Sky's the limit for Schuylerville favorite Beautiful Memories

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After the third time he worked Beautiful Memories, trainer Mark Casse said he called the filly’s owner, John Oxley, and told him: “I breezed her today and she gave me chills. And that doesn’t happen very often.”

Beautiful Memories likely gave Casse and Oxley chills once again several weeks later, when she validated her 2-5 backing to register a wire-to-wire 10-length victory launching her career going five furlongs at Churchill Downs on May 28. That performance stamps her as the one to beat when she faces seven other juvenile fillies in the Grade 3, $100,000 Schuylerville on Thursday’s opening-day card at Saratoga.

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The six-furlong Schuylerville is the first of three graded stakes for 2-year-old fillies during the meet, culminating with the Grade 1 Spinaway on Sept. 6.

Beautiful Memories has worked three times since her eye-catching debut, including a bullet five-eighths in 59.20 on July 4 at Churchill Downs.

“Winning first time out is never my goal, but she’s so extremely talented, there was no stopping her,” said Casse. “She seems to have grown up since her first start. Her last work was good, and I doubt the extra distance is going to bother her.”

Jose Ortiz, who rode Beautiful Memories to victory at first asking, will be aboard again in the Schuylerville.

“Jose happened to be at the training center in Ocala and watched her work from the gate one morning, and afterwards said to me, ‘Who was that!’ ” Casse recalled. “And that’s how he got the mount.”

Beautiful Memories is one of two fillies Casse entered in the race along with Make Mischief, who won her lone start against New York-breds at Belmont Park four weeks ago.

Six of Beautiful Memories’s seven rivals in the Schuylerville were also debut winners, including Hopeful Princess, who was purchased privately by Stonestreet Stables following her three-quarter-length triumph for trainer John Hancock at Churchill Downs on May 21.

Hopeful Princess defeated the Steve Asmussen-trained Mad Maddy to earn her maiden win and has since been transferred to the Hall of Fame trainer by her new connections.

“We feel very fortunate to receive her because we’re very high on the filly she beat that day,” Asmussen said.

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The Schuylerville will have a decided South Florida flavor, with four members of the field having won a maiden race earlier this year at Gulfstream Park: Quinoa Tifah, Hara, Queen Arella, and Dayoutoftheoffice.

Quinoa Tifah defeated the odds-on Lime, trained by Wesley Ward, to capture the first 2-year-old race in the U.S. this season on April 16.

Hara needed two starts to earn her diploma, winning impressively by six lengths going wire to wire at 5 1/2 furlongs on June 19.

The New York-bred Queen Arella defeated Hara when the pair first met in Florida, rallying from mid-pack to an easy a four-length triumph going five furlongs on May 29.

Dayoutoftheoffice shipped from her Tampa Bay Downs base to also post an easy win in her only start, a gate-to-wire 4 3/4-length tally going 4 1/2 furlongs on May 14.

– additional reportingby David Grening