Kay Cup looks for back-to-back stakes wins in S200K Fleet Indian

NY Final Furlong Racing Stable, Electric City Racing, and Sportsmen Stable’s Kay Cup looks for back-to-back stakes victories in Thursday’s $200,000 Fleet Indian, a nine-furlong route for New York-bred sophomore fillies, at Saratoga Race Course. 

Trained by Jorge Abreu, Kay Cup [post 3, Irad Ortiz, Jr., 123 pounds] looks to build upon last-out success here in the seven-furlong state-bred Bouwerie on June 4 during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival. 

There, the Instagrand dark bay was bumped at the break but recovered nicely to sit in a tracking third position just off the early pacesetters Bernieandtherose and Howling Wind through a zippy opening quarter-mile in 22.55 seconds. When asked by regular-pilot Irad Ortiz, Jr. for her run at the top of the stretch, the stubborn multiple stakes winning Bernieandtherose proved to be a tough customer battling on to the inside of Kay Cup but ultimately faded to third as Kay Cup pulled past, with the closing Charlotte’s Heart completing the exacta in a final time of 1:23.79. 

Kay Cup, who earned a career and field-best 86 Beyer Speed Figure in the Bouwerie, breezed a half-mile in 49.33 August 9 over the Oklahoma dirt training track.

“Kay Cup is doing really well,” Abreu said. “She had a really good breeze with Irad. The only question we have is if she can handle the mile and an eighth. It’s the first race stretching her out, but I think she is going to be OK.”

Kay Cup was a 1 1/2-length third on debut over the Saratoga main track going seven furlongs where she faced some gate trouble and finished behind victorious returning rival Valtellina. 

She returned in dominant fashion in her seasonal debut in April in a 6 1/2-furlong state-bred maiden at Aqueduct where she broke sharp and went onto win by 4 1/4-lengths which earned a then career-best 84 Beyer.

“She likes Saratoga, and she ran pretty good at Aqueduct as well so it’s hard to tell [which she prefers] but she ran great at both tracks,” Abreu said. “At Aqueduct, she broke amazing over a long layoff and then came back two months later and won the stake here.”

Abreu said he has always thought highly of Kay Cup and is hopeful she can carry the torch for former stable stalwart in the New York-bred Venti Valentine – a multiple graded stakes-winning New York-bred millionaire co-owned and bred by Final Furlong.

“Last year, when we stopped on her, we had to take a step back and I told them, ‘I think she is going to be taking over Venti Valentine’s spot,’” Abreu said. “I think this filly has a lot of potential, a lot of talent so we just got to go race-by-race with her.”

Bred in the Empire State by Caperlane Farm, Kay Cup, out of the Lemon Drop Kid mare Gypsy Jo, sold for $100,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Preferred New York-bred Yearling Sale and has already eclipsed that purchase price in earnings with just over $160,000 through three career starts.

Madaket Stables’ Lottie Margaret [post 4, Manuel Franco, 123 pounds] looks to add to a career-best effort from her three-length victory in the 1 1/16-mile New York Oaks on July 14 at Finger Lakes.

In that effort, the Global Campaign bay hopped at the start and stalked from third position under confident handling from Manny Franco. She was in command by the stretch call and scored in a final time of 1:46.53 to earn her first stakes win and register a 74 Beyer. In victory, she defeated two returning rivals in runner-up Valtellina and third-place Vehemente. 

Blake Cox, son and assistant to dual Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox, believes the distance is where their filly gains a tactical edge over her foes.

“I think there’s not a whole lot of New York-bred fillies that are wanting to go this far,” Cox said. “She seems like she might be one of them that does. You don’t really know until you try running them that mile and an eighth, but we think she will like it.”

Lottie Margaret entered the New York Oaks from a distant fifth in an open-company optional-claiming mile on May 1 at Belmont at the Big A that featured the Jorge Abreu-trained multiple graded stakes winner and recent Grade 1 Coaching Club American Invitational winner Scottish Lassie in third behind the graded stakes-placed pair of the victorious Cassiar and runner-up Dry Powder. 

Cox said he is confident Franco will have Lottie Margaret involved early.

“For sure, we want to get her in the race,” Cox said. “Manny knows her very well and gets along with her very well and hopefully can get her in a forward position.”

Bred by Steve Schuster, Lottie Margaret sold for $75,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Preferred New York-bred Yearling Sale in August 2023. She’s the first stakes winner out of the Street Cry mare Passionate Diva.

Pavilion Racing’s Valtellina [post 5, Romero Maragh, 120 pounds] looks to turn the tables on her foes after finishing behind Kay Cup in the Bouwerie and Lottie Margaret last out in the New York Oaks. 

Trained by Ray Handal, the daughter of prominent sire Complexity looks to notch her first career stakes win after finishing in the top four in three of her previous five stakes efforts. Last out, in the New York Oaks, she tracked from last-of-four and four-wide throughout the majority of the race before edging past tiring foes and holding on for place honors.

Valtellina worked five-eighths in 1:01.51 August 14 over the Oklahoma dirt training track.

“She had a really, really nice work,” Handal said. “A lot of energy - she did it in-hand and she looks super, so we will take a swing in the Fleet Indian.”

Valtellina is one of the more experienced fillies in the field with a 10-3-2-1 record for purse earnings of $208,780. Her career was kickstarted with a winning effort here last August in which she used stalk-and-pounce tactics to win by a half-length traveling seven furlongs against fellow state-breds. Her other Spa effort was a 6 3/4 length fourth in the Bouwerie where she was bumped at the break.

Handal believes that his filly will have a more prominent trip in the Fleet Indian.

“I would imagine she would be very forward,” Handal said. 

The $67,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Preferred New York-bred Yearling Sale purchase, bred by Thorostock, is out of the winning Take Charge Indy mare Take Charge Sue. Her second dam, the stakes-placed Quiet American mare W W American, is a half-sister to Grade 1-winner Sean Avery.

Rounding out the field are multiple stakes-placed Carmen’s Candy Jar [post 1, Jose Ortiz, 118 pounds] for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher; and stakes-placed Vehemente [post 2, Kendrick Carmouche, 120 pounds] for trainer Joe Sharp.

The Fleet Indian is slated as Race 3 on Thursday’s 10-race card which also features the $200,000 Albany presented by Albany Distilling Company in Race 9. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern. 

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