Wild Applause, Saranac lure large fields of up-and-coming 3-year-olds
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Napoleon Solo’s victory in the Preakness was a defining moment in the training career of Chad Summers. But it wasn’t the only winner he had that memorable afternoon at Laurel Park.
About six hours earlier, Summers sent out his lightly raced but promising 3-year-old filly I Love Giraffes to win a one-mile allowance race on the turf. The career-best performance was flattered when the second- and third-place finishers came back to win their subsequent starts.
On Friday, I Love Giraffes will make her stakes debut in the $150,000 Wild Applause at Saratoga. The one-mile turf fixture is restricted to 3-year-old fillies who have never won a stakes and is the filly counterpart to the $150,000 Saranac to be decided at 1 1/16 miles on the grass about an hour later.
I Love Giraffes has won two of her three career outings and is one of a bevy of key contenders in an extremely well-matched field of 11 in the Wild Applause.
“She won against older horses on Preakness Day, although obviously her performance was overshadowed by what happened later that afternoon,” Summers said, referring to Napoleon Solo’s victory. “But I thought she ran great. She made a couple of moves, had some traffic, ran up on heels, but when she got clear she was able to go on with herself. I thought this was the right spot to try her in a stakes. It gives us an opportunity to see where we’re at with her.”
One can make a case for any number of I Love Giraffes’s rivals. The group includes the graded stakes-placed pair of Smexy and Scratch It along with last-out winners Pillar of Beauty and Paris Carver, as well as the stakes-placed duo of Lovely Grey and To a Flame.
Smexy was Group 3-placed in Europe at 2 and has continued to show improvement since joining trainer Brendan Walsh’s barn upon coming to the U.S. earlier this year. Smexy has made just two starts at 3 and exits an arguably career-best effort when finishing third, beaten just a length by Bandiagara, in the Penn Oaks. The 82 Beyer Speed Figure she earned is the highest last-out number of any member of the Wild Applause field.
Scratch It ran second in the Grade 3 Surfer Girl at Santa Anita in her 2-year-old finale . She indicated a return to that form by defeating entry-level allowance opposition in just her second start this season when back on the turf six weeks ago at Horseshoe Indianapolis for trainer Brad Cox.
Pillar of Beauty posted far and away the highest Beyer Figure in this lineup, an 88, for her 1 1/4-length entry-level allowance tally against older rivals going 5 1/2 furlongs here on Belmont Stakes weekend. She is a major question mark stretching out around two turns for the first time on Friday.
The Saranac looms perhaps an even a bigger challenge for handicappers than the Wild Applause with a full field of a dozen 3-year-olds signed on and a legitimate case to be made for most every member of the lineup.
Siyouincanada owns the highest Beyer Figure in the field, an 85, earned for his gate-to-wire victory when launching his career at Churchill Downs on May 25. He also projects to be the controlling speed if he breaks cleanly on the rail for jockey Jose Ortiz and trainer Joe Sharp, although his relative inexperience could put him at a disadvantage.
Heeere’s Johnny is both the lone graded stakes-placed entrant in the Saranac as well as the only maiden in the field. He finished second in the Grade 2 Pilgrim as a prelude to a fifth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf to close out his 2-year-old campaign but has subsequently finished second and fifth against maiden opposition in his two starts in 2026.
Glavine appears to be sitting on another big effort for trainer Tom Morley after opening his 3-year-old season registering Beyer Figures of 86 and 83. He won his maiden at Aqueduct and then returned to finish an even-running fourth after hopping a bit at the start in his stakes bow here over Belmont Stakes weekend in the Grade 3 Pennine Ridge.
“He got a little unsettled in the gate and lost his ear plug in the paddock beforehand so he’ll wear a red hood on Friday to assure he’ll keep that in all the way to the gate,” Morley explained. “That start cost him the position he needed to be in proper striking distance. It was very frustrating.
“At least we know he’s now run well twice up here, which always gives you the confidence you need, and I feel we’re sitting on a big race with him.”
Arizona Territory, Go Grey, and A Little At First come into the race off allowance victories. Arizona Territory is the tepid 5-2 morning-line favorite, as he exits a very popular and relatively easy tally this spring at Aqueduct for which he earned a career-high 80 Beyer Figure.
“He took a little time to mature mentally,” trainer Chad Brown said. “We’ve been patient with the horse, he’s got a good turn of foot and I think his best days are ahead of him.”
Teddy’s Rocket figures to improve off a troubled fourth-place finish in the Woodhaven Stakes in his 3-year-old debut. The Woodhaven was his first start since a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Summer Stakes seven months earlier at Woodbine.
– additional reporting by David Grening
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