Trouble Maker gets rematch

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Tom Albertrani will attempt to turn the tables on his former mentor Bill Mott when he sends out Trouble Maker against likely favorite Stormy West in Wednesday's $80,000 De La Rose Stakes at Saratoga. The one-mile De La Rose shares top billing on the 10-race program with the $80,000 Fleet Indian Stakes going seven furlongs on the main track for older fillies and mares.

Trouble Maker finished third, a neck behind the Mott-trained Stormy West, when the pair met in the seven-furlong Caress Stakes at Belmont Park on June 25. The performance was a major improvement for Trouble Maker, who had finished a distant fifth making her 2008 debut in the six-furlong Upper Noosh Stakes over the same course five weeks earlier under Jean-Luc Samyn.

"The course was really boggy in her first start, and Jean-Luc said she wasn't handling it at all," said Albertrani, who served as an assistant to Mott from 1986-1995. "She came back and ran much better the next time, even though she did just get beat by Bill's filly. She's trained extremely well since that race, and I'd expect she should run even better with two starts under her belt."

Albertrani said his main concern in the De La Rose is the distance.

"She's handled a mile in the past, although I believe six or seven furlongs are her best distances," Albertrani said. "Pace could play a factor. There isn't a lot of speed in the field, and she's at her best coming from behind, although she is a game filly and tries hard all the time."

Stormy West has captured 2 of her 4 starts this year, adding her victory in the Caress to a 1 3/4-length triumph going a mile under second-level allowance conditions this winter at Gulfstream Park. Stormy West also was graded-stakes-placed during the spring when second behind the multiple graded-stakes winner Rutherienne in Keeneland's Grade 3 Jenny Wiley.

The De La Rose is written for fillies and mares who have not won a graded stakes on turf in 2008. Carriage Trail won a graded stakes this year but remains eligible for the race since that victory came over Keeneland's Polytrack in the Grade 3 Doubledogdare. Carriage Trail won her career debut over the local turf course at 2.

Street Sounds, Medley, Unforgotten, and Rasta Farian are among the other top contenders in the competitive event.