Go Go Boots struts into G2 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Oaks Invitational

Some of the top 3-year-old turf fillies around will take the stage at Saratoga Race Course in Saturday’s seventh running of the Grade 2, $500,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Oaks Invitational.

Contested over 1 3/16 miles on the Mellon turf, the race has been won in its past three editions by foreign invaders, two from the U.K. and one from France. Last year, an imperious Cinderella’s Dream asserted herself smartly, giving Godolphin its third victory in the race. This year, one filly will make the trek across the Atlantic to take on the locals in former John & Thady Gosden-conditioned Go Go Boots, who carries the colors of American owner Bobby Flay and will run for the first time for trainer Miguel Clement. 

In a quintet of efforts thus far, Go Go Boots sashayed her way into top-class competition, competing in some of the most historically prestigious early-season races for sophomore fillies in the UK, including a third in the Group 3 Musidora - oft-considered the strongest prep for the Group 1 English Oaks - a ninth in said Oaks at Epsom and a respectable fourth last out in Royal Ascot’s Group 2 Ribblesdale, the ‘Ascot Oaks.’ 

On the same shipment that included Godolphin’s Grade 1 Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer contenders Nations Pride and El Cordobes that arrived on Thursday morning, Go Go Boots came into Clement’s yard soon after clearing quarantine this weekend. 

By Night of Thunder, who is having a banner year on both sides of the pond, she was a $247,740 purchase at the May 2024 Arqana Breeze Up Sale and is a daughter of stakes winner Hertford Dancer, herself third in the 2017 Ribblesdale. Like her mother, she has no lack of stamina and seems to enjoy quicker going. Additionally, a level left-handed layout will likely be of little concern for connections, as she won her first two starts over Lingfield’s all-weather course. Jose Ortiz will ride the promising import from post 3.

“She’s a very straight-forward, typical European filly,” Clement said. “She came to me in great condition from Mr. Gosden and I’m very excited to train her for Mr. Flay, who gave our stable our only Breeders’ Cup winner Pizza Bianca, so we’ll do our best with this talented filly. 

“She’s definitely better on firm than soft turf, looking at her European form,” Clement continued. “John and Thady Gosden did all the preparation for her. All we have to do is look after her well-being and happiness and do what we can to keep her appetite up. They did the work until now, so we will try to keep her ticking along.” 

Stephanie Seymour Brant’s Opulent Restraint [post 1, Flavien Prat] brings one of the best pedigrees on the grounds and a consistent record into the Saratoga Oaks for five-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown, who seeks his first victory in the race. 

By Dubawi and out of Brant’s 2019 Grade 2 Ballston Spa winner Significant Form, the gray filly enters off a respectable third in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational on July 5, an effort that followed a fourth in Tampa Bay Downs’ Grade 3 Florida Oaks in March, then a second in Aqueduct Racetrack’s Listed Memories Of Silver in late April. A winner on the Saratoga turf to break her maiden at two, her top and last win to date was the Listed Chelsey Flower seven weeks later in October. 

“She keeps improving and acts like a quality filly with a big future,” Brown said. “She did [dig in] last time. I believe she can carry her speed farther. We’ll try and see. It depends on the pace.” 

Bregman Family Racing’s Rusty Arnold-trained blueblood Totally Justified [post 5, Manny Franco], last year’s Listed P. G. Johnson winner at Saratoga, seeks to give her conditioner his first win in the race since taking the inaugural running in 2019 with Concrete Rose. 

The daughter of Justify and Magician’s full-sister Outstanding [third in the 2015 Belmont Oaks] looks to iron out a volatile 2025 form cycle that includes a well-beaten seventh in the Belmont Oaks last out; a strong half-length second to subsequent Belmont Oaks winner Fionn in the Grade 3 Regret at Churchill Downs one race prior to that; and another defeat to highly-regarded Nitrogen in the Grade 2 Appalachian at Keeneland before that. 

