Stars and Stripes denies stablemate Parchment Party a Birdstone repeat
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. − Bill Mott won the Birdstone Stakes for the second straight year. This time, he almost won it twice in one day.
Mott's runners finished one-two in the $200,000 Birdstone with the rail-rallying Stars and Stripes nosing out the three-wide and defending Birdstone winner Parchment Party in the 1 3/4-mile dirt race at Saratoga. It was another three-quarters of a length back to Passing Game in third.
“When they got right to the wire, I said ‘That’s pretty close to being a dead heat,’ " Mott said. “I thought we might get it. I would have been happy with a dead heat.”
The result was reminiscent of the Grade 3 Poker Stakes here in June for Mott, who ran one-two with Pass the Hat nosing out Capitol Hill.
The victory by Stars and Stripes validated Mott’s decision to run him in the Birdstone. On Tuesday, Mott entered Stars and Stripes in Saturday’s $150,000 Philip Iselin Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile race run at Monmouth Park.
“I scratched him this morning. We looked at it and said ‘We’re not going to Monmouth, too short,’ " Mott said. “This was just right.”
Stars and Stripes benefited from a rail-skimming ride from Luis Saez, who recorded his 3,998th career victory in the Birdstone. After sitting in third along the inside, Saez came to the head of the lane wondering whether to go inside or outside. When Passing Game came off the inside, the decision was pretty clear and Saez stayed on the fence. Parchment Party, under John Velazquez came three wide, but Stars and Stripes was unrelenting even when Passing Game tightened things up.
“When we come to the top of the stretch, we were just waiting for room,” Saez said. “I knew I had a lot of horse. I got a little worried because the favorite came outside and made [his] move but I never stopped digging. He got right through, for a second I thought we were going to get stuck there and get beat.”
Stars and Stripes, a 4-year-old son of Not This Time owned by Frassetto Stables, covered the 1 3/4 miles in 2:58.90 under showery conditions but over a fast track and returned $6.86 to win.
Parchment Party, who won this race by one length last year, got the trip Velazquez was looking for, but the 5-year-old horse’s tendency to wait on horses may have hurt him in the end.
“I know he waits a little bit so I just hand rode him to the eighth pole then I got after him,” Velazquez said. “He passed [Passing Game], he started waiting on him, I got close to [Passing Game] just so he would feel him and the other horse surprised him. He never saw him.”
Mott said Stars and Stripes and Parchment are workmates in the morning.
“They come through the stretch, they look very similar, they look comfortable doing what they’re doing,” Mott said. “I don’t like to run against myself, that’s crazy if you don’t have to. There’s just a limited amount of races and we had to do it. You train for two different owners, they deserve to run their horse.”
On this day, both deserved to win. By the slimmest of margins, only Stars and Stripes did.
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