Litfin's preview: Meet opener features host of droppers

Saratoga’s 146th summer meet kicks off with a $25,000 restricted claimer at 1 1/8 miles, which is once around the main track.

The race resembles a “dropdown derby,” as the majority of horses are being lowered to this level for the first time.

Mike Repole, the leading owner at Saratoga three straight years from 2010 to 2012, has Goodnewsisnonews shipping in from Monmouth Park for Todd Pletcher and going first time for a tag.

Ken and Sarah Ramsey, who won the title last year with a single-season record of 22 winners, appear to have the one to catch in Kowboy Boots, who was running in stakes earlier this year and is on the rail for Mike Maker and defending Saratoga riding champ Javier Castellano.

Exiting the preliminary allowance ranks are King of Broadway, who chased seven-time winner Joan’s Choice at Monmouth most recently, and Succesful Brothers, who is among a trio of turf-to-dirt propositions in a fun start to the summer.

Feature comes early with Schuylerville as race 3

Between them, Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas and his star pupil, Todd Pletcher, have won the Schuylerville Stakes nine times, and the two trainers square off in this year’s renewal, which drew five 2-year-old fillies – all last-out winners – and is carded as race 3.

Lukas, who won the traditional opening-day feature five times from 1986 to 2004, sends out Take Charge Brandi, a $435,000 yearling buy at Keeneland last September who comes off a facile debut win at Churchill Downs.

Pletcher has the one to beat in Fashion Alert, who lunged at the break but quickly recovered to win the Astoria as a first-time starter.

Tulira’s Star, who won her debut as the favorite on Arlington Park’s synthetic surface and was subsequently purchased by Team Valor International and given over to Rick Mettee, is entitled to like dirt. Her half-brother, Mountain General, was a graded stakes-winning sprinter of nearly $750,000.

Sir Cat a ‘Tourist’ trap?

A competitive septet of 3-year-olds entered for turf in the $100,000 Sir Cat Stakes, scheduled for one mile on the sharp-turned inner course.

Chad Brown, second in the Spa standings three years running, brings back Storming Inti, who has had a brief freshening since chasing stablemate Bobby’s Kitten in the $500,000 Penn Mile on May 31.

This is the spot where we find out more about Tourist, who beat maidens when switched to turf at Gulfstream Park in mid-winter and returned four months later to record a 98 Beyer Speed Figure wiring a preliminary allowance at Belmont Park through pedestrian early fractions.

Tourist’s fate may hinge on Ring Weekend, the sometimes-hard-to-handle Tampa Bay Derby winner, who breaks toward the outside and may have designs on the early lead.

An up-tempo pace could benefit Cabo Cat, who comes off a last-to-first win in the Manila Stakes for Mark Hennig and Joe Bravo.