Curalina can claim top spot with CCA Oaks win
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – With Kentucky Oaks winner Lovely Maria stubbing her toe in the Delaware Oaks and Lady Eli sidelined due to laminitis, the door is ajar for someone in the 3-year-old filly division to work her way toward the top.
Perhaps one of the eight fillies entered in Sunday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga can do just that. The field for the 1 1/8-mile dirt race drew Grade 1 winners Curalina and Include Betty as well as the multiple graded stakes winner I’m a Chatterbox, a stablemate of Lovely Maria.
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After running second in a fast maiden race last summer at Saratoga, Curalina was sidelined the remainder of the year due to a shin issue, trainer Todd Pletcher said. Curalina has won all three of her starts this year, including a neck victory in the Grade 1 Acorn after significant trouble at the break.
“Basically, everybody on the inside went out, and everybody on the outside went in, and she was the sandwich in between,” Pletcher said. “Aside from getting annihilated and coming away last, I thought she put in too quick of a move the first quarter to put herself back in position. I didn’t think she’d be able to sustain that type of run.”
Pletcher also was a little concerned about backing her up to the one-turn mile of the Acorn after she won a two-turn allowance race by 8 1/4 lengths at Churchill Downs on May 1.
“Getting her back around two turns is probably more of what she’s designed for,” said Pletcher, who has John Velazquez to ride from post 3.
Include Betty, trained by Tom Proctor, is coming off a last-to-first 3 1/2-length victory in the Grade 1 Mother Goose Stakes over fellow CCA Oaks runners Wonder Gal and Chide. In May, Include Betty finished second behind Keen Pauline in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan at 1 1/8 miles at Pimlico.
Keen Pauline, unraced since the Black-Eyed Susan, could prove dangerous as the primary speed in the CCA Oaks under Irad Ortiz Jr.
KEY CONTENDERS
Curalina (Last 3 Beyers: 92-80-73)
◗ Pletcher feels the stretch-out from a mile to 1 1/8 miles will benefit Curalina.
“She’s a filly that wants to run long but has tactical speed, wants to get into a rhythm and keep going,” Pletcher said. “That’s what she did in the Churchill race. The further they went, the stronger she got.”
◗ Pletcher is seeking his seventh victory in the CCA Oaks and his second straight. He won it last year with Stopchargingmaria.
I’m a Chatterbox (Last 3 Beyers: 88-90-84)
◗ Swept the series of two-turn stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Fair Grounds before finishing third to Lovely Maria in the Kentucky Oaks 12 weeks ago.
“With her being off that long of a layoff, it’s always a concern,” trainer Larry Jones said. “We did draw the outside, which I think is good. That will keep us from having to do anything real stupid, so we can hopefully play the race how we have to and make it work.”
Jones said a sickness went through his barn at Delaware, and he thinks that may have affected Lovely Maria in the Delaware Oaks, where she finished fifth.
“Hopefully, [I'm a Chatterbox]'s had two more weeks to recover from that,” he said. “We hope everything is good.”
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Include Betty (Last 3 Beyers: 85-89-82)
◗ Late-running filly would benefit from a contested pace.
◗ Won the Grade 1 Mother Goose at Belmont and Grade 3 Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn Park, rallying from last.