Nest pulls away in Coaching Club American Oaks romp
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After an oddly run first half of the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks on Saturday at Saratoga, Secret Oath came up alongside Nest with 3 1/2 furlongs remaining and the race that most observers expected to see was on.
In short order, it was over.
By the time the field hit the top of the stretch, Nest had put Secret Oath away and bounded clear as a dominant 12 1/4-length winner of the $500,000 Coaching Club Oaks, avenging in a major way her two-length defeat to Secret Oath in the Kentucky Oaks 11 weeks ago.
Secret Oath, who labored home in the final furlong, was still three lengths clear of Nostalgic. Society, away slow before being rushed up to set the pace, finished fourth. Butterbean, who stumbled badly at the break, was basically eased.
Nest delivered a smashing performance six weeks after she ran a game second to stablemate Mo Donegal in the Belmont Stakes. It was how Nest trained following the Belmont that prompted trainer Todd Pletcher to run Nest in the Coaching Club as opposed to waiting for the Grade 1 Alabama on Aug. 20.
“We’ve run a lot of horses in the Belmont over the years, none of them have come out of it any better than she did,” Pletcher said. “Every indication since that race was she was ready to run back.”
:: DRF's Saratoga headquarters – Stakes schedule, previews, recaps, past performances, and more
On paper, it looked like Society would be the pacesetter and Nest could be in a stalking position. But Society as well as Butterbean to her inside, stumbled leaving the gate. Nest broke alertly, and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. opted to go on with it.
Ortiz left the rail open for Society who, under Tyler Gaffalione, rushed up to take a short advantage. Nest was to her outside in the two path with Nostalgic and Secret Oath right there in the three and four paths.
Leaving the half-mile pole, Nest was asked by Ortiz to go and was soon followed by Secret Oath under Luis Saez. Briefly, it looked like it could be a match race to the wire between Secret Oath and Nest, who finished one-two, respectively, in the Kentucky Oaks.
But approaching the top of the lane Nest was cruising while Saez was scrubbing on Secret Oath.
“I was trying to make the first run, but he was on top of me really early,” Ortiz said. “I have in my mind he’s not going to let me go away, he’s going to be right there. I said this is the race, let’s go.
“I feel I got horse on the turn, my filly always drifts a little, she was drifting a little [today] so take a little hold,” Ortiz said. “I realized the other filly can’t keep up, so I take my time and when I asked my filly she responded well.”
Nest, a daughter of Curlin owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Mike Repole, covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:51.04 and received a 104 Beyer Speed Figure. In giving Pletcher his eighth victory in this race, Nest returned $3.90 as the odds-on favorite.
Saez said when he got to the top of the stretch on Secret Oath “we just ran out of horse.”
D. Wayne Lukas, trainer of Secret Oath, said his filly “got outrun” but she will be back to take Nest on again in the Alabama.
“She acted to me like she needed that race more than I expected, especially the last furlong,” Lukas said. “She made her move but she hung. The good news is we’ll have a chance to do it again.”