Guarana ready for two-turn test in Coaching Club American Oaks

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Flawless in her first two starts around one turn, Guarana will try to prove as effective around two turns when she starts as the likely heavy favorite in Sunday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga.

The Coaching Club, originally scheduled for Saturday, was re-carded for Sunday when the New York Racing Association canceled Saturday’s card due to extreme heat. The Coaching Club, run at 1 1/8 miles and a stepping-stone to the Grade 1 Alabama on Aug. 17, will go as race 4 on what is now a 13-race card that begins at 12:20 p.m. with a steeplechase race and ends at 7:20 with the Grade 3 Shuvee.

Guarana, a daughter of Ghostzapper, has won both of her starts ultra impressively – so much so that NYRA has declared there will be no show wagering in the five-horse field.

Guarana, trained by Chad Brown for Three Chimneys Farm, won her debut at Keeneland in the slop by 14 3/4 lengths going 6 1/2 furlongs. Fifty days later, Guarana stepped into Grade 1 company and won the Acorn by six lengths over the Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress.

“She got a nice trip and she’s good enough to create her own trip,” Brown said. “I thought it was a really strong performance. She was an impressive winner, and we’ll see how far she can run stretching out around two turns.”

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Brown said he doesn’t see anything particularly challenging about two turns, “It’s just a matter if she’s going to be as brilliant around two turns. She very well may be; it’s scary to think maybe she’ll be better. The way she’s training, I don’t see any reason why she wouldn’t be just as effective.”

Guarana will break from the rail under Jose Ortiz.

Point of Honor and Champagne Anyone are stakes winners around two turns. Point of Honor, a daughter of Curlin trained by George Weaver, has won two stakes around two turns, including the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan last out.

“I thought it was a big performance,” Weaver said. “She was wide on both turns. I think perhaps she likes that kind of trip as opposed to being down inside. From that aspect, it benefitted her, but she ran a little farther than the horse she beat by a half-length. She’s really a classic distance-type horse – there’s just fewer and fewer of those types these days.”

Point of Honor breaks from the outside in the five-horse field.

Champagne Anyone won the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks defeating Dunbar Road, who came back to win the Mother Goose, and Point of Honor, who was fourth at Gulfstream. Champagne Anyone ran a sneaky good fourth in the Kentucky Oaks, getting shuffled further back early than her trainer, Ian Wilkes, would have preferred.

Boxwood and Off Topic complete the field.