Size, Joint Return join Alabama field
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The field for next Saturday’s Grade 1 Alabama grew by two with the news that Size and Joint Return scratched from Saturday’s Monmouth Oaks to run in the $600,000 Alabama for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/4 miles.
Size, 3 for 4 and the winner of the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks on June 28, is one of three expected to be sent out by Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, who also is pointing America and Miss Besilu to the race. Joint Return, a three-time listed stakes winner and the runner-up in the Grade 2 Delaware Oaks, will get blinkers on for the Alabama, trainer John Servis said Saturday.
“I put blinkers on her, and she’s trained very well in them,” Servis said. “You don’t get the opportunity to run in Grade 1s very often.”
Five horses who have been pointing to the Alabama all along put in workouts Saturday at Saratoga. Stopchargingmaria, the five-length winner of the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks on July 20, worked four furlongs in 47.64 seconds, getting her final quarter in 23.02. She galloped out five furlongs in 1:00.25 and six furlongs in 1:14.25.
Stopchargingmaria worked in company with My Miss Sophia, the Kentucky Oaks runner-up, who is nominated to the Alabama but is not expected to run.
Todd Pletcher, who trains Stopchargingmaria, said the move was typical of what he’s seen from Stopchargingmaria in the past two months.
“For whatever reason, she’s really gotten good and is in great form,” Pletcher said.
Got Lucky, the winner of a July 23 first-level allowance race here for Pletcher, worked a half-mile in 48.32 seconds in company with the filly Curlina. Got Lucky got her last three furlongs in 35.74.
“The mile and a quarter should be right in her wheelhouse,” Pletcher said.
Fortune Pearl, the winner of the Delaware Oaks for trainer Graham Motion, worked five furlongs in 1:02.19, with a final quarter of 25.08 seconds, in company with First Whippoorwill.
Mott’s team of Miss Besilu and America, third and fourth in the CCA Oaks, worked five furlongs together in 1:01.66 over the Oklahoma training track.
Unbridled Forever, the runner-up in the Coaching Club, is the other definite starter for the Alabama. Catch My Drift, 2 for 2, is possible.