Easter Gift looks to right ship in Alydar Stakes
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown is hoping to get Easter Gift back on the right track for the remainder of the season in Sunday’s $100,000 Alydar Stakes. But to do so, he’ll have to get past the multiple Grade 1 winner Alpha in the 1 1/8-mile test for older horses who have not won a stakes in 2014.
Easter Gift is winless since capturing Penn National’s Mountainview Handicap more than 14 months ago. He closed out his 2013 campaign with arguably the best performance of his career when finishing third behind Will Take Charge and Game On Dude in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap but did not race again until returning with a disappointing eighth-place finish last month in the Grade 2 Monmouth Cup.
“He had some minor issues that needed some time. We ran him down at Monmouth, and unfortunately, he got into trouble early and totally didn’t show up the second half of the race,” said Brown. “We’re going to draw a line through it and hope to get him restarted this race. You never get an easy spot at Saratoga, but I was so proud of the way he ran against some bears in the Clark, and I’m hoping he can round back into form and be another strong horse in our barn during the fall.”
Alpha, the dead-heat winner of the Grade 1 Travers here two years ago, has been idle since finishing a tiring fifth while trying turf for the first time in Gulfstream Park’s Mac Diarmida Stakes more than six months ago.
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said earlier this summer, when it appeared that the Whitney was coming up too strong, that his plan was to find a little easier spot to bring him back here later in the meet.
Csaba ships up from Florida off a pair of stakes wins for trainer Phil Gleaves. The multiple graded stakes winner ran twice here last summer, finishing seventh in the Whitney and fifth in the Alydar.
Stormin Monarcho, Dawly, and Farhaan complete the field.
Key contenders
Easter Gift (Last 3 Beyers: 71-98-98)
* Finished second in the 2013 Alydar, beaten three-quarters of a length by Vitoria Olimpica.
* Has done extremely well since his poor effort in the Monmouth Cup, according to Brown, who said, “He trained really well going into the race at Monmouth, and he’s right back training the way he was going into that race.”
Alpha (Last 3 Beyers: 92-92-80)
* Loves Saratoga, having won 4 of 5 starts at the Spa, including two Grade 1 races, the 2012 Travers and 2013 Woodward.
DRF Formulator Fact: Trainer McLaughlin owns an above-average 27 percent success rate (37 wins from 136 starters) with horses coming off layoffs of six months or longer over the past five years.