Evershed makes stakes bow in G2 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Oaks Invitational

Saratoga Race Course Notes

• Evershed makes stakes bow in G2 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Oaks Invitational

• May Day Ready points to G2 Lake Placid
• Ocean Club looks for another graded score in G2 Ballston Spa

Mark Grier’s Evershed will look to tally her third consecutive victory when making her stakes debut in Saturday’s Grade 2, $500,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Oaks Invitational, a 1 3/16-mile Mellon turf test for sophomore fillies, at Saratoga Race Course. 

Trained by Arnaud Delacour, the Irish-bred daughter of Churchill finished a flat fifth on debut sprinting 5 1/2 furlongs in October at Laurel Park, but relished added ground when stretched out to one mile on December 7 at Tampa Bay Downs to graduate by one length after stalking the pace and pouncing to the lead in the stretch. 

“The only bad race she has is when we ran her short the first time, and that was just because we wanted to give her a race,” Delacour explained. “That was obviously not her cup of tea, and she needs some distance. She has done everything right since, including coming back off a layoff to win. I couldn’t be happier with her.”

A $369,665 purchase at the 2023 Arqana Deauville August Yearling Sale, Evershed is a half-sister to dual group/graded stakes-winner Bayrir, who captured the 10-furlong Grade 1 Secretariat in 2012 at Arlington Park. 

The bay filly was away from the races until July 9, but showed no signs of rust when trying 1 1/16 miles for the first time and annexing a first-level allowance by 1 1/2 lengths at Colonial Downs to ace her first test against winners. The effort was awarded a career-best 79 Beyer Speed Figure, and gave Delacour the impression that Evershed should be just fine with even more ground on Saturday. 

“It remains to be seen, but the pedigree is a European pedigree, a good Aga Khan pedigree,” Delacour said of the filly who is out of the winning Darshaan mare Balankiya. “On paper, it looks like they [horses from the family] want distance and can go a mile and a quarter or more, but we’ll see how it sets up.

“We had a bit of a setback and had to miss the first part of the year, but I’ve always thought very highly of her,” Delacour added. “I think it is a good spot to try her at a better level.”

Evershed will emerge from post 4 with Dylan Davis in the irons, and Delacour said he will leave tactics in the capable hands of her multiple Grade 1-winning rider as the field of six likely features a lone-speed contender in Opulent Restraint from the inside post. 

“There’s not a lot of pace on paper, and so far we’ve been trying to get some cover with her stalking and then make one run,” Delacour said. “I don’t know if that’s going to be possible, but it’s up to Dylan to see how fast they are going and try to adapt to the pace scenario.”

Evershed returned to the work tab on July 24 over the all-weather surface at Fair Hill, posting a bullet half-mile in 48.60 seconds. She came back to work over the turf there on August 1 with a half-mile in 53 flat. 

“I didn’t think she needed much more than that,” Delacour said of the turf move. “I was happy because she had a really good work a couple weeks after the race, so I just wanted to go out there and let her enjoy herself and that’s what she did.”

May Day Ready points to G2 Lake Placid

Last year’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf runner-up May Day Ready, hailing from the barn of Joe Lee for KatieRich Stables, worked at Saratoga on Sunday, breezing four furlongs over the Oklahoma turf in 49.62 seconds. The Tapit bay, last seen finishing a four-length fourth in the nine-furlong Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational on July 5 here, will point to the Grade 2, $400,000 Lake Placid on August 23 at one-mile for sophomore fillies.

“She went well,” Lee said. “I’m really happy with how she looks and her work.

"After discussing it [the Belmont Oaks] with Frankie [Dettori], we felt that she would prefer a mile or closer to it as opposed to something farther. I think having a couple more weather-dependent works, next Sunday and the Sunday after, could be very good for her, as well.” 

The $325,000 blue-blooded daughter Group 1 Coronation runner-up Nemoralia - who placed in her own Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf in 2015 - looks to improve upon four consecutive losses and return to the form that saw her win on debut at Saratoga by a nose last August ahead of stakes victories in the Listed Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies and Keeneland’s Grade 2 Jessamine. Her run in the Breeders’ Cup was of considerable credit, as she finished one length in front of Nitrogen and 1 1/2-lengths behind four-time top-flight winner Lake Victoria. 

A bold, but ultimately failed, attempt at Group 1 company in Japan capped her juvenile season and a sealed-track last-of-three run behind an imperious Nitrogen in the Grade 3 Wonder Again on June 7 here kicked off her campaign before the recent Belmont Oaks run.

“In my opinion, I know how far along she was in her training because she didn’t really get much out of that Wonder Again when they took it off the turf,” Lee explained. “It was a mile race, and she ran for maybe five-eighths and came home the last quarter in 29 seconds just galloping easy home and not getting much out of that; more of a work than a race. Going into the Belmont Oaks, to only get beat four lengths and having what was really her first real race back in six months - that wasn’t a bad run at all, especially against the two best turf fillies on this side of the country. 

“She’s pretty much the same inquisitive and smart filly who does everything right,” Lee concluded. “It’s always good when fillies are mentally are the same from two to three. Physically, she’s grown somewhat. She’s not a big type of filly like Nitrogen, but she has grown and filled out and I’m pleased with how she’s doing as she matures. Hopefully these couple weeks here will give us that time to get even better and we’ll be in good shape.” 

May Day Ready, bred in Kentucky by White Birch Farm, has banked in excess of $1 million via a 7-3-1-1 record.

Ocean Club looks for another graded score in G2 Ballston Spa

Glen Hill Farm’s Kentucky homebred Ocean Club is among an evenly matched field in Friday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Ballston Spa, a 1 1/16-mile Mellon turf test for older fillies and mares, at Saratoga Race Course.

Trained by Tom Proctor, the 5-year-old Curlin chestnut enters from a pacesetting score in the one-mile Grade 2 Nassau on June 28 at Woodbine Racetrack. There, she defeated Ready for Shirl by three-quarter-lengths, and that rival returned to win the Grade 2 Canadian at the same site. 

Proctor said he was encouraged by the victory, but acknowledged that Ready for Shirl was 10th-of-11 early and faced some traffic trouble in the lane. 

“She’s alright, she’s doing good,” said Proctor. “It would have been better if she won by more [laughs]. We were lucky to beat that filly. That filly got into a lot of trouble when we ran against her. Not many people, when they win a race, notice the horses behind them – that filly got in trouble.”

Ocean Club also wired the one-mile Grade 3 Noble Damsel in September at Belmont at the Big A for trainer Jack Sisterson.

“It is hard to say,” Proctor said of her early positioning. “I hope she is on the lead at the wire. That is all that matters.”

Ocean Club is out of the Proctor-trained stakes-winner and dual graded stakes-placed War Front mare Theatre Star, a half-sister to Grade 1-winning millionaire Taris, who produced graded stakes-winner King Fury. 

“She has gotten better. I’ve been around her the whole time. She is doing good,” Proctor said. 

Ocean Club boasts a 20-6-3-4 record with $607,446 in earnings. She has drawn post 7 in rein to Ricardo Santana, Jr. and is tabbed at 10-1 on the morning-line.