Search Results, Always Carina give Brown strong hand in loaded Test Stakes
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y – Take the first three finishers from the Grade 1 Acorn, the first two from the Grade 2 Mother Goose, the runaway winner of the Grade 3 Victory Ride, put them together and what do you have? Just part of the outstanding field that will assemble Saturday at Saratoga for the Grade 1 Test Stakes.
Search Results, Obligatory, and Make Mischief finished one-two-three while separated by just 1 1/2 lengths at the end of the one-mile Acorn, and they will be turning back to seven furlongs in the Test. Search Results held off the late-striding Obligatory to capture the Acorn by a half-length for her fourth win in five lifetime starts. Her lone setback came by a neck to the favored Malathaat following a grueling battle through the final furlong of the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks.
Trainer Chad Brown sends out Search Results and Mother Goose runner-up Always Carina in the Test.
Brown said he’s not concerned about shortening Search Results up to seven furlongs on Saturday.
“She’s proven from seven to a mile and one-eighth,” he said. “She’s very versatile, and a filly who can adapt to the pace.”
Obligatory rallied from last at the eighth pole to finish a fast-closing second in the Acorn while continuing to show improvement with every start. In her previous outing, Obligatory rallied from last to a one-length victory over a full and talented field in the seven-furlong Eight Belles on the Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill Downs.
Make Mischief has been on the fringes against the best of the division in her three starts since joining trainer Mark Casse’s barn during the spring, finishing third in the Eight Belles and Acorn and fourth after forcing the pace in the Mother Goose.
Always Carina will try to avenge her only loss in three career starts, a second-place finish in the Mother Goose when beaten 1 1/4 lengths by the more experienced Zaajel. Always Carina set the pace while stretching to 1 1/16 miles for the first time in the Mother Goose. Always Carina won her first two starts by a combined margin of 13 3/4 lengths while barely challenged on either occasion.
“She’s had three runs, so I think she knows what she’s doing, although she’s only really been tested once,” said Brown. “But I feel like she’s ready for something like this, and that potentially the race could set up for her.”
Brown said he believes there is little to choose between Search Results and Always Carina in the Test.
“They’ve been training together recently, are doing well, and are very close and hard to separate,” Brown said.
Zaajel opened her career with two easy victories going seven furlongs last winter at Gulfstream Park, including a 1 1/4-length decision after a slow start in the Grade 3 Forward Gal. She tailed off in her next two outings, the Fair Ground Oaks and Edgewood Stakes on the grass at Churchill, before bouncing back in the Mother Goose at odds of 18-1. She earned a career-best 96 Beyer Speed Figure.
Pletcher said he wasn’t quite as surprised as the bettors in Zaajel’s huge effort in the Mother Goose.
“She showed a lot of talent in her first two starts, then we kind of got off track with her going to the Fair Grounds, where she misbehaved in the gate, got away poorly and was rank in the first turn, and then [we] experimented on the grass, which turned out to be the wrong move,” Pletcher explained. “She trained very well for the Mother Goose, so the way she ran wasn’t a shock.”
Illumination may not be one of the favorites in the Test, but she’ll be the focus of plenty of attention.
Illumination will be trainer Bob Baffert’s first New York starter since he was recently granted permission to race horses here after being banned from New York Racing Association tracks in the wake of Medina Spirit’s positive test after his Kentucky Derby victory. Third in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante as a maiden at 2, Illumination has started just once at 3, registering a wire-to-wire eight-length maiden win going six furlongs at Santa Anita on June 4.
She figures to contest the early pace in the Test along with the lightly raced Bella Sofia, who makes her graded stakes debut off a runaway allowance win against older horses four weeks earlier.