Englehart eyes milestone win in Saratoga Dew
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – On opening day at this meet, and a decade after running his first horse here, trainer Jeremiah Englehart won his first race at Saratoga. Thursday, Englehart will attempt to win his first stakes race here when he sends out Tahoe Tigress in the $100,000 Saratoga Dew Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares.
Seven were entered for the Saratoga Dew, to be run at 1 1/8 miles on the main track, with only Little Rocket having won a stakes race.
Tahoe Tigress, a 5-year-old daughter of Stephen Got Even, is a terror at Belmont Park, where she has posted six of her seven victories. She enters the Saratoga Dew off a two-length victory over Alabama Stakes candidate Miss Besilu in an open company second-level allowance race going 1 1/16 miles.
Tahoe Tigress brought a three-race winning streak into last year’s Saratoga Dew but finished fifth, 5 3/4 lengths behind winner Go Unbridled.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 3 Tahoe Tigress. Trainer Jeremiah Englehart is 7 for 13 with a $4.77 ROI over the past two years in dirt routes restricted to New York-breds, following a winning effort.Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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“She’s in really good form and I think last year’s race might have been tougher,” Englehart said Tuesday. “Some are trying the New York stakes level for the first time.”
That includes Easy Living, a lightly raced 3-year-old filly who has alternated surfaces for trainer Christophe Clement, going 2 for 2 on dirt and 0 for 2 on turf with a second-place finish.
“She’s trained well on both surfaces, which is the reason why I tried her on both, but I think she’s a little better on dirt because she’s too one-paced on grass,” Clement said.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 5 Easy Living. Trainer Christophe Clement and jockey Joel Rosario have combined for 10 wins in 25 starts with a $4.33 ROI over the past two years in dirt routes.Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
Key Contenders
Tahoe Tigress (Last 3 Beyers: 86-82-79)
◗ She ran a respectable fourth in the Critical Eye Stakes at Belmont on May 31 off a near-five-month layoff.
“She got a little sick and we had to miss a race and she got tired the last sixteenth,” Englehart said about the Critical Eye. “If she gets a clean trip and doesn’t have to start and stop she’ll be okay.”
◗ Englehart is winless in eight stakes tries at Saratoga, most recently sending out King Kreesa to a second-place finish to Horse of the Year Wise Dan in last year’s Grade 2 Fourstardave.
Easy Living (Last 3 Beyers: 72-64-59)
◗ Clement said he opted to run the Big Brown filly in this race because there are no stakes options for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies, and a restricted second-level allowance race didn’t fill.
◗ Easy Living has won both of her starts on dirt but has yet to race past one mile.
“I don’t know about the two turns,” Clement said. “I think she ran very well around one turn at Belmont.”
Little Rocket (Last 3 Beyers: 73-73-63
◗ She is the only stakes winner in the field, having won the six-furlong Susan B. Anthony Stakes in May at Finger Lakes.
◗ She has been beaten at Finger Lakes in her last three starts by the same mare, Clean Jean, trained by Englehart.
◗ Little Rocket is out of the dam How About Now, who won the Grade 2 Schuylerville here in 1996.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 6 Get Gorgeous. Her victory last out was trainer David Donk’s first win in the past five years in a dirt route following a winning effort; he had been 0 for 17 and is now 1 for 18 with a $0.40 ROI.Click for more details. – Mike Hogan