Untapable on course for Cotillion

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama, the biggest race of the summer for 3-year-old fillies, will be run Saturday, but it will be lacking the division leader, Untapable.

A winner of four graded stakes, including the Kentucky Oaks and Mother Goose, Untapable is pointing to the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion Stakes at Parx on Sept. 20. Untapable suffered her first loss of the year when she finished fifth against males in the $1 million Haskell Invitational on July 27. Untapable has not worked since, but trainer Steve Asmussen said she likely would return to the work tab Sunday or Monday.

“We just hacked her around for a week,” Asmussen said Thursday. “She’s been back galloping, and it looks like weather-wise, we’re probably going to breeze her this Sunday. We feel good about the timing and being on target for the Cotillion.”

Asmussen said that when the decision was made to run in the Haskell, “it eliminated an opportunity in the Coaching Club and the Alabama.”

Asmussen said Untapable came out of the Haskell “a little dehydrated,” but she has benefitted from the rather comfortable temperatures that have been prevalent this summer.

“We’ve been very blessed with a cool summer,” Asmussen said. “Her blood work looked excellent this week.”

Asmussen said the timing between the Cotillion and the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Oct. 31 “fits in well.”