Counting Stars takes Coaching Club American Oaks as Ortiz ties Saratoga record with six wins on card
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Counting Stars took control of Saturday’s Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks early. Then she took control of the 3-year-old filly division late.
In a race that lost all of its early speed types early due to scratches, Counting Stars, breaking from the rail, was put on the lead by Irad Ortiz Jr. going into the first turn. After setting moderate fractions - she went a half-mile in 47.70 seconds and six furlongs in 1:11.55 - Counting Stars was confronted by Kentucky Oaks winner Always a Runner at the quarter pole.
The stage was set for a battle for divisional supremacy. Those two fillies ran together until just above the sixteenth pole, where Counting Stars pulled away to win the CCA Oaks by 4 1/4 lengths. Always a Runner finished second by 2 1/2 lengths over Measure as Mark Casse-trained fillies finished one-three.
Counting Stars won the CCA Oaks seven weeks after she beat Always a Runner by 3 3/4 lengths in the Grade 1 Acorn, also at Saratoga. Before then, Counting Stars finished third to Always a Runner in the Kentucky Oaks.
Counting Stars was ridden to victory Saturday by Irad Ortiz Jr. It was one of six wins on the 12-race card for Ortiz, equaling a Saratoga record. Ortiz joined Hall of Fame jockeys John Velazquez (Sept. 2, 2001) and Ramon Dominguez (July 22, 2012 and Sept. 2, 2012) as the only riders to win six races on a Saratoga card.
Ortiz said when he rode Counting Stars in the Acorn, he had to fight with her a little bit to get her off the pace. Ortiz said when Counting Stars drew the rail for the CCA Oaks and with a seeming lack of speed in the field, he wanted to put his filly on the lead.
The only other speed types in the field were La Rascasse, who was scratched earlier in the week due to an unspecified injury, and Directive, who was scratched Saturday morning due to a foot bruise.
“I was already planning to make the lead and when [Directive] scratched, it was clear I’m not going to give it away,” Ortiz said.
Counting Stars had control of the race until the quarter pole, where Jose Ortiz tried to rally Always a Runner through the inside. But Irad Ortiz said he still had plenty of horse underneath him and he was confident he would win the stretch battle.
“When we kicked, he kicked, it was going to be a battle,” Ortiz said. “We turned for home, I started working on her, she opened up two lengths and she got the job done.”
Counting Stars, who also won the Grade 2 Fantasy at Oaklawn earlier this year, covered the 1 1/8 miles Saturday in 1:48.98 and returned $4.08 as the favorite. By comparison, the 5-year-old male Wynstock ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.91 in an optional claiming race earlier on the card.
Casse had expressed confidence in the days leading up to the CCA Oaks that Counting Stars was going to run an even better race than she did in the Acorn. She did.
“She’s grown up and she just does everything,” Casse said. “I’m very lucky. I get to compare her to another one that’s not bad and she reminds me a lot of Nitrogen, she does things that normal horses don’t do.”
In 2025, Nitrogen was a multiple graded stakes winner on both dirt and turf and was crowned the 3-year-old filly champion for Casse. Nitrogen’s lone Grade 1 win of the year was in the Alabama, which will be the next race for Counting Stars here on Aug. 22.
Casse said he will also point CCA Oaks third-place finisher Measure to the Alabama, as he was happy with her third-place finish coming off a runner-up finish in an allowance race last out.
Meanwhile, Chad Brown, the trainer of Always a Runner, was disappointed in his filly’s second-place finish if only because he would have preferred her going outside in the stretch as opposed to the inside.
“She had her chance at the top of the lane and she just couldn’t finish with the other filly, that’s the bottom line,” Brown said. “I didn’t think I’d end up down on the rail, that I wasn’t thrilled about because we didn’t think the rail was good all day. We actually thought there was a chance we could move at some part of the race and be outside of [Counting Stars] and keep her down towards the inside.”
Measure finished third by two lengths over Zany, who raced alongside Always a Runner down the backside but didn’t do any running in the stretch. Miss Fulton Gal finished finished fifth, followed by Nycon and Dandona.
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