It's deja vu for Miss Macy Sue

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - According to trainer Kelly Von Hemel, "a little luck and the best trip" should win Friday's $150,000 Honorable Miss Stakes at Saratoga. And who would know better about how racing luck can affect the outcome of the Honorable Miss than Von Hemel, whose Miss Macy Sue suffered through an unlucky trip en route to a fourth-place finish as the 6-5 favorite in this race last year?

As was the case last summer, Miss Macy Sue enters the six-furlong Grade 2 Honorable Miss off an easy win in the Saylorville Stakes at Prairie Meadows. The victory was the second in four starts this season for Miss Macy Sue, a daughter of Trippi who concluded her 2007 campaign by finishing third behind division champion Maryfield in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.

"She was a little slow to come around this year but right now she's as good as she was coming into this race last summer, so we're going to try it again," said Von Hemel. "Hopefully she'll be a little luckier this time around."

Miss Macy Sue is one of four members of the six-horse Honorable Miss field coming into the race off a victory. Any Limit returns off a game neck decision in Belmont Park's Grade 2 First Flight Handicap, Graeme Six has not started since outlasting Miss Macy Sue to win the Grade 3 Winning Colors on May 26 at Churchill Downs, and Zada Belle steps back into stakes competition off an easy 6 3/4-length allowance win at Monmouth Park.

Zada Belle is the least experienced member of the field but perhaps potentially the most talented. A 4-year-old daughter of Indian Charlie, Zada Belle has won 3 of 4 career starts with her only loss coming over Keeneland's Polytrack in the Grade 2 Madison this past spring. Her three victories have come by an average win margin of nearly seven lengths.

"She'll be a little better prepared for this Grade 2 race than the last one," said Rick Mettee, assistant to Saeed bin Suroor, who trains Zada Belle for Godolphin Racing. "That was asking a lot of her going up against horses like Ventura going seven furlongs over the Polytrack with only two starts under her belt. But she's a lot more polished now and she's definitely fast enough to run with these kind of fillies."

Completing the lineup are Rite Moment, a two-time graded stakes winner earlier this year and most recently third in the First Flight, and Akronism.