Seasons starts career with a win – just like her multiple stakes-winning mother
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Ten years after Winter Memories won her debut at Saratoga, her fourth foal, Seasons, did the same, taking a 1 1/16-mile maiden special by a neck Sunday.
The victory did not come without drama. Seasons, under Jose Ortiz, was saving ground on the inside looking for room at the top of the lane. Room was lacking until the pacesetting Frankel at Ascot ducked in and crashed through the temporary rail in midstretch. Seasons then had more room than she needed, but appeared to get a little lost before holding off Ice Queen by a neck.
“You can’t say she didn’t get an experience out of that race,” said Jimmy Toner, who trains Seasons and trained Winter Memories, a seven-time graded stakes winner. “Stuck in behind horses waiting for the hole to open up, when it does open a horse goes through the fence, and then she didn’t know what to do.
“She was green towards the end. She survived it. I think she’s a quality filly.”
Toner said Seasons did everything he had asked her to do in the morning and wasn’t surprised she was able to win at first asking. Seasons earned a 68 Beyer Speed Figure for the victory.
“There’s very few of them that train that way, and you can bring them over there with confidence that they can get the job done,” he said.
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Toner said the P.G. Johnson Stakes on Sept. 3 is a little too close to run Seasons back. He said Seasons will point to the Grade 2 Miss Grillo Stakes at Belmont Park. Winter Memories won the Miss Grillo in her second start.
The Belmont fall stakes schedule is not out yet, but that race is typically run the last weekend of September or first weekend in October.