The final race in the Triple Crown comes Saturday at Saratoga. On Sunday at Churchill comes the first race of the second season for the 3-year-old dirt-route class. The Matt Winn Stakes, a Grade 3 worth $400,000, serves as a gateway to several regional summer derbies as well as the Jim Dandy at Saratoga and even the Haskell at Monmouth. Disarm, the 2023 Matt Winn winner, went on to finish second in the Travers. Cyberknife, the 2022 Winn winner, was second in the Haskell. Trainer Brad Cox, who won the race with Cyberknife and with Fulsome in 2021, entered two, but Nash, the morning-line favorite, is in New York to start Saturday in the Woody Stephens Stakes. Mighty Message was cross-entered in a Saturday race at Prairie Meadows but runs in the Winn, trainer Tom Amoss said. Trainer Tom Drury said Who Dey would be scratched from an Ohio-bred stakes Friday in favor of a Matt Winn try. Society Man, based in New York since shortly after his 16th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, starts in the Winn, trainer Danny Gargan said, but California-based Scatify didn’t travel to Louisville. That would leave a field of eight, and Who Dey could be favored. While Society Man and West Saratoga, who was 12th in the race, exit the Derby, Who Dey and Northern Flame come out of the Pat Day Mile on the Derby undercard. Many viewed the Pat Day as a relatively soft race before and immediately after it was run, but Seize the Gray shifted that narrative coming out of his Pat Day win to land the Preakness. Who Dey, an Ohio-bred in name only, is by Liam’s Map out of the Indian Charlie mare Pelipa. A massive, lumbering colt, Who Dey went 4 for 4 as a 2-year-old, ending his campaign with an open allowance win at Churchill following three Ohio-bred triumphs. Drury opened Who Dey’s 3-year-old season in the seven-furlong Lafayette at Keeneland, where Who Dey fought through a challenging trip to finish second to front-running winner Glengarry. Who Dey had a decent enough Pat Day Mile journey but was one-paced to the wire, settling for a close fourth under Brian Hernandez Jr. after reaching the three-sixteenths pole in contending position. The colt’s win in his lone two-turn outing came against Ohio-bred 2-year-olds. “He galloped out well on Derby Day. Brian really felt like we should try” two turns, Drury said. “He’s training lights out.” Cox runs Rocketeer, a twice-started Curlin colt who won his long-sprint debut at Keeneland last fall and finished a close third over a sloppy track facing first-level route allowance foes in April. Rather than face older rivals in a nine-furlong allowance race this weekend, Cox opted for the Winn. “I’m not normally one to skip a condition, but I thought he deserved a chance in there,” Cox said. “He’s a horse that should improve.” Draw a line through Society Man’s Derby and he shows contending form from a maiden win and a second in the Wood Memorial. “He’s no superstar, but he’s a cool horse and should fit with this group,” Gargan said. Trainer Kenny McPeek also starts an understudy type, Northern Flame, ninth in the Pat Day a couple hours before McPeek won the Derby with Mystik Dan. McPeek said Northern Flame got off to a poor start in the Pat Day Mile and never found his rhythm. “He’s a nice horse, a notch-below kind of 3-year-old,” McPeek said. The Winn this year is a notch-below kind of race. Next Level and Mighty Message wouldn’t need a lot of improvement to factor, either. The gateway to the second half of the 3-year-old year stands wide open. Emery tops Leslie’s Lady A visitor at the Brad Cox barn on Friday at Saratoga suggested they were struggling to determine the baseline class of the 3-year-old filly Emery. “Me, too!” Cox concurred. More evidence will become available Sunday at Churchill in the $175,000 Leslie’s Lady, a seven-furlong dirt race that drew seven 3-year-old fillies including likely favorite Emery. Emery beat only four foes in her debut win last summer at Saratoga, then went to Aqueduct favored in the Grade 1 Frizette after Cox scratched her from the Alcibiades at Keeneland. “I thought she’d win,” Cox said. She did not. Emery splashed home fourth in the Frizette, a defeat that looked better after Frizette heroine Just F Y I won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. For Emery, it was on to a winter break, with the filly returning April 19 at Keeneland in a six-furlong first-level allowance. As in her debut, Emery won by open lengths in a small field. “I don’t know how good she is yet, but I like her,” Cox said. Emery has a favorable outside draw and seven furlongs figures to suit the filly, though her win price won’t be anything to write home about. Heavily campaigned California shipper Tambo is the 3-1 second choice on the morning line, but she’s a forward-running filly who could face pace pressure. Blue Squall, who can rally into a contested pace, should offer value cutting back to a sprint from a two-turn stakes at Oaklawn. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.