Pretty Birdie Wins Schuylerville for Marylou Whitney

On a day already filled with electricity when 27,760 fans returned to Saratoga Race Course for the first time since Labor Day 2019, the featured $150,000 Schuylerville Stakes (G3) raised the emotions of the July 15 afternoon off the charts.

For there in the winner's circle after the six-furlong stakes for 2-year-old fillies was the homebred Pretty Birdie , wearing the famed eton blue, brown hoop, blue sleeves, and brown cap of none other than Saratoga's leading lady, the late Marylou Whitney.

"It's a little bittersweet. I wish Marylou was here. She would have loved this," said her widowed husband John Hendrickson. "Saratoga is open and she won a race. Things are the way they should be. She would be so happy and proud. 

"This means so much," he added. "Seeing all these smiling faces and having Saratoga back the way it should be and having a win is very special ... I wanted (Pretty Birdie) to do well just to honor Marylou."

Though the beloved grand dame of Saratoga passed away July 19, 2019, at the age of 93, in her memory Hendrickson maintained her stable and now has about 12 horses, including Pretty Birdie, racing under the banner of Marylou Whitney Stables. Hendrickson said he never had a thought about shutting down the stable and was rewarded with the first graded stakes winner at Saratoga bearing Whitney's name since Birdstone won the 2004 Travers Stakes (G1) and the first graded stakes winner for Bird Song  as a sire.

"This is where Marylou felt most alive and I wanted to keep her alive. This is the way she is alive and she has a win on opening day. It's pretty special. It's a dream come true," said Hendrickson, who is the president of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

While the Whitney name has long been associated with racing history, Pretty Birdie's trainer, Norm Casse, comes from rather regal racing bloodlines of his own. His late grandfather, Norman, helped build the Florida breeding and sales industry, and his father, Mark, who has compiled earnings of more than $189 million and two Triple Crown wins as a trainer, was voted into the Hall of Fame last year. He'll be inducted next month after the COVID-19 pandemic forced a cancelation of the 2020 ceremonies.

"Norm is a great trainer and I predict someday he'll be a Hall of Fame trainer," Hendrickson said.

For Norm Casse, there was added pressure in securing his second graded stakes win and first at Saratoga. 

"I put a lot of pressure on myself today. I thought this would be the story of the day if we could win the race for Marylou Whitney with Saratoga opening back up for fans," he said.

Jockey Luis Saez and Pretty Birdie alleviated much of that pressure in a race that changed dramatically when 8-5 favorite Happy Soul  was scratched due to a temperature. Saez hustled the gray daughter of Bird Song out of the gate and led by a length after a half-mile in :45.82 with Swilcan Stable and LC Racing's 6-5 favorite Mainstay  chasing in second.

By midstretch, Pretty Birdie extended to a two-length margin and she maintained that to the wire, covering six furlongs in 1:12.32 and paying $7.60 to win as the second choice in a field of seven.

"I think she was just gawking around and maybe even waiting on the other horse," Casse said about his 2-for-2 filly who won a June 18 maiden race at Churchill Downs. "Those are things we'll fix before we run her in the Spinaway (G1, Sept. 5 at Saratoga)."

Out of the Street Sense   mare Bird Sense, she is her dam's second of three foals and first stakes winner. Bird Sense also has a Carpe Diem 3-year-old filly named Midsummer Bird , who is placed, and a weanling colt by Bird Song, who stands in Saudi Arabia.

Mainstay, a daughter of Astern   trained by Butch Reid, was 5 1/4 lengths clear of James Chapman and Stuart Tsujimoto's Saucy Lady T , a Tonalist   filly trained by Chapman.

If there was an omen of what was to come Thursday, it came the previous day in the yard of Whitney's close friend for about 45 years Maureen Lewi, when she saw two cardinals, a male and a female. With cardinals having a reputation to some as visitors from heaven, she was certain one was for Whitney and the other for her late husband, Ed, a well-known Saratoga publicist. 

"When I saw them, I called John and told him they were there for a reason," Lewi said.

Apparently they were, adding even more lore to Marylou Whitney's incomparable legacy at Saratoga. 

Video: Schuylerville S. (G3)