Friday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Shakti steps up in Seeking the Ante off impressive debut
Saratoga | Race 3 | Post Time 2:16 p.m. (ET)
The Seeking the Ante for New York-bred 2-year-old fillies features several recent debut winners. Among those, Iron Orchard (#3) is the one most bettors figure to favor based on her visually impressive victory in early July. The $500k 2-year-old purchase was eligible for the auction-restricted condition during a brief window of time when New York-breds were also allowed to participate in those races. Therefore, she wasn't catching the strongest field, but that hardly detracts from her performance. She showed excellent early speed and won professionally, geared down through the last sixteenth of a mile. There was talk of her trying a tougher spot after that, so it's a little surprising to see her making her second start in this New York-bred stakes. As good as she looked first time out, the race only got an 80 TimeformUS Speed Figure, which hardly makes her a standout in this field.
Both Todd Pletcher runners figure to attract some support. Angel Gift (#1) looked like a filly with potential when she won her debut in another of those auction-restricted races in June. Yet that race hasn't aged particularly well, and she failed to move forward when fading to last in the Adirondack. Grazie (#6) is more appealing after beating statebreds by open lengths in the mud first time out. She has already handled this six-furlong distance so stamina shouldn’t be an issue, and she's drawn well outside of the other speed.
My top pick is Shakti (#5), another filly who won her debut by a wide margin this meet. She was sent off at a generous 6-1 by the bettors, primarily due to Jena Antonucci's poor statistics with first-time starters. Yet she was well prepared for that unveiling, showing good speed from an inside post before drawing off with authority. That form has since been flattered by the runner-up Victory Hall coming back to win, and by the third-place finisher improving her speed figure in her next start. Shakti had trained very well prior to that unveiling, including a workout where she was schooled taking dirt behind horses before splitting and passing them in the stretch. She's shown leading on the Pace Projector due to her natural speed, but I suspect she has the versatility to rate and finish if race dynamics favor that style.