Now 7, Saratoga Vision drops to score against easier company

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Saratoga Vision drops out of Grade 3 stakes company to contest a conditioned allowance with a $50,000 claiming option on Saturday. The erratic stretch-runner could find the mark in the seven-furlong main-turf sprint if she simply fires one of her better shots.

Owned and trained by Alex Patykewich, Saratoga Vision’s career highlight was arguably a close second at 84-1 in the Grade 3 Selene while still a maiden in 2020. In 2022, she scored twice in allowance company on different surfaces.

Saratoga Vision, now 7, had an abbreviated four-race campaign in 2023, which included a victory over Ambassador Luna and champion Hazelbrook in a seven-furlong conditioned allowance in August, for which she got a career-high 90 Beyer Speed Figure. She ran sixth in each of her last two outings, the Ontario Matron in October and her June 1 comeback in the Belle Mahone.

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Saratoga Vision gets in light with apprentice Austin Adams retaining the mount against eight other females, including the hard-knocking Perhaps Tonight. Both run for the $50,000 claiming tag.

Irish-bred Perhaps Tonight has had two productive stints with trainer Marty Drexler, who sent her out to win back-to-back one-mile turf events at Gulfstream Park early in 2023. He lost her here for $32,000 on May 27 of last year and then claimed her right back for $50,000 three weeks later.

Drexler won two more races with Perhaps Tonight here last summer, both on the main turf at the level of Saturday’s engagement. She is winless in her last five starts while managing a pair of runner-up placings on different surfaces at Gulfstream. Eswan Flores will ride the 6-year-old for TEC Racing.

Queen Macha, fresh off a charging second at this level on the Tapeta, is Drexler’s other entrant.

Trainer Christophe Clement ships in Loon Cry from Belmont Park for her first start since a fifth-place finish behind Perhaps Tonight in a March 23 conditioned allowance/optional claimer at Gulfstream. Victorious Ocean Club subsequently won the $75,000 Monroe Stakes at Gulfstream with a 91 Beyer.

English Shirl wired first-level allowance opposition going 6 1/2 furlongs off an extended layoff on the Tapeta on May 25. The temporary rail’s position in lane 4 might benefit her forward style.

Speed Trap is making her second turf start of the year following a troubled ninth in the Grade 3 Whimsical here on the Tapeta. Prior to that, she set a fast pace before coming up empty in the Dec. 23 Tropical Park Oaks going long over the Gulfstream grass. She is better suited to the conditions of Saturday’s race.

Pemberley has been sidelined since a poor showing on the Tapeta here Nov. 2. Her best 2023 races were on the grass and her hot trainer, Mike Mattine, has decent stats with six-month-plus layoff runners.

Post time for Saturday’s 10-race card is 1:10 p.m.

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