SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Malathaat lost her unbeaten record in last month’s Coaching Club American Oaks. She did not lose the confidence of her connections. Saturday, Malathaat will look to make amends for her head defeat to Maracuja in the CCA Oaks while restoring her hold as the clear leader of the 3-year-old filly division when the two meet again in the Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga. A field of seven is set to run 1 1/4 miles in the Alabama. The field includes multiple stakes winners Army Wife, Crazy Beautiful, and Will’s Secret, three fillies who were not in the CCA Oaks. In the four-horse CCA Oaks, Malathaat had the rail, and the race, on paper, appeared to lack pace. Velazquez sent Malathaat away from the gate and they found themselves on the lead entering the first turn. Malathaat was pressed, first by Maracuja under Ricardo Santana Jr., then by Clariere with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard. Maracuja, taken off the pace by Santana, re-rallied in the lane to outfinish Malaathat by a head. “She actually ran a winning race,” said Velazquez, who will again be aboard Malathaat for Shadwell Stable and trainer Todd Pletcher. “Obviously, she just got beat by a head with a [12-week] layoff, so that’s a lot to do for a horse coming back like that, and the way that she fought I was very proud of her.” With a seven-horse field, the Alabama figures to be a more truly run race. Malathaat drew post 6 with the potential speed of the race in Played Hard to her inside. As of Thursday morning, Velazquez hadn’t studied the race enough to have mapped a game plan on how best to ride Malathaat. “Last time, four horses,” Velazquez said. “There was no speed. We took the chance to go instead of being behind horses. We thought it was going to be a really slow pace and they were going to screw me in there with two horses that had no chance. Everything changes race by race.” Velazquez, a three-time Alabama winner, believes Malathaat can get 1 1/4 miles, a distance that none of these fillies has attempted. “She’s a horse that’s steady and has a great stride,” Velazquez said. “I don’t think that would hurt her at all.” Trainer Rob Atras believes Maracuja is equipped to handle the longer distance as well. She ran a solid race finishing second in the Grade 3 Gazelle in April, stretching out from a 6 1/2-furlong maiden victory to 1 1/8 miles. Maracuja broke poorly in the Kentucky Oaks, was 11th of 13 early, and made a mild rally to finish seventh. An illness forced Maracuja to miss a scheduled start in the Grade 2 Mother Goose at Belmont in June, so when she won the CCA Oaks, she was coming in off the same layoff as Malathaat. “She handled the mile and an eighth fine, she was really rolling at the end,” Atras said. “Between that and just what I see in the mornings, I think she should be able to get the mile and a quarter.” Atras said he would like to see Maracuja break alertly again to give Santana options on how to ride the race. Trainer Ken McPeek has won two of the last three runnings of the Alabama, in 2018 with Eskimo Kisses and last year with Swiss Skydiver. Crazy Beautiful, his starter this year, won the Grade 2 Summertime Oaks at Santa Anita in May and the Grade 3 Delaware Oaks on July 3. A quarantine situation forced her to miss the CCA Oaks. :: DRF Bets players get free Daily Racing Form Past Performances and up to 5% weekly cashback. Click to learn more. Crazy Beautiful finished 10th in the Kentucky Oaks, but McPeek said she got bumped leaving the gate and got off awkwardly and got shuffled back. “She certainly never had a chance to make her run,” McPeek said. “I believe that was a bit of a toss, that race. She regrouped immediately after that and she’s doing equally as good now as she was prior to her last couple of runs.” McPeek said Crazy Beautiful is not as big as Eskimo Kisses and does not have Swiss Skydiver’s speed, “but she’s a very good filly in own right.” “Maybe somewhere in between,” he said. Army Wife, third in the Gazelle, parlayed ground-saving trips to victories in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico and Grade 2 Iowa Oaks at Prairie Meadows to deserve the chance to take a swing in the Alabama. She breaks from the outside post in the seven-horse field under Tyler Gaffalione for leading trainer Mike Maker. Will’s Secret finished third in the Kentucky Oaks, only three lengths behind Malathaat. She finished sixth in the Indiana Oaks when racing on what trainer Dallas Stewart felt was the worst part of a wet track. Clairiere, beaten a nose by Will’s Secret when fourth in the Oaks, and Played Hard, who makes her stakes debut off two straight wins when stretched out around two turns, complete the field. The Alabama goes as race 10 on an 11-race card that begins at 1:05 p.m.