Robin Sparkles will gun it from gate in Caress Stakes
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Robin Sparkles and Caravel have a lot in common. Both fillies have won six of their last eight starts, have never finished off the board on grass, and are coming off a career-best Beyer Speed Figure performance. And both will be making their graded stakes debut when meeting for a second time Saturday at Saratoga in the $200,000 Caress, a Grade 3 dash carded at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf that lured a field of just six fillies and mares, including supplemental entrants Tass and In Good Spirits.
Robin Sparkles, a $40,000 maiden winner here last summer in her only local appearance, will try to use her abundant speed to control the Caress from gate to wire. The front-running style has been successful in each of her six lifetime wins, including her most recent start, defeating high-end allowance competition by 2 1/4 lengths going six furlongs on June 24 at Belmont Park, earning a lifetime-best 94 Beyer.
Robin Sparkles’s lone setback in her last six tries came in her 2020 debut, the License Fee, at Belmont on April 30 when she broke a step slow and never saw the front before finishing second, three-quarters of a length in front of Caravel. It was the pair’s only previous meeting.
“I don’t know what happened to her at the start that day, maybe because it was her first race back off the layoff, or the change in riders,” trainer Bruce Brown said. “Jose [Ortiz] seems to really get her going early. As it was, she was happy to sit where she was and seemed very relaxed, then made her little run to finish second. But I do believe she’s better as a free-running horse, so we’ll just let her do her thing. On paper, the inside horse [Caravel] is the one to beat, so the plan is going to be to get her out of there, put that one in her rearview mirror, and try to control the race as best she can. I’m really excited to see what happens Saturday.”
Caravel is a 4-year-old homebred trained by her breeder, Elizabeth Merryman, who owns the consistent filly in partnership with Bobby Flay. A four-time stakes winner, she also is coming off her best yet when rallying from midpack to a convincing 4 1/4-length triumph in Monmouth Park’s five-furlong Goldwood Stakes four weeks ago for which she earned a 99 Beyer. The Caress will mark her first start at Saratoga.
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“I think her last race was definitely her best so far. She got a really clean trip, which made a difference,” Merryman said. “Although she might have run as well the race before in The Very One, which she won despite getting into a lot of trouble. This is her first start at Saratoga. I’m not worried about the track, she seems to run well everywhere. But you’re always concerned when you come to the big leagues. Hopefully, she belongs.”
If anyone can challenge Robin Sparkles for the lead, it is Jakarta who set the pace before finishing second behind Cariba in the 2020 Caress. She has won twice in nine subsequent starts but not since capturing Gulfstream Park’s Claiming Crown Dash in her 2020 finale in December.
“She’s been a little off form lately but is doing great, likes the course, and worth giving a shot in this spot,” trainer Mike Maker said.
Tass will turn back to 5 1/2 furlongs for only the second time in her career while making her first start of the season and first since being transferred to trainer Carlos Martin earlier this year.
In Good Spirits is a versatile sort who has won at distances ranging from 5 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/16 miles for trainer Al Stall Jr. and is already graded stakes-placed, having finished third in the Grade 3 Regret last year in her 3-year-old campaign.
Flower Point finished within a couple of lengths of both Robin Sparkles and Caravel in the License Fee and comes off arguably one of her better efforts, rallying from more than a dozen lengths off the pace to defeat allowance opposition going seven furlongs last month at Belmont.