Secret Oath Will Stay Behind When Saratoga Meet Ends

When the meet at Saratoga Race Course ends on Labor Day, Sept. 5, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas will pack up his barn and head back to his base at Churchill Downs in Louisville.

One will stay behind. 

The barn's star, Briland Farm's Secret Oath , will stick around the Spa for three more weeks before she heads to her next date.

That will be Sept. 24 when she runs in the $1 million Cotillion Stakes (G1) at Parx Racing.

It's the same drill Lukas used when he kept Will Take Charge  , who won the 2013 Travers Stakes (G1), at Saratoga before he went to Bensalem, Pa., where he won the Pennsylvania Derby (G2).

"I'm going to leave her right here," Lukas said, sitting behind his desk in his office at the Oklahoma Training Track. "She'll graze every day. She'll roll every day in the sand in the round pen. I mean, there are a lot of things to like, so I will just leave her here."

He said he will leave a pony to keep her company as well as an assistant. Secret Oath, a winner of three of seven starts this year with two seconds and a third ($1,449,250 in earnings), will continue her training on the Oklahoma track, which stays open through the fall.

Secret Oath, who finished second behind Nest  in the $600,000 Alabama Stakes (G1) Aug. 20 and the $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) July 23 at Saratoga, won the $1.25 million Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) at Churchill Downs May 6.

Nest finished second in the Kentucky Oaks.

Lukas thinks a Cotillion win puts Secret Oath, a daughter of Arrogate , back in the picture for best 3-year-old filly.

"Yes, but we still probably have to go head-to-head with (Nest) to get the right answer," Lukas said. "I wish we would never go head-to-head anymore. Wish she would go against the boys in the (Longines Breeders' Cup) Classic (G1) and let us win the (Longines) Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1). At this day, at this moment, she's better than we are."