Sea Foam holds off Evaluator in Albany Stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - A two-horse race on paper played out like a two-horse race on the track with the front-running Sea Foam holding off the late-running Evaluator by three-quarters of a length to win the $250,000 Albany Stakes for New York-breds at Saratoga.

Sea Foam, who as the 124-pound highweight was spotting seven pounds to Evaluator, made the lead quite easily under Joel Rosario, set fractions of 23.53 seconds for the quarter, 47.51 for the half and 1:11.85 for six furlongs while being stalked by Spectacular Kid.

Rosario didn’t have to ask Sea Foam for run until just outside the eighth pole, and when he did the horse kept going. Evaluator, last early under Manny Franco, was widest of all in the lane and while he was slowly gaining he could not get there. Evaluator finished three-quarters of a length in front of Singapore Trader. Analyze the Odds, Spectacular Kid, and Bad Guy completed the order of finish.

Sea Foam, a son of Medaglia d’Oro owned and bred by John Meriwether’s Waterville Lake Stables and trained by Christophe Clement, covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:50.24 and returned $5.60 as the favorite.

Sea Foam improved his record to 4 for 9 and increased his earnings to $373,570. Not bad for a horse whose owners could not sell him due to a veterinary issue, according to Clement.

Sea Foam added the Albany to an earlier victory this year in the New York Derby, at 1 1/16-miles, at Finger Lakes.

“He’s always been a nice horse, it took me a while to get going, obviously [he prefers] longer on dirt,” Clement said. “Waterville has supported me forever, their policy is usually to keep their fillies and sell their colts. They couldn’t sell that one because he had a vet issue, so I’m delighted it worked out.”

Manny Franco, Evaluator's rider, said he tried to save ground down the backside, but was instructed by trainer Michael Dilger to tip outside when it was time to make his run.

“He didn’t want me to get stopped,” Franco said. “He was coming little by little, but the winner kept going, he never stopped.”

Clement said Sea Foam would be pointed to the $300,000 Empire Classic for New York-breds at Belmont on Oct. 20.