De La Rose repeat can turn things around for Deep Satin
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – When Deep Satin won a division of last year’s De La Rose Stakes, the hope was for her not to be eligible to run in it again this year. The De La Rose, run at one mile over Saratoga’s inner turf course, is restricted to fillies and mares who have not won a graded stakes in 2025-26.
In five starts since that victory, Deep Satin has failed in her bid to achieve graded stakes glory. So, here Deep Satin is again, taking a class drop with hopes of getting a win that would propel her back to graded stakes action later this summer.
“I do think she’s a graded-stakes type filly, just had some bad luck not to win one,” said Cherie DeVaux, the trainer of Deep Satin.
Deep Satin finished second in the Grade 2 Ballston Spa and then fourth, beaten just a half-length, in the Grade 1 First Lady at Keeneland last year. Deep Satin is one of several in this field coming out of the Grade 1 Just a Game here last month. She finished fourth with a funky trip.
Down the backside of the Just a Game, Deep Satin was last but could be seen steadying sharply under Jose Ortiz. She eventually rallied along the inside and, despite bobbling late, finished fourth, beaten 2 1/2 lengths by front-running winner Classic Q.
DeVaux said that Deep Satin “slipped out from under herself and lost her footing behind. She just took some time to recover.”
Ortiz will be back aboard Deep Satin from post 9 in this 10-horse field.
And One More Time and Sandtrap finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the Just a Game. Of the two, Sandtrap had the more challenging trip.
Trained by Chad Brown, Sandtrap was steadied sharply behind horses going into and around the first turn. She was hard to handle for a good part of the run down the backside and had no punch for the stretch. Brown said his filly got amped up when she took contact from Mandanaba going into the first turn.
“We were pulling and getting pinballed in there and she never dropped the bit after that,” Brown said. “It was just a really rough trip, so I’m going to throw that one out, give her a little class relief here, see if she can find a better spot early.
“It’s a full field, not without a chance to have a little rough spot going into the first turn again, but I thought she took the worst of it going into the first turn last time.”
Flavien Prat picks up the mount on Sandtrap, who breaks from post 4.
Hang the Moon is dropping in class as well, having finished fourth in the Grade 1 Gamely at Santa Anita in May.
“I know it was tougher company, but she flattened out,” trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said. “I kind of like her at a mile, there should be a regular pace and I think she’ll have a stronger kick. In both of her mile and sixteenth races she finished much stronger, hopefully it’ll be the same.
“This course has been playing to speed, that’s the only [negative] thing.”
And One More Time has the speed to make an impact. She didn’t use it in the Just a Game where she was caught three wide around both turns and finished fifth. With Javier Castellano sidelined due to injury, John Velazquez rides And One More Time on Friday.
“We got the man that likes speed,” trainer Mark Casse said.
Long Ago used her speed to nearly upset the Miss Liberty at Monmouth Park for trainer William Morey. Ultimately, she finished second, a half-length behind Ozara, who is entered in Saturday’s Grade 1 Diana.
Proctor Street and Awesome Czech are both horses for the course at Saratoga. Proctor Street, trained by Brendan Walsh, has won allowance races each of the last two summers here. Proctor Street is coming off a narrow defeat without excuse in the Grade 3 Mint Julep at Churchill Downs.
Awesome Czech, trained by red-hot Horacio De Paz, is 4 for 5 at Saratoga, and has the versatility to be placed wherever Ricardo Santana Jr. wants in the early part of the race.
Salty Senorita, Table Flirt, and Being Betty round out the 10-horse field.
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