Lukas to continue assault on juvenile filly stakes with Summer Promise in Spinaway
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Naughty Gal gave trainer D. Wayne Lukas his seventh victory in the Grade 3 Adirondack Stakes on Sunday at Saratoga. He will try to win his seventh Grade 1 Spinaway at the end of the meet with a different horse.
Summer Promise, who finished second in the Grade 3 Schuylerville here on the July 14 opening-day card, worked a half-mile in 48.10 seconds Monday morning over the Oklahoma training track. Getting a good run up to the pole, Summer Promise went her first quarter in 23.67 and her second quarter in 24.53.
In the Schuylerville, Summer Promise was running back just 20 days after she won her maiden at Churchill Downs by five lengths.
Meanwhile, Lukas said he would likely point Naughty Gal to the Grade 1 Alcibiades on Oct. 7 at Keeneland in order to get a race over the track for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 4.
“I could probably run her in the Spinaway,” he said. “She was sharp this morning.”
Naughty Gal bore out turning for home in the Adirondack, but Lukas believes that was in part due to jockey Luis Saez’s desire to stay off the rail.
“When he steered her out there she switched her lead and then she’s in the 10 path,” Lukas said. “Had she not done that she might have won by quite a bit.”
Naughty Gal got a 68 Beyer Speed Figure for her Adirondack victory.
Meanwhile, Lukas said that Secret Oath, the Kentucky Oaks winner who was soundly beaten by Nest in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks, remains on target for the Alabama. She was scheduled to work Tuesday morning.