Sweet Melania's speed might make the difference in Lake George Stakes
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Sweet Melania may have defeated only four horses in the Grade 3 Wonder Again Stakes two months ago at Belmont Park, but the race has already produced two stakes winners at the Saratoga meet.
Sweet Melania hopes to continue that trend Friday when she goes off as the probable favorite in the Grade 3, $100,000 Lake George Stakes for 3-year-old fillies going a mile over Saratoga’s inner turf course.
Sweet Melania, who was coming off a 232-day layoff, won the Wonder Again as the controlling speed in that one-mile race. Antoinette, who finished third in the Wonder Again, won the $500,000 Saratoga Oaks on Aug. 16. Speaktomeofsummer, who finished fourth in the Wonder Again, won the Grade 2 Lake Placid here July 19.
Sweet Melania did not run in either of those two spots in part because she got sick shortly after the Wonder Again and didn’t resume working until July 24.
Trainer Todd Pletcher was able to get four works into Sweet Melania, who again looks like she could control things on the front end breaking from the rail under Jose Ortiz.
“If someone else shows initiative, she’s proven she doesn’t have to be on the lead to be effective, but from the inside draw I’d imagine she’d be forwardly placed,” said Pletcher, who trains Sweet Melania for Robert and Lawana Low. “We’ll let Jose figure it out.”
Sugar Fix, a recent claim by Saffie Joseph Jr., looks like the other horse who could potentially show speed. She has won four consecutive races and is 6 for 12 overall, though she’s never run in a stakes.
Trainer Michael Stidham will certainly be hoping someone presses Sweet Melania as he sends out the late-running Micheline for Godolphin Racing. Micheline won the Sorority at age 2 and the Honey Ryer Stakes this year and, most recently, finished eighth, beaten just 4 1/2 lengths, in the Grade 3 Regret Stakes on June 27 at Churchill Downs.
Stidham said jockey Joe Bravo “felt like he gave her too much to do” in the Regret.
“I guess the hope is going a mile there’ll be a little more pace that she can run into,” Stidham said. “The filly’s really doing well, she seems to be blossoming right now.”
Joel Rosario will ride Micheline from post 2.
Cat’s Pajamas, trained by Graham Motion, won two races at big prices before finishing fifth as the favorite in the Lake Placid. Selflessly won the Grade 2 Miss Grillo for trainer Chad Brown last fall but finished last of five behind Sweet Melania in the Wonder Again, her lone start this year.
Witez, an allowance winner here in July, and Windracer, an allowance winner on Aug. 8 at Arlington, are other contenders in the field.
Velvet Crush, My Sassy Sarah, and American Giant complete the field on turf. Miss Peppina is entered for the main track.
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Captain Bombastic tops NYSS
Captain Bombastic, fourth to Echo Town in the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens here Aug. 1, heads a five-horse field entered to run 6 1/2 furlongs in Friday’s $100,000 Times Square division of the New York Stallion Stakes.
The Times Square was originally scheduled for Thursday, but did not draw enough entries to be carded for that day. The Times Square drew five for Friday and is scheduled as the opener on the 10-race program.
Captain Bombastic is 3 for 4 against restricted company, his lone loss coming in the $500,000 Great White Way division of the NYSS last December. That race was run over a sloppy track.
Captain Bombastic ran second in a pair of open-company two-turn allowance races at Oaklawn in the spring. He returned to restricted company at Belmont in June, winning the Mike Lee Stakes on June 14 at Belmont.
Dream Bigger, third to him in that race, is back in this field. Dream Bigger, favored against Tiz the Law when both debuted here in August 2019, is a three-time New York-bred stakes winner.
Chowda won the Gander Stakes on Feb. 16 but he has not been out since. Maiden winners Ariesberg and Slash Gordon were supplemented to this race.