Chelsea Durand Photo

Stan the Man headlines Thursday's $85K Tale of the Cat

by Keith McCalmont

Long Lake Stable's Stan the Man headlines a compact but talented field of five in Thursday's $85,000 Tale of the Cat at Saratoga Race Course.

Trained by John Terranova, the 6-year-old Broken Vow chestnut enters the six-furlong sprint for 4-year-olds and up who have not won a graded race from a game runner-up effort to multiple graded-stakes winner Firenze Fire in the Grade 2 True North traveling 6 ½-furlongs on June 27 at Belmont Park.

Terranova said the race conditions suit the hard-trying gelding, who boasts a record of 23-6-7-2 with purse earnings of $436,374.

"We didn't have too many options and we didn't want to jump in the deep end again with him," Terranova said. "We also wanted to give him a little bit of space between starts. He'll fit into the Tale of the Cat nicely because it's a restricted stake with how it's written. He looks good to go right now."

Stan the Man, bred in Kentucky by Emma Quinn, Dermot Quinn, Scott Pierce and Debbie Pierce, breezed a half-mile in 48.88 seconds Friday on the Saratoga main track.

Joel Rosario retains the mount from post 2.

Noda Brothers' T Loves a Fight, bred in the Empire State by Hoffman Thoroughbreds, will look to provide conditioner and co-owner Orlando Noda with his first stakes win.

Noda claimed the 6-year-old Girolamo gelding for $10,000 last May at Belmont and has since won four times, including a three-race win streak that provided the trainer his first win on June 13, 2019 in a $12,500 claimer at Belmont.

T Loves a Fight, who won the 2017 Mike Lee at Belmont for former trainer Michael Hushion, has hit the board in five stakes events for Noda including a last-out second in the restricted John Morrissey in a seven-furlong sprint for New York-breds on July 30 at the Spa.

Luis Saez retains the mount from the inside post.

My Boy Tate, co-owned by conditioner Michelle Nevin with Little Red Feather Racing, won the NYSSS Thunder Rumble off a 13-month layoff in November 2019. The 6-year-old Boys At Tosconova gelding has raced four times this campaign, including a strong second in the Hollie Hughes in February at the Big A and a last-out third in the John Morrissey.

Bred in New York by his conditioner, My Boy Tate will be guided by Manny Franco from post 4.

Rounding out the field are Ready to Escape [Kendrick Carmouche, post 3] and Binkster [Dylan Davis, post 5].

The Tale of the Cat is slated as Race 7 on Thursday's nine-race card, which beings at 12:50 p.m. Eastern with the 79th renewal of the Grade 1, $100,000 New York Turf Writers Cup steeplechase. Saratoga Live will present daily television coverage of the 40-day summer meet on FOX Sports and MSG Networks. For the complete Saratoga Live broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule.

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