Special Relativity returns quick for Shine Again Stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Robertino Diodoro typically likes to give Special Relativity ample time between starts. When it comes to running the 4-year-old filly at Saratoga, however, time is of the essence.

Special Relativity is 3 for 3 at Saratoga which, in part, is why he doesn’t mind wheeling her back in two weeks in Wednesday’s $100,000 Shine Again Stakes at seven furlongs.

Special Relativity meets only five rivals in the Shine Again, a race restricted to fillies and mares who have not won a stakes race other than a statebred stakes in 2019. She breaks from the rail under David Cohen.

On July 17, Special Relativity rallied for a half-length victory over pacesetting Carrera Cat in a second-level allowance/optional claiming race. Special Relativity was not claimed for the $62,500 tag.

“She runs better fresh but she’s bounced out of this race really good,” Diodoro said. “I hate the one hole but love the way she’s bounced back training. Ike [Green], my assistant, has been with her for the last six months and he said this is the best she’s been training. I love her in the race, to be honest. I know there’s no such thing as easy, but I love her in here.”

Special Relativity, who won two races here last summer, won from the rail in her most recent start, and with this race being seven furlongs, Cohen should have ample time to break and get a good position.

There should be a good pace with the likes of Mr. Al’s Gal and Saguaro Row in the field. Talk Veuve to Me has also shown an ability to be successful racing on the front end.

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Awestruck, a 5-year-old mare by Tapit, is coming off a closing-second to Mia Mischief in the Roxelana Stakes at Churchill Downs on June 22. She had the advantage of a hot pace battle between Mia Mischief and Covfefe, but she doesn’t meet anything of that caliber in this spot.

“That was probably her best race that she’s had,” trainer Rusty Arnold said. “Seven-eighths I think she’ll love.”

Awestruck is 0 for 10 in stakes and winless in two starts here, including a fourth-place finish in the Summer Colony Stakes at 1 1/8 miles here last summer.

Mr. Al’s Gal hails from the same connections as last Wednesday’s Honorable Miss Handicap winner Minit to Stardom. She is coming off a half-length allowance win at Delaware Park on June 15.

Quick Quick Quick rounds out the field. The Shine Again goes as race 9 on a 10-race card that begins at 1:02 p.m.

A Stallion Stakes rematch

When Kid Is Frosty beat Niko’s Dream in the $150,000 Cupecoy’s Joy division of the New York Stallion Stakes at Belmont Park on June 23, the turf race was run at seven furlongs around one turn.

Niko’s Dream, who had charged the starting gate prior to that race, was running late at Kid Is Frosty but ran out of real estate, falling a neck short.

Wednesday, the two meet again in the $150,000 Statue of Liberty division of the Stallion Stakes at Saratoga, a one-mile turf race around two turns, a configuration that figures to favor Niko’s Dream.

“She likes to come from way off of it,” Barclay Tagg, the trainer of Niko’s Dream, said. “She just gets into gear coming off the last turn and comes flying.”

Junior Alvarado rides Niko’s Dream from post 7.

There is a six-pound shift in the weights favorable to Niko’s Dream in the Statue of Liberty, which drew seven for the turf and Newly Minted for the main track only.