SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Friday’s $100,000 Perfect Sting Stakes scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on turf at Saratoga came up a like a graded stakes but lacks a standout and, perhaps more importantly, pace. Secret Message has won graded stakes for three consecutive years, and trainer Graham Motion is hoping this race provides a little class relief coming off a sixth-place finish in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland, where she was beaten just three lengths by Rushing Fall. That race was run over extremely firm ground on which a course record was established for 1 1/16 miles. “It was a tough race. I think she probably ran her race,” Motion said of Secret Message. “I don’t have an excuse. It was a Grade 1, she wasn’t beaten very far, and she ran well. It’s hard to come up with a schedule this year. This seemed like a good fit when there’s not much else out there other than going into the Diana.” :: DRF's Saratoga headquarters – Stakes schedule, previews, recaps, past performances, and more Secret Message, a 5-year-old daughter of Hat Trick, ran fourth in last year’s Diana behind a trio of Chad Brown-trained runners. She also finished eighth in the Ballston Spa going 1 1/16 miles over this course. In May, Secret Message came off a 230-day layoff to win the Grade 3 Mint Julep at Churchill Downs in a 14-horse field at odds of 25-1. “She’d been ready to run, we were put on hold, she was plenty fit, but you don’t necessarily expect them to do that against a very solid group that day,” Motion said. “She’s doing really well, she looks great.” Though Secret Message does her best running from off the pace, Motion isn’t concerned by the apparent lack of early speed in this field. John Velazquez rides Secret Message from the outside post in what should be a field of six after the scratch of main track-only entrant Another Broad. “I think Johnny knows her pretty well, I’m not going to tell him what to do,” Motion said. Feel Glorious won the Memories of Silver and Winter Memories Stakes last year at Aqueduct. In two starts this year, Feel Glorious finished third behind Mean Mary and My Sister Nat in the Grade 2 New York and was third, beaten a 1 1/4 lengths by Nay Lady Nay, in the Grade 3 Matchmaker at Monmouth Park. :: Play Saratoga with DRF! Visit our Saratoga shop for DRF PPs, Picks, Betting Strategies, and Clocker Reports “He gave her a little too much to do, but she ran very well and finished all the way to the end,” trainer Christophe Clement said of the Matchmaker effort. Nik Juarez rode Feel Glorious in the Matchmaker. Junior Alvarado, who has won on Feel Glorious, is back aboard Friday. Trainer Chad Brown sends out the uncoupled entry of Cafe Americano and Altea in the Perfect Sting. Cafe Americano, who won the Grade 3 Pucker Up Stakes at Arlington last August, has not run since finishing fourth in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on Oct. 12 at Keeneland. Altea rallied from last to finish in a dead-heat for fourth in the Jenny Wiley after running fifth, one length behind Secret Message, in the Mint Julep. Altea is only 2 for 20 in her career. Chaleur, a winner of a second-level allowance going a mile July 5 at Belmont, makes her U.S. stakes debut in this spot and could be the potential speed under Javier Castellano. Piedi Bianchi, a well-beaten third behind Monomoy Girl in the Grade 2 Ruffian on dirt last out, completes the field. She has raced once on turf, that being a sixth-place finish in the South Beach Stakes at Gulfstream Park in January 2019.