Secret Oath, Nest set to square off in Coaching Club American Oaks

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It would appear that Secret Oath and Nest will make it easy on Eclipse Award voters by settling their battle for the 3-year-old filly championship on the racetrack.

Secret Oath beat Nest by two lengths in the Kentucky Oaks on May 6, and the two 3-year-old fillies appear set to meet twice at the Saratoga meet. The first of those two meetings takes place Saturday when the pair head a field of five entered in the Grade 1, $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga.

Nest drew post 3 and Secret Oath drew post 5 in the 1 1/8-mile race that leads to the Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama Stakes on Aug. 20.

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Secret Oath, trained by D. Wayne Lukas, is 3 for 5 this year having defeated her own gender all three times – including in the Martha Washington and Grade 3 Honeybee at Oaklawn prior to the Kentucky Oaks. In between, she finished third against males in the Arkansas Derby.

Nest, trained by Todd Pletcher, won the Suncoast Stakes at Tampa and the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland before running second in the Oaks.

Both fillies tried colts in the spring classics, with Secret Oath finishing fourth behind Early Voting in the Preakness and Nest finishing second behind stablemate Mo Donegal in the Belmont.

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“Head to head she beat us in the Oaks, she made an aggressive move and went to the Preakness, we made an aggressive move and went to the Belmont,” Pletcher said. “We obviously have to beat her head to head to get in front, but there’s still plenty of racing left.”

Butterbean, who has won three straight including the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks last out; Society, 3 for 3 including a victory in the Monomoy Girl Stakes on June 18 at Churchill; and Nostalgic, the Grade 3 Gazelle winner who finished 10th in the Kentucky Oaks; complete the field.

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The CCA Oaks will go as race 5 on an 11-race card that begins at 1:05 p.m.

Also on Saturday’s card is the Grade 3, $200,000 Caress Stakes for filly and mare turf sprinters at 5 1/2 furlongs. The 10-horse field features a rematch of Caravel and Star Devine, the 1-2 finishers in the Grade 3 Intercontinental Stakes on June 10 at Belmont Park.

Lady Edith (fourth), Toby’s Heart (seventh), and Miss J McKay (eighth) also exit the Intercontinental.