Three-horse Shuvee Stakes still intrigues

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – There are only three horses in Sunday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Shuvee Handicap at Saratoga, but the 1 1/8-mile race for fillies and mares still has some intrigue to it.

Terra Promessa, who has already won two graded stakes this year, including a 7 1/2-length victory in the Grade 3 Allaire duPont Distaff at Pimlico, meets Paid Up Subscriber, who in her most recent start gave the two-time champion Songbird everything she could handle before succumbing late in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps.

Apologynotaccepted, the third entrant, comes off a solid second behind Forever Unbridled in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis Handicap at Churchill Downs.

“It is a very fast three,” said Steve Asmussen, the trainer of Terra Promessa.

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Terra Promessa, a 4-year-old daughter of Curlin owned and bred by Stonestreet Stables, may be the fastest of the three. She has won 7 of 12 starts overall and is 3 for 5 this year with a runner-up performance behind Stellar Wind – the 3-year-old champion filly of 2015 – in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park.

Terra Promessa rebounded from that loss with a dominant, front-running victory in the duPont for which she equaled her career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 97. After getting some time off on the farm, she returned to the work tab in late June at Churchill before moving to Saratoga.

“She’s trained nice up here, put in very good work,” Asmussen said outside his Saratoga barn. “I do feel she’s become a considerably faster mare with age, a Curlin trend. I really like the win at the mile and an eighth last time.”

Terra Promessa breaks from post 3 under Jose Ortiz.

If there is a concern for Asmussen, it’s that Terra Promessa has the same front-running style as Apologynotaccepted. Apologynotaccepted set the early pace in the Fleur de Lis before being run down by Forever Unbridled, a two-time Grade 1 winner and an earner of more than $1.7 million.

“It looks like they try to make the lead with her,” Bill Mott, the trainer of Apologynotaccepted, said of Terra Promessa. “Our filly wants to be up close, too.”

With that, the race could set up for Paid Up Subscriber, who is looking to snap a six-race losing streak dating to June 2016, when she won the Fleur de Lis. In the last year, Paid Up Subscriber has finished second in three Grade 1 stakes, including the Phipps, where she challenged Songbird in midstretch, only to get outrun in the final sixteenth, losing by one length.

A race like that can either move a horse forward or potentially break a horse’s heart. Chad Brown, the trainer of Paid Up Subscriber, believes his filly has moved forward.

“I really like the way she’s come out of that race and has trained since,” Brown said. “I think this is her trip, two turns, mile and an eighth, fits her perfect.”

John Velazquez will ride Paid Up Subscriber from post 2.

With only three horses, the Shuvee was carded as the first race on a 10-race card that begins at 1 p.m. Eastern.