“If you throw out her last race, she belongs,” Arnold said. “We really don’t have an answer to why she ran poorly here last time. That was the only bad race of her life. She came out of it great. She is acting good, so we decided to just draw a line through it and move on. This was our plan when we came here, and we stuck with it. The added distance shouldn’t bother her.” 

Newstead Stables’ Laurelin [post 6, Kendrick Carmouche] puts her undefeated record on the line for trainer Graham Motion. 

Winning on debut in October at Belmont at the Big A, she returned to win the Tepin five weeks later there to cap her juvenile season. Returning in April, she won the Listed Memories of Silver over the same course and mile distance, before returning two months later at Penn National to win the Penn Oaks over the same distance to remain a perfect 4-for-4. Stretching out one furlong beyond her farthest trip, the daughter of useful sire Zarak [a son of Dubawi and Arc winner Zarkava] will have some questions to answer, but her will to win is clearly not in query. 

“We got a little messed up with the race at Penn that kept getting pushed back, but maybe in the end, that’ll be a blessing,” Motion said. “She’s kind of bred to do this, so I don’t have any concerns about the step up. She’s very kind to train, but she can also be very tough and straightforward. A gritty filly who is uncomplicated at the same time. She always showed plenty of ability as a 2-year-old. I didn’t expect her to go undefeated, but I’m not completely surprised with how well she’s done. She always backed it up. She’s not a flashy horse to look at, but she’s well put-together.” 

Heider Family Stables’ Sigh No More looks to join 2022’s With The Moonlight as the second Irish-bred to take the race when she makes her third start for trainer Brendan Walsh. 

Fresh off a 1 1/2-length victory in Monmouth Park’s Boiling Springs on June 29 after a wide fourth in the Listed Hilltop on stateside bow over Preakness week, she previously made seven starts for Joseph O’Brien, capped with a soft-ground tally in Leopardstown’s Group 3 Eyrefield over nine furlongs. By Starspangledbanner, sire of course-and-distance 2021 Saratoga Derby Invitational winner State Of Rest, the four-time winner will be ridden by Irad Ortiz, Jr. from post 2. 

“She’s doing good, really good, actually,” Walsh said. “We were delighted with her last run at Monmouth, where she improved from her first run. Hopefully she can improve off that, again, which is possible because I think she’s still learning the way to race here.”

Fellow Irish-bred Evershed completes the field and will represent the always-capable yard of Arnaud Delacour when she breaks from post 4 under Dylan Davis. 

Making just her second start of the year and fourth of her career, the unexposed sort was a smart allowance winner facing elders at Colonial Downs on July 9 and broke her maiden well in December at Tampa Bay Downs for owner Mark Grier. Held in high esteem by connections from the outset, she hails from a respected Aga Khan female family and was a $369,665 purchased at Arqana’s Deauville Yearling Sale in 2023. 

“It wasn’t by design to go from a 2-other-than at Colonial to a Grade 2 at Saratoga, but we have had it in mind and we quite liked the filly last year,” Delacour said. “Unfortunately, after she won in December, she had a little setback and we had to take care of that and she missed pretty much all of the beginning of the season, so we got her a race at Colonial Downs, and she did very well against older horses. The goal was all along to get her to one of these races, so I know it’s not the best way to get there, but we got a race under her belt and if she’s as good as we think, she’ll show up. She doesn’t have to win, but if she can be competitive with that bunch, I’ll be very happy.

“The owner Mark Grier went to France to buy her and really liked her on pedigree, and it looked like she could stretch out in distance, so I like this trip for her,” Delacour continued. “She’s a very neat filly who looks quite versatile as to the ground and she’s in good form and doing well, so we will see.” 

The Saratoga Oaks is slated as Race 9 on Saturday’s 12-race card that also features the Grade 1, $750,000 Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer in Race 10. First post is 12:35 p.m. Eastern.

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