Litfin's preview: Cat Feathers heads jump stake
Cat Feathers, who lit up the Saratoga tote board winning the Mrs. Ogden Phipps Stakes at 23-1 in 2012, will be a considerably shorter price as she attempts to win that 2 1/16-mile steeplechase event for the second time.
Cat Feathers hasn’t won since then, but she had a useful prep race against males July 1 at Parx Racing, where she was steadied to avoid a spill and wound up fourth.
Kisser N Run and Opera Heroine, who have faced each other six straight times over the past year beginning with the 2013 Mrs. Phipps, meet yet again.
Brilliant Match, whose last race over fences was a maiden win by nearly 50 lengths, figures to attract support for Jonathan Sheppard.
Star Grazing stretches out
Despite the fact she has yet to go long, many bettors will be singling Star Grazing in race 2, a first-level allowance at 1 1/8 miles that is the first leg the early pick four as well as the pick 5 on steeplechase days.
Star Grazing will be tough to beat if she replicates her six-furlong maiden win July 4 in the mud over entrymate and next-out winner Girlaboutown.
That was the first start of the year for the Sky Mesa filly, and she figures to like the added ground, as her half-brother Friend Or Foe won the Empire Classic at the distance.
Six go in Birdstone
Six older routers test their endurance in the Birdstone Stakes, a three-turn marathon on the main track at 1 3/4 miles.
Micromanage, beaten just a neck in the Brooklyn two starts back, is the logical favorite for Repole Stable and Todd Pletcher.
Slim Shadey has made all but one of his 38 starts on grass yet relished the slop to take the off-the-turf Elkwood Stakes last month. He could wind up setting the pace.
Irsaal won two allowance races on wet tracks earlier this year at Aqueduct and Belmont and looks to rebound for Kiaran McLaughlin after lunging and hitting the side of the gate June 28.
“I don’t have any idea [about the distance],” said McLaughlin. “He trains real aggressively, and we thought it was worth a try. You just don’t know. It’s definitely an experiment.”
Ghurair drops from Grade 1
After being beaten less than three lengths in the Grade 1 United Nations, Ghurair drops to an $80,000 optional claimer with third-level allowance conditions and figures to be favored in race 9 for Shadwell Stable and Chad Brown.
Ghurair won the rich Tattersalls Millions as a 2-year-old in 2012, and he unleashed an explosive finish to win his second start in the U.S., overcoming a slow pace to get up late on the Belmont Stakes undercard.
Also dropping in class are Tetradrachm, who has run in eight consecutive graded stakes since garnering his third-level condition at Saratoga last August; Reflecting, beaten two lengths in the Bowling Green last time out; and Lochte, winner of the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap at 39-1 earlier this year.
Horse to watch
TALLADEGA
Trainer: Eddie Barker
Last race: Aug. 4, 4th
Finish: 2nd by 1/2
Beyer: 71
This first-time starter raced wide early, saved ground into the lane, and put in a sustained run, narrowly missing going 1 1/8 miles on the Mellon turf.