Loaded maiden race filled with pedigree power

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – There have been some really impressive 2-year-old fillies at this meet, and if pedigree or purchase price mean anything, we should see another on Sunday.

Sunday’s $83,000 sixth race drew 15 entrants, though only 10 will be permitted to run. The seven-furlong race features Carella, a Tapit half-sister to 2006 champion 3-year-old Bernardini; Sherini, a half-sister to Preakness winner Shackleford; and Inheritance, a $1.9 million purchase as a 2-year-old in training whose dam, Silver Wolf, is a half-sister to Met Mile winner Corinthian. And that’s only those in the body of the race. The also-eligible list includes J R Star and Shayna Lady, both of whom finished second in their debuts.

Carella is the eighth foal out of Cara Rafaela since Bernardini. Of those eight, only four made it to the races. Only one, Burgundy Ice, won a maiden race.

“We’ve had [siblings] to Bernardini before, and they never showed a whole lot of talent,” trainer Tom Albertrani said. “This filly is better than any of the others we may have gotten in the past. We’d like to be optimistic and believe she’s going to run a big race. She’s training really well. She’s really focused. She looks like she’s got herself together. And she wants to be a racehorse. You don’t know until you get them in the gate and see what happens.”

Graham Motion trains Sherini, who is by Bernardini. He believes his filly will be more effective around two turns but said: “I’m sure she’s probably going to need a race. I do like her, but I think more down the road.”

Inheritance, trained by Steve Asmussen, has a solid work tab and will be ridden by John Velazquez.

Of those who have run, Big World has twice finished third, behind Tonasah at Belmont and Rachel’s Valentina at Saratoga. Both of those horses were entered in Sunday’s Grade 1 Spinaway.