Saez Enjoys Banner Day on NY-Bred Card at Saratoga

Jockey Luis Saez rode four winners Sept. 4, including three in stakes events, as New York-breds took center stage at Saratoga Race Course for New York Showcase Day, with a 12-race card containing six stakes worth a combined $891,000.

Saez notched a pair of stakes wins for trainer Jeremiah Englehart with Samborella in the Seeking the Ante and Makingcents in the Fleet Indian. He completed the hat trick by guiding the Jimmy Bond-conditioned Rinaldi to a frontrunning win in the West Point. Saez topped off a memorable day by guiding Smite to victory for Englehart in a maiden claiming sprint on the turf in the nightcap.

"I'm so blessed and thankful for the trainers and owners who give me these opportunities," Saez said. "The horses have been running pretty good."

Bond stressed the importance of the New York-bred program after Bond Racing Stable's Rinaldi impressed in the West Point.

"It means everything," Bond said. "My wife and I spend a lot of time and money to build up a nice operation, a farm. We have our own racing barn. To have this happen in these tough times for a lot of people is the icing on the cake today for us."

Saez started the stakes action with a gate-to-wire 2 1/4-length victory aboard Samborella in the Seeking the Ante for juvenile fillies but pulled up his mount immediately after the wire. Vanned off with an injury to her left foreleg, she was transported to the Saratoga Springs, N.Y., division of Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, and after further examination was humanely euthanized. Samborella was the first stakes winner for WinStar Farm stallion Outwork .

Saez won the last three races on the card, beginning with the nine-furlong Fleet Indian for sophomore fillies, guiding Fortune Farm's Makingcents gate-to-wire. Breaking from the rail, the daughter of Goldencents  got into position going into the first turn and extended her advantage, then had enough to hang on by a neck over Ice Princess in a final time of 1:50.31. 

Bred by Windhorse Thoroughbreds, Makingcents is out of the Cape Town mare Mischief Maker. 

In the West Point, Saez again utilized a prominent approach, taking Rinaldi to the lead on the good inner turf while under pressure from Blewitt. Into the final turn of the 1 1/16-mile turf event, Rinaldi continued to find more, opening a 2 1/2-length advantage at the stretch call and racing home a 1 1/2-length winner over Dot Matrix in 1:43.52.

Bred by Barry Ostrager, the 4-year-old Posse gelding improved his record to 7-4-1-1 while adding his third restricted stakes win after scores last year in the Spectacular Bid and Cab Calloway divisions of the New York Stallion Stakes Series.

In race 3, highly regarded Chestertown earned his first victory since breaking his maiden in December at Aqueduct Racetrack when outdueling a game City Man to take the Albany for 3-year-olds going 1 1/8 miles on the main track.

Trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, the gray son of Tapit  out of grade 1 winner Artemis Agrotera dug in for the three-quarter-length victory in a final time of 1:49.37. 

"It took him a while to get going, but when he felt that horse outside of him coming, he rebroke and made another run," jockey Jose Ortiz said. "I think he's learning still. He's got a lot of races under his belt, but he's a typical Tapit. He will be better as a 4-year-old. He's figured it out now with the blinkers on. I think he's coming along really nicely."

Chestertown nearly doubled his earnings to $165,990. He was bred by Chester and Mary Broman, who own Chestertown in partnership with West Point Thoroughbreds, Woodford Racing, Siena Farm, and Robert Masiello. 

In race 5, the 1 1/16-mile Yaddo on the inner turf for fillies and mares 3 years old and up, Lawrence Goichman's Myhartblongstodady led gate-to-wire under Jose Lezcano en route to a one-length score. 

Sent to post as the 3-2 favorite, the homebred daughter of Scat Daddy out of the Elusive Quality mare Elusive Rumour held off a late charge from Wegetsdamunnys to stop the clock in 1:44.16. 

Thin White Duke ensured Lookin for Trouble did not go station to station in the Funny Cide, running down both Eagle Orb and the pacesetter from the outside in the stretch to break his maiden at fifth asking in the 6 1/2-furlong sprint for 2-year-olds.

The Dominus  gelding who ran third in his first two starts at Belmont Park before finishing second in his past two attempts at the Spa this meet finally earned a trip to the winner's circle. He made a strong move from the outside to run down two rivals for a half-length win in a final time of 1:16.75, giving trainer, breeder, and co-owner Phil Gleaves his first win of the meet.

Co-owned by Steven Crist, Ken deRegt, and Bryan Hilliard, Thin White Duke was scratched out of a maiden race and handled the step up in class, outkicking Eagle Orb in second and Lookin for Trouble in third. 

Gleaves said he used the Funny Cide as a way to gauge next steps for the improving gelding with an eye to potential starts at Belmont in the $100,000 Bertram F. Bongard at seven furlongs Oct. 2 and the $150,000 Sleepy Hollow, a one-turn mile Oct. 24.

"The only stakes in the fall for 2-year-old New York-breds are on the dirt—two at Finger Lakes and two at Belmont," Gleaves said. "So we needed to find out if he belonged with these types of horses. We scratched out of a maiden race to purposely run in this race to see where he stacked up. We felt like he would stack up, and he showed it today."