Saratoga: Tannery will only run if Glens Falls remains on turf

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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Alan Goldberg said he will put Tannery on the road leaving Colts Neck, N.J., at 6 a.m. Monday with the hopes he won’t be turning the van around and bringing her back home long before she is scheduled to go off as the likely favorite later that afternoon at Saratoga in the $150,000 Glen Falls Stakes.

Heavy rains forced management to take all but the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch off the turf here Saturday, and with more precipitation in the forecast for Monday, Goldberg is worried he could get a call while en route saying the Glen Falls has been moved to the main track.

“It certainly won’t bother me if the race is run on a soft course because she’s already proven it moves her up,” Goldberg said. “It will bother me if they take the race off the grass because she’s doing real well and I’d like to get the opportunity to run her in that spot. There just aren’t that many races around at a mile and three-eighths or a mile and one-half for fillies and mares.”

Tannery will be returning to Saratoga off a frustrating fourth-place finish against males in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer on Aug. 17. Tannery was hung wide throughout after starting from the extreme outside in post 12, was shuffled back to last after the opening six furlongs of the 1 1/2-mile race, had only one horse beaten entering the stretch, and then finished resolutely outside horses to be within less than three lengths of race winner Big Blue Kitten at the wire.

“I thought she ran a great race in the Sword Dancer,” said Goldberg, who has already won the Grade 1 Diana and Grade 2 Ballston Spa with Laughing earlier in the meet. “It was kind of a weird race for her, nothing went right. But she’s doing real well, even though it will be only 16 days between races, and this is pretty much the same bunch she beat over a soft course at Belmont in the Sheepshead Bay.”

Leading rider Javier Castellano has been named to replace jockey Luis Saez aboard Tannery in the Glen Falls.

Trainer Christophe Clement also is hoping the weather will cooperate and he gets the opportunity to run Mystical Star in the 11-furlong Glen Falls. Mystical Star made the lead near midstretch before tiring to finish third going 1 1/2 milles four weeks ago in the Waya. Mystical Star is winless since capturing the Grade 2 New York at Belmont in May 2012. She also was second over the Polytrack at Keeneland last fall in the Grade 1 Spinster.

“She’s training very well, and I’m looking forward to running her on Monday,” Clement said. “I would prefer the ground not be too soft. She ran well over soft turf last year in the Long Island but not as well over it in the Sheepshead Bay, although I don’t think she was training as well going into that race.”

Anjaz and Minakshi, second and third behind Tannery in the Sheepshead Bay, will try her again Monday, weather permitting.

Anjaz finished a troubled second in the Waya after getting blocked in early stretch. Minakshi has run well in all four starts since shipping to the United States and joining trainer Michael Matz’s barn earlier this year but still seeks her first victory in this country.