BC Distaff is Alabama winner Nest's fall objective
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Having established herself as the top 3-year-old filly in North America, Nest, dominant winner of Saturday’s Grade 1 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga, will take on older females in her remaining start or starts this year.
Nest trainer Todd Pletcher said the options for the daughter of Curlin are the Grade 2, $250,000 Beldame at Aqueduct on Oct. 9, the Grade 1, $600,000 Spinster at Keeneland the same day, or simply train up to the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff, also at Keeneland, on Nov. 5. Pletcher ruled out running Nest in the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion at Parx Racing for 3-year-old fillies because it would mean cutting her back to 1 1/16 miles.
Pletcher said there are no current plans to run Nest against males this year. Nest did run second against males in the Belmont Stakes.
“I think you just stay against your own gender and try to figure out which one makes the most sense,” Pletcher said. “She’s won at both Aqueduct and Keeneland and this certainly proves she’ll run over any surface.”
In April, Nest was the dominant 8 1/4-length winner of the Grade 1 Ashland.
On Saturday, Nest put forth her second dominant performance of the Saratoga meet with her 4 1/4-length victory over Secret Oath in the Alabama. After an awkward break, Nest, under Irad Ortiz Jr., obtained a stalking position outside of She’s Keen, then, when Secret Oath attempted to make a race of it at the quarter pole, Nest ran away in the stretch.
“Watching it live I couldn’t fully appreciate how quickly she accelerated off the turn there,” Pletcher said Sunday morning. “He kind of set her down, you could see her just cut and kind of did it one more time and then Irad took her in hand. I was impressed watching it live and even more so watching the replay.”
The win came four weeks after Nest won the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks by 12 1/4 lengths over Secret Oath, who had beaten Nest by two lengths in the Kentucky Oaks on May 5.
“To pull off the double - Coaching Club and Alabama four weeks apart - with two blowout performances, it can’t get much more impressive than that,” Pletcher said.
It was the third time Pletcher won the Coaching Club and the Alabama with the same horse when both races were held at Saratoga. Stopchargingmaria (2014) and Princess of Sylmar (2013) also did it, though neither one earned an Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old filly. In those years, a different 3-year-old filly - Untapable in 2014 and Beholder in 2013 - won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
Nest, a daughter of Curlin owned by Mike Repole, Aron Wellman’s Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Michael House, earned a 99 Beyer Speed Figure in the Alabama.
Pletcher was also pleased with the third-place finish by Goddess of Fire, a 22-1 shot, in the Alabama. Pletcher said Goddess of Fire would be considered for the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion at Parx Racing on Sept. 24.
Secret Oath will also be pointed to the Cotillion, said trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who added his filly was simply second-best on Saturday.
“She got outrun, that simple,” Lukas said. “That horse was better that day.”
Gerrymander, the Mother Goose winner, finished a disappointing fifth in the Alabama. Trainer Chad Brown was hoping for a different kind of trip than the one he got chasing She’s Keen, ridden by Jose Lezcano.
“She just didn't fire,” Brown said. “I would have liked to have seen her on the lead but it was a tricky decision, Lezcano seemed dead set on getting to the lead into the first turn. It just didn't work out."
Plans for Gerrymander were undetermined.
- additional reporting by Mike Welsch