Harmonize runs down Grateful in Glens Falls

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Harmonize proved she might be even better around three turns than she is at two after overcoming a wide trip to run down the pace-setting Grateful by a neck in the Grade 3 Glens Falls at Saratoga.

The race was decided in near darkness as the final act of Saturday’s 12-race Woodward program.

Harmonize’s victory was the fourth on the day for jockey John Velazquez.

Harmonize entered the one-mile, three-furlong Glens Falls as the only Grade 1 winner in the field, but she’d never been beyond 10 furlongs in 15 starts. She was getting some major class relief, however, after having finished fourth against Grade 1 company in each of her last two starts, including the 1 1/8-mile Diana won by Lady Eli earlier in the meet.

Harmonize broke well and raced within easy striking distance of the pace-setting Grateful from the outset while three wide around all three turns. She was sent up to engage the leader in early stretch, ultimately asserting her class edge, sticking her neck in front in the final strides. It was another 1 1/2 lengths farther back to War Flag, who finished third in the field of nine long-winded fillies and mares.

Harmonize is trained by Bill Mott for owner Larkin Armstrong. The daughter of Scat Daddy completed the 11 panels in 2:15.59 seconds and paid $9.40.

“She’s been lacking a little closing turn of foot, she’s been grinding a little more than she has in the past,” said Mott when asked about his decision to stretch Harmonize out in distance.

“Lady Eli just outclassed her in the Diana. We had an option to go out to California, but I thought let’s try the mile and three, and if we get firm ground, she might be all right. And it worked out well for us.”

Mott said he was a bit concerned after watching Harmonize get hung wide from the outset.

“I was hoping we’d be lying second in the two path and instead we’re fifth in the three path,” he said. “I wasn’t really liking our position. I mean, you hate to be going three turns and be hung three wide. Everybody in the race probably ran less ground than she did. Thank goodness she wasn’t hung three and one-half paths wide, or she may not have gotten her nose in front like that. But Johnny Velazquez is tough in a photo. He beat me in a photo last week and won one for us like this as well. When it comes down to the inches, man he’s tough.”

Trainer Todd Pletcher said he was proud of the effort Grateful put in, even in defeat.
“She ran great, we thought we could be on the lead, the fractions were good, Manny (Franco) rode her great, we just lost a tough head bob,” Pletcher said.