Sadler's Joy targeting Saratoga return

ELMONT, N.Y. – Sadler’s Joy, winner of the Grade 1 Sword Dancer in 2017, has twice worked three furlongs this month at Belmont Park and is targeting a return to the races in the Grade 2, $250,000 Bowling Green Stakes at Saratoga on July 27, trainer Tom Albertrani said Thursday.

Sadler’s Joy has not started since he finished third behind Enable in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs last November. Albertrani said it was by design that Sadler’s Joy did not run at Gulfstream Park during the winter. He won graded stakes at Gulfstream in both 2017 and 2018.

“The plan was not to run him at Gulfstream but have him prepared for a mid-summer into the fall kind of campaign,” Albertrani said.

Albertrani said the mid-range goals for Sadler’s Joy are the Bowling Green, a race in which Sadler’s Joy finished third in both 2017 and 2018, and the Grade 1 Sword Dancer, a race he won in 2017 and finished sixth in last year.

Albertrani called last year’s BC Turf, run over yielding Churchill turf, one of Sadler’s Joy’s best races.

“He beat all of the horses that beat him throughout the year and then two fillies from Europe beat him, and it was on soft ground, which is not his preferred surface,” Albertrani said.

Sadler’s Joy, a 6-year-old son of Kitten’s Joy owned by Woodslane Farm, has a record of 6-3-6 from 22 starts and has earned $2.15 million.

Dyna Passer, a 3-year-old half-sister to Sadler’s Joy, won a 1 3/8-mile maiden race on May 23 here. Albertrani said he may run her in the Open Mind Stakes at Monmouth Park on June 30 with the hope of using that as a stepping-stone to the $750,000 Saratoga Oaks Invitational on Aug. 2.

“She looks like she could certainly be an interesting prospect,” Albertrani said.