Sunday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Added distance of Adirondack shouldn’t bother Italian Soiree
Saratoga | Race 9 | Post Time 5:45 p.m. (ET)
White Sands (#8) is easily the most intriguing filly in the Grade 3 Adirondack. This younger half-sister to sprint champion Jackie’s Warrior, sired by top 2-year-old stallion Into Mischief, is obviously bred to be a good one. So it’s curious that Wesley Ward elected to start her career not in Kentucky or New York, but rather in Ohio and Iowa. After her facile debut win at Belterra Park she easily handled a stakes assignment at Prairie Meadows, drawing away from a group of males by open lengths. She certainly presents herself as a horse with far greater ability than the competition she’s faced. Yet now she’s going to be a short price coming off those visually impressive scores, and she’s getting a pretty significant class test facing rivals who have already run just as fast.
The Queens M G (#9) is arguably the horse to beat based on her shocking 44-1 Schuylerville upset. Yet perhaps it was her disappointing Astoria that was the aberration, since her debut race was strong, and she bounced back to form last time. That 103 TimeformUS Speed Figure is the highest in this field. The only drawback is that she could vie for favoritism now after paying $90 last month. Whatintheliteral (#1) easily beat that rival when they faced off in the Astoria before the Jena Antonucci trainee dropped her rider at the start of the Schuylerville. She showed the ability to rate and finish in her second start, and that versatility may aid her here.
There is plenty of speed signed on, and the TimeformUS Pace Projector is unsurprisingly predicting a fast pace. That should work to the advantage of Italian Soiree (#2), who is flagged as possessing the highest Late Pace Rating in the field. I liked the way this filly won her debut at Aqueduct, as she had to briefly rate behind horses after veering in at the start. She raced handily thereafter, moving up to challenge the leader on the turn before pulling away through the stretch. She really seemed to hit her best stride across the wire, opening up a bigger margin on the gallop-out. That visual coupled with her route-oriented pedigree leads me to believe that she can step forward stretching out an additional furlong. I like that Flavien Prat keeps the mount, and John Terranova is an underrated trainer with his lightly raced runners.