SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher has trained some special fillies in his Hall of Fame career. Rags to Riches, the 2007 Belmont Stakes winner, and Ashado, a seven-time Grade 1 winner and Hall of Famer, immediately come to mind. Malathaat is attempting to work her way into that category. Malathaat, who has won all five of her career starts including the Kentucky Oaks, figures to add a third Grade 1 victory to her résumé when she meets three rivals in Saturday’s $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks going 1 1/8 miles at Saratoga. Pletcher is a seven-time winner of the Coaching Club, including four of the 10 that have been run at Saratoga since 2010. “She’s just an elite talent,” Pletcher said of Malathaat. “She has so much natural ability, she loves the game. Everyone that rides her tells me she’ll identify a target and loves the competition. She’s the complete package. She’s tactical if needed. I think she should only improve as she gets older and the longer the races are.” Malathaat’s two victories in 2021 came by narrow margins. She won the Grade 1 Ashland off a 119-day layoff, running down Pass the Champagne to win by a head. Malathaat came back four weeks later to outfight Search Results to win the Kentucky Oaks by a neck. Search Results came back to win the Grade 1 Acorn in her next start and is targeting the Grade 1 Test here on Aug. 7. Malathaat was briefly under consideration for the Belmont Stakes. But Malathaat’s weight after the Kentucky Oaks was a concern for Pletcher, who wanted to make sure he had a filly for the second half of the year. “The main focus was we didn’t want her to have a gut-wrenching race in the Belmont and that could possibly compromise the rest of her season,” said Pletcher, who trains Malathaat for Shadwell Stable. Malathaat has a series of steady breezes, many with extended gallop-outs, that should have her prepared for the 1 1/8 miles off an 85-day layoff. John Velazquez, seeking a record sixth CCA Oaks victory, rides Malathaat from the rail. Since Malathaat figures to be a 1-5 favorite in the Oaks, the race will be run as the fifth on an 11-race card that also includes the Grade 3, $200,000 Caress Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf. In the CCA Oaks, Malathaat meets two horses she defeated in the Kentucky Oaks. Clairiere, fourth in the Kentucky Oaks, is a daughter of Curlin out of the dam Cavorting, who was a four-time graded stakes winner at Saratoga including the Test at 3 and the Personal Ensign at 4. Clairiere won the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra at Fair Grounds in February before running second in the Fair Grounds Oaks. She had a little traffic in the Kentucky Oaks and just missed third by a nose. In the Grade 2 Mother Goose, Clairiere stumbled at the start and could only manage a third-place finish in the five horse field. Trainer Steve Asmussen thought Clairiere’s five-furlong work in 1:00.60 over the Oklahoma training track “was the best work I’ve ever seen her put in.” Maracuja, seventh in the Kentucky Oaks, was pointing to the Mother Goose before she suffered a minor setback. She did run well when second to Search Results in the Grade 3 Gazelle at this 1 1/8-mile trip. :: Visit DRF's Saratoga shop for all your handicapping needs: Past performances, picks, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more Trainer Rob Atras didn’t think Maracuja broke particularly sharp in the Oaks, finishing 7 1/2 lengths behind Malathaat. Atras is hoping Ricardo Santana Jr. can get Maracuja out of the gate better and be closer to what figures to be a tepid pace. Atras isn’t necessarily thinking that Maracuja, also coming off an 85-day layoff, is going to upset Malathaat. “That filly is a monster,” Atras said. “Not coming in expecting to beat her. Obviously, we want to. It’s a horse race, anything can happen. If we ran second to her, I’d be very happy with that.” Rockpaperscissors, a daughter of Distorted Humor, is coming off an off-the-turf allowance win at Indiana Grand on June 21, her first start off a nine-month layoff. Trainer Rodolphe Brisset expects Rockpaperscissors to be on the lead under Luis Saez. “We’re not scared to do that,” Brisset said. “If this one goes by and that one goes by, we wouldn’t be surprised. If we’re third, I’ll shake hands and be happy.”