Saratoga: Pletcher takes two shots at toppling Zo Impressive in CCA Oaks

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Zo Impressive will attempt to continue her rise up the ranks of the 3-year-old filly division when she takes on just five rivals in Saturday’s $300,000 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga.

Zo Impressive, whose only setbacks in five career starts came at the hands of Grace Hall in the Gulfstream Park Oaks and Contested in the Grade 1 Acorn, enters the CCA Oaks off a hard-fought three-quarter length victory over Disposablepleasure in the Grade 1 Mother Goose. Zo Impressive will have to turn back not one but two fillies from trainer Todd Pletcher’s potent barn in the CCA Oaks with Disposablepleasure joined in the lineup by her multiple graded stakes-winning stablemate In Lingerie.

The remaining three members of the CCA Oaks field are Questing, Funny Proposition, and Yara.

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Zo Impressive benefitted from a perfect pace-stalking trip after drawing outside in the Mother Goose and trainer Tom Albertrani said late Wednesday morning that he hoped his filly would draw outside again in the nine-furlong CCA Oaks. He got his wish a short while later after Zo Impressive pulled post 5 in the field of six 3-year-old fillies.

“I think if she can repeat her last race that she’s the horse to beat again Saturday,” said Albertrani. “I just like to see her outside in that good stalking position again rather than pressured down near the rail if she drew inside.”

In Lingerie will break directly outside Zo Impressive in the Oaks while making her first start since rallying to win Pimlico’s Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan by 1 1/4 lengths two months ago.

“She grabbed herself and we needed a few extra days to heal up before the Mother Goose. But after talking to her connections we decided she couldn’t run in the Mother Goose, Coaching Club, and Alabama, so we decided to give her a little space from there to here and run her twice at this meet,” Pletcher said when asked why In Lingerie passed the Mother Goose.

Disposablepleasure joined Zo Impressive leaving the turn but could not get past her through the stretch, dropping a three-quarter-length decision in the Mother Goose.

“Both fillies are training really well and I’m looking forward to getting both over there,” said Pletcher.