Stopchargingmaria, Untapable Meet Again

It's hard to believe that 4-year-old fillies Stopchargingmaria and Untapable have only met once on the racetrack. That race came earlier this month in the Aug. 2 Shuvee Handicap (gr. III) at Saratoga Race Course. The pair will strike up their newly-formed rivalry on Travers Day at the Spa in the $750,000 Personal Ensign Stakes (gr. I).



Stopchargingmaria got the measure of last year’s champion 3-year-old female by a length in the nine-furlong Shuvee, the same trip for the Personal Ensign. Both fillies will carry 123 pounds Saturday, with Stopchargingmaria picking up three pounds from the 120 she carried earlier in the month.

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If the racing adage of "only grade I winners win grade I races" holds true, then one of these two will likely reach the winner’s circle. Untapable has five grade I wins to her ledger and Stopchargingmaria has three. Of the other four older fillies and mares in the field, only Harold Queen’s homebred Sheer Drama, the Delaware Handicap (gr. I) winner last time out, has score at racing’s top level.

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Stopchargingmaria, bred in Kentucky by Harvey