Tricky Escape's early lead holds up in diluted Waya Stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Tricky Escape made a beeline for the early lead and couldn’t be caught, winning Sunday’s rescheduled $200,000 Waya Stakes by 3 3/4 lengths at Saratoga.

Mom’s On Strike, the 3-5 favorite who tested Tricky Escape in upper stretch, had to settled for second, 10 lengths in front of Lottie. Savannah Belle was last.

The Waya was originally scheduled for 1 1/2 miles on Aug. 4. It was one of two races canceled due to heavy rain that made the turf course virtually unusable that day.

The race was rescheduled for Sunday, but heavy rain forced management to move all six scheduled turf races to the dirt. This time, management didn’t cancel the Waya, it just ran it on the dirt with a four-horse field. The distance was changed to 1 1/4 miles. By changing surfaces, the Waya loses its grade and is now a listed stakes pending a review of the North American Graded Stakes Committee.

Lynn Ashby, Tricky Escape's trainer, didn’t mind the surface change. She just wanted to run her 5-year-old mare because the horse was doing so well. When the race was canceled Aug. 4, Ashby shipped Tricky Escape back to the Middletown Training Center in Delaware before bringing her back Saturday.

“It’s only five hours and she always rests better at home,” Ashby said. "I thought she was a better horse this weekend than she was last weekend.”

Tricky Escape had previously won graded stakes on turf and dirt. Last year, the Grade 3 Cardinal at Churchill Downs was rained off the turf and run over a sloppy track, and Tricky Escape won from off the pace.

On Sunday, jockey Chris DeCarlo had a different tactic in mind. Remembering how nobody passed Tricky Escape while galloping out after she won last month’s Robert Dick memorial at Delaware, DeCarlo felt he could put Tricky Escape on the lead and play catch-me-if-you-can.

“I didn’t want to get caught four wide in a slow pace,” DeCarlo said. “The way the track was [playing] I figured if I could get the lead and slow it down it’s a bigger benefit to me because then they’re chasing me. Her last race she galloped out and would never let a horse go by, so I had in my mind if I could make the lead, she just may keep going and she did.”

Tricky Escape, a 5-year-old daughter of Hat Trick owned by Jon Marshall, covered the 1 1/4 miles over a fast main track in 2:04.08 and returned $9.70 to win.

Ashby, who won her first race at Saratoga with just her second starter here, said Tricky Escape would be pointed to the $400,000 Ramsey Farm Stakes, at 1 5/16 miles, at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 13. Tricky Escape finished second in that race last year.