Glatt taking another shot at Saratoga with Chatalas in Alabama Stakes
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The last time - actually the only time - that California-based trainer Mark Glatt ran a horse at Saratoga it was not a pleasant experience. It was 2004, and the filly Elusive Diva finished sixth in the Grade 1 Test Stakes.
“Elusive Diva was a very nice filly, she couldn’t stand up in the mud,” Glatt recalled. “We had a fast, dry track until about an hour before post time, the skies opened up, it got real sloppy real fast. If I’m not mistaken, she might have even blown a couple of shoes in that race. It would have been nice for her to get a fair shot on a good track.”
Two decades later and Glatt will start his second horse at Saratoga when Chatalas runs in Saturday’s Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/4 miles.
Chatalas, a daughter of Gun Runner, is coming off a gutsy victory in the Grade 3 Indiana Oaks on July 6 at Horseshoe Indianapolis. Racing on the lead under Antonio Fresu, Chatalas got headed and passed by Little Jamie, only to come back in deep stretch and beat that one by a head. It was Chatalas’ first start off a 190-day layoff. Grant Forster was the trainer of record for the Indiana Oaks, but that was more for logistical reasons, Glatt said.
Glatt said he had seen a similar determination from Chatalas when she won the Grade 2 Chandelier Stakes at Santa Anita last October.
“Horses came to her, she fought on nicely,” Glatt said of the Chandelier. “She has a tendency to wait on horses, she wants to look around. We have a set of blinkers on her, but at the same time those blinkers keep her from seeing horses come at her. Once she feels them or sees them, she digs in.”
Glatt said the busy six-race campaign Chatalas had from late July to late December last year is why she was away from the races for the first half of 2024. Following her victory in the Indiana Oaks, Glatt left Chatalas in Kentucky with Forster, who oversaw her training before shipping Chatalas to Saratoga. On Sunday, with Tom Amoss overseeing things, Chatalas worked a half-mile in 49.64 seconds over the main track.
“Her main work was last week,” Glatt said, referring to a five-furlong move in 59.20 seconds at Churchill Downs. “Today, we just wanted to get a little feel for the Saratoga surface. They caught her in 49-and-change and it looked like all systems go.”
Chatalas had run well in a turf stakes at Santa Anita last December and Glatt thought about bringing her back to California for the Del Mar Oaks on turf, but changed his mind when it became apparent that top 3-year-old filly Thorpedo Anna would skip the Alabama to take on the boys in the Travers.
“She ran so well in the Indiana Oaks, and with the announcement Thorpedo Anna would match up against the boys, we felt the race opened up so we decided to take a shot in here,” Glatt said.
Chatalas, who will have Frankie Dettori to ride, drew post 2 in a field of eight entered Sunday in the Alabama.
Intricate drew the rail. Outside of Chatalas, in post order, are Power Squeeze, Just Basking, America’s Vow, Miss Justify, Candied and Neon Icon.
Sidamara, second to Power Squeeze in the Delaware Oaks, was not entered in the Alabama after getting sick, trainer Bill Mott said.
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