Matz unsure if he wants to send Somali Lemonade to Beverly D.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Somali Lemonade, winner of Saturday’s Grade 1 Diana Stakes at Saratoga, was scheduled to van back to trainer Michael Matz’s Fair Hill stable on Monday but plans for her next race remain undetermined.
Matz said he would consider the Grade 1, $750,000 Beverly D. at Arlington Park on Aug. 16, but was a little concerned about running her back in four weeks. The Diana was the fifth race of the year and fourth in four months for Somali Lemonade.
“We’ll take a look at it,” Matz said Sunday morning. “She’s kind of been going pretty steady since she came back, but she’ll run this year and that’ll be it.”
Somali Lemonade, the only horse in the stable of Matz’s sister-in-law, Caroline Forgason, is one of three graded stakes-winning older turf fillies or mares in Matz’s barn. Assateague who won the Dr. James Penny Memorial at Parx earlier this month, is being pointed to the Grade 2, $250,000 Ballston Spa here on Aug. 23. Hard Not To Like, winner of the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland in April, is due to start training again around Aug. 1 and point toward a fall campaign.
While Matz will wait to decide what to do next with Somali Lemonade, trainer Chad Brown is pretty intent on the Beverly D. for Stephanie’s Kitten, hard-charging second in the Diana. Both Brown and jockey Frankie Dettori felt that Stephanie’s Kitten was compromised by an outside post, which resulted in a wide trip.
“I thought she ran great,” Brown said. “The post hurt us. She was carrying four pounds [more]. She’s not in love with firm ground. For her to overcome all that and to run as well as she did, I was very pleased. Disappointed she couldn’t get up, but not disappointed in the effort at all.”
Brown said he felt the four weeks between the Diana and the Beverly D. was enough time.
“As long as she comes out of the race well and is training good, I don’t see any reason we don’t go on to the Beverly D.,” he said.
Brown said he would also keep an eye on the Beverly D. with Alterite, who faded to eighth, but beaten only three lengths in the Diana, her first start since last November’s Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
“Disappointed she got as tired as she did the last part, but seems to have come out of the race okay,” Brown said. “She’s another one who could show up in the Beverly D., depending on how much she got out of that race and how she’s training.”
Discreet Marq, beaten two necks while finishing third in the Diana, could return in the $150,000 Yaddo Stakes for New York-breds on Aug. 24. Trainer Christophe Clement said the Yaddo could be a good prep towards the Grade 1 First Lady at Keeneland in early October.