Joseph tries to stay hot with Cap Ferrat in Statue of Liberty
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. announced his presence with authority at the Saratoga meeting when his first starter, The Queens M G, upset the Schuylerville Stakes at odds of 44-1 on opening day.
Joseph, who has been on quite a roll all over the country the past couple of weeks, will try to keep his local record unblemished when switching the lightly raced 3-year-old filly Cap Ferrat to the turf for the first time in Wednesday’s $150,000 Statue of Liberty division of the New York Stallion Stakes.
The field of 11 originally drawn for the one-mile event included likely favorite Soloshot, who unfortunately will be scratched from the race, according to her trainer, Lolita Shivmangal.
“She suffered a minor injury coming out of her last work and is going to need some recovery time off,” said Shivmangal. “Just bad timing and obviously very disappointing because this was her time now.”
Cap Ferrat has started but once, turning in a game, front-running effort to win a seven-furlong maiden special weight for 3-year-old fillies at Gulfstream Park on May 16. The effort was flattered when runner-up Vincey Girl came right back to win her next start with a 78 Beyer Speed Figure.
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Cap Ferrat was entered to run under allowance conditions here on Belmont Stakes weekend but was scratched from the race after rearing up on the way to the paddock.
“That’s the second time that happened to this filly. She acted up in the paddock and was scratched the first time I entered her at Gulfstream as well,” Joseph recalled. “Her first race was kind of a pleasant surprise. She was very tenacious, and I thought it was worth giving her a shot in this spot against New York-breds since she seems to fit on numbers.”
The key to Cap Ferrat’s success on Wednesday, as far as Joseph is concerned, is her ability to handle the grass.
“She’s got a little turf in her pedigree. She has a Grade 3 turf winner [Bright Abundance] in the third dam, and I really liked the way she moved on the turf when I blew her out over the grass here last Friday. The time was slow, but visually it appeared to me like she got over it pretty well.”
To say Joseph has been red-hot would be an understatement. He’s won 18 races since July 5, five of them stakes, including the Schuylerville and the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap several days earlier with Honor D Lady.
“Racing is a game of streaks. Sometimes everything goes well, like it has been for us the past couple of weeks, and other times they don’t, and you have to enjoy them when you’re in one because you know it’s not going to last,” said Joseph.
Soloshot won the six-furlong Cupecoy’s Joy Stakes going six furlongs on the turf at Aqueduct on June 14 with the third, fourth, and fifth-place finishers from the event – Being Betty, Sohana, and My Shea D Lady – all wheeling back for the Statue of Liberty.
Being Betty forced all the pace and held gamely right to the wire in the Cupecoy’s Joy, beaten a nose and a neck for the top prize while making just her second start of the year for trainer Phil Serpe.
Sohana rallied from last at the top of the stretch to finish fourth, 1 1/4 lengths behind Being Betty, while My Shea D Lady turned in an even effort making her turf debut. My Shea D Lady was a stakes winner on the dirt at 2.
Like Cap Ferrat, Bossy Jeans will enter the Statue of Liberty off a maiden win. She returned from an eight-month layoff to defeat statebred $40,000 maiden claimers by 4 1/4 lengths going 1 1/16 miles over the grass at Aqueduct on July 4.
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