Future Is Now draws better seeking revenge in Caress
?q=100)
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – If a better draw can lead to a smoother trip, then Future Is Now could reverse the result of last month’s Grade 2 Intercontinental Stakes when she squares off again with Pipsy in Saturday’s Grade 3, $175,000 Caress Stakes for fillies and mares going 5 1/2 furlongs over Saratoga’s Mellon turf course.
In the Intercontinental, Future Is Now broke from post 2 and while she was able to save ground under Paco Lopez, she did steady ever so slightly early on. In the stretch, when room developed in front of her, Future Is Now went through the opening, but switched back to her left lead late as she fell a half-length shy of Pipsy.
“It was very close, but the other horse had a little more to give,” trainer Michael Trombetta said. “I don’t know if it was being on the inside, she did swap over to her left lead right before the wire. I think that threw off a little bit of momentum, but the other horse got us and she ran very fast to do it.”
Future Is Now is drawn in post 7 in a field of nine Saturday.
Trombetta said being drawn toward the outside gives Lopez more options.
“When you’re down on the inside with a horse like her, she has got to take a lot of the pressure that comes from outside,” Trombetta said. “Everyone’s trying to put the squeeze on you going into the turn.”
Future Is Now, a 5-year-old daughter of Great Notion, was third in the Caress last year, beaten a half-length, but surrounded that effort by wins in the Intercontinental and Smart N Fancy, both over this turf course.
Pipsy had a bit of a disjointed 2024 campaign winning the Soaring Softly at Aqueduct from way off the pace before showing speed in her later starts, which included a seventh-place finish behind Future Is Now in the Grade 2 Franklin at Keeneland.
In two starts this year, the now 4-year-old Pipsy won a stakes-caliber allowance at Keeneland by sitting second before her front-running score in the Intercontinental.
“I wasn’t fully convinced I had her keyed up for Keeneland but I guess I did and I thought it was really professional the way she settled behind the filly that cleared from the outside,” trainer Will Walden said. “We kind of learned that that was a new dimension there.”
Walden said Pipsy, who was bred in Ireland and began her career there, has “really adapted to the American style of ‘break running’ as well as I’ve ever seen a European turf horse, whether training or working for other trainers, adapt. I don’t think we’ve seen the best of her; we plan on running her through her 5-year-old year and hopefully she’ll be better next year too.”
Pipsy breaks from post 6 under Jose Ortiz.
Kairyu, Time to Dazzle, and Pandora’s Gift – the third- through fifth-place finishers in the Intercontinental – are back in the Caress as is Twirling Queen, who finished last in the Intercontinental but who won the Coronation Cup here last year.
Zeitlos has only run twice on turf, but she has come with a strong late run both times, including last year’s Caress, when she finished fifth, beaten one length.
Toupie, fourth to Future Is Now in the Grade 3 Giant’s Causeway, and Obstreperous, a last-out first-level allowance winner at Churchill Downs, complete the field on turf.
The Caress goes as race 9 and is the first of three stakes on a 12-race program that includes the Grade 2 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Stakes and the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.