My Sweetheart shifts to dirt for Schuylerville
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – For decades, the Schuylerville Stakes for 2-year-old fillies has been the traditional opening-day feature of the Saratoga meet. This summer, with the New York Racing Association adding a week of racing at the upstate New York track, the Schuylerville has been rescheduled as one of five stakes on the second day of what is billed as the July Fourth Racing Festival at the Spa.
A race that hasn’t been won by a favorite since 2014, when Fashion Alert scored as the 1-5 choice, the Schuylerville, a listed race with a $150,000 purse, drew a field of six, only two of whom have previously won. My Sweetheart won her career debut on turf, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she’s a turf horse, according to her trainer, Mark Casse.
“A lot of times, I run those horses because they’re ready to run and that’s where the race is,” said Casse, who won this race in 2018 with Catherinethewheel. “I’ll switch back and forth, as you know. She’s trained good enough [on dirt]. I worked her a couple of times at Churchill, and she’s worked well. She deserves a chance.”
My Sweetheart is by Flameaway, who, as a 2-year-old, won races on synthetic, turf, and dirt. At 3, she won the Sam F. Davis on dirt.
Evolution, a daughter of Brethren, is the only member of this field to have won on dirt, doing so by 2 3/4 lengths on May 15 at Gulfstream for trainer Carlos David. That came one month after Evolution finished second to the Wesley Ward-trained Satisfied Mind at Keeneland.
Evolution was late switching leads in both of her starts, though she eventually did in her victory.
“She does that,” David said. “That’s the reason I put a shadow roll on her the second time. I didn’t feel like she needed blinkers right away. To switch that lead, you start working on her early and she eventually did get better with it. Hopefully, she does everything right on Friday and we get a win.”
Luis Saez rides Evolution from the rail. Irad Ortiz Jr., who rode her first time out, had a commitment to the Todd Pletcher-trained Angel Gift, who ultimately was not entered in the race.
In 2023, trainer Gary Contessa and owner Lee Pokoik won the Schuylerville with the first-time starter Becky’s Joker, a 21-1 shot in a field of seven. Friday, Contessa and Pokoik send out the first-time starter Bay Yaupon, a daughter of Yaupon, who in his first crop has sired Astoria Stakes winner Sassy C.
Contessa said Bay Yaupon has been outworking all the horses, 2-year-olds or older, that he’s matched her with in the morning.
“She’s a good filly,” Contessa said. “You never know. When that gate opens, even good horses lose their brain, but she seems to do everything right. She’s good-minded and she trains really well.”
Trainer George Weaver entered the maidens Miss Magical and Simone, second and third, respectively, in their debuts. Miss Magical, a daughter of Good Magic, had the rail the day she was second to Angel Gift and is drawn in post 5 on Friday. Simone, a daughter of Vekoma, is drawn on the outside.
Kingsolver, fifth on debut at Churchill for trainer Rodolphe Brisset, completes the field for the Schuylerville, which goes as race 2 on an 11-race card.
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