the First Lady. This is a shorter type of field, and if she runs well and earns her ticket it gives her a little more time before the First Lady."

Key contenders

Filimbi (101-89-88)

* Filimbi has drawn post 7. She has had the outside post in her last two starts, both wins.

* Filimbi's De La Rose Beyer Speed Figure of 101 is highest in the field. Centre Court is second at 99, a figure she earned in April 2013.

Centre Court (90-92-94)

* Centre Court, 7for 17 in her career, has had two three-race winning streaks, the first from May to July 2012 (her 3-year-old season), and the other from November 2012 to April 2013. She is 1 for her last 6.

* Centre Court runs well fresh and trainer Rusty Arnold spaces her races accordingly. She has won the last two runnings of the Grade 2 Honey Fox at Gulfstream Park off layoffs of seven months (2013) and four months (2012) The Ballston Spa will be Centre Court's first start since May 3.

Strathnaver (92-98-93)

* Strathnaver was forced to race wide on both turns when sixth, beaten 2 1/4 lengths, in her last start, the Grade 1 Diana.