Beer: Saratoga horses to watch for week of Aug. 29
Strident
Trainer: Shug McGaughey
Last race: Aug. 27, 1st
Finish: 8th by 17
Beyer: 41
Distance-bred colt caught an alert break, but was outrun in his debut dominated on the front-end by an experienced rival. He was never asked for much run while just racing on through the stretch, and is eligible to offer a lot more with added distance downstate.
Oiseau de Guerre
Trainer: Chad Brown
Last Race: Aug. 28, 6th
Finish: 2nd by 3/4
Beyer: 67
Ran under a strong early hold before being let go and storming around horses to open a clear lead in the stretch, only to weaken in the late stages of promising debut. Well-connected colt has some pedigree to go along with an impressive stride, and is unlikely to remain a maiden for long.
Soglio
Trainer: H. Graham Motion
Last race: Aug. 29, 6th
Finish: 3rd by 1
Beyer: 66
Two-year-old colt has a huge pedigree for turf. He put in a nice stretch run from out of it to just miss second in debut, and continued on past the wire.
Cursor
Trainer: Mark Hennig
Last race: Aug. 28, 7th
Finish: 2nd by 1 3/4
Beyer: 72
Two-year-old filly from the family of Grade 1 winners Visionaire and Tara's Tango got outrun early in debut, and made a nice run through the turn and stretch to close the gap on the winner.