Clean start helps Leader of the Band sweep by Summer Colony leaders

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Leader of the Band may have run her best race last month when she finished second to Search Results in the Grade 3 Molly Pitcher at Monmouth Park.

Friday, with no horse the caliber of Search Results in the starting gate, Leader of the Band replicated her previous effort and this time it was good enough to win the $135,000 Summer Colony Stakes at Saratoga by three-quarters of a length. First to Act, part of the pace along with Envoutante, finished second by 3 3/4 lengths over Envountate.

Bonny South and Army Wife, both graded winners looking for some class relief, finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Misty Veil was sixth followed by Exotic West.

Leader of the Band is trained by John Servis, who won his first race at Saratoga since Jostle won the Grade 1 Alabama exactly 22 years ago. Servis had been winless with 25 previous starts in between.

“I don’t run here a lot, I’ve probably run more this year and they’ve run well,” said the Parx-based Servis who is 1 for 3 here this summer. “It’s so tough and a lot of the horses I have they just don’t fit here.”

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With the aid of a piece of a triangular piece of wood placed in the back of the starting gate, Leader of the Band showed she belonged at Saratoga. Servis explained that the piece of wood, which he called a wedge, is placed in the back of the starting gate to help prevent Leader of the Band from leaning on the back of the stall doors.

“If you go back and watch her races, she never breaks good,” Servis said.

Servis said Leader of the Band had gotten to the point where as soon as she went into the gate she would lean on the back of the doors. He credited the starting crew at Monmouth Park with coming up with the idea to back Leader of the Band in from the front of the starting gate with the wedge already in place. Friday was the first time that method was used.

With John Velazquez replacing an ill Joel Rosario, Leader of the Band did break well and was sitting third, always within two lengths of the dueling leaders Envoutante and First to Act, who went a quarter in 23.70 seconds, a half-mile in 47.81, and six furlongs in 1:11.87.

At the head of the lane, Velazquez swung Leader of the Band into the clear, and she wrested the lead from First to Act at the eighth pole and then edged clear late. Leader of the Band, a 4-year-old daughter of Bandbox, covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.65 and returned $15.60 as the fifth choice in the field of seven.

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“She behaved really good in the gate, she did everything good,” said Velazquez, who won three races on Friday’s card and now has 997 career wins at Saratoga. “When she popped out of there, I made sure I got to a good position and from then on she was going really easy the whole way.”

Servis said Leader of the Band broke better Friday than she ever had previously.

“They outfooted her a little bit because she doesn’t have blistering speed, but she broke with the field which she hasn’t done before,” Servis said.

Servis didn’t have a next race picked out for Leader of the Band, but as a Pennsylvania-bred she’s eligible for the $200,000 Plum Pretty Stakes at a mile and 70 yards on Sept. 24 at Parx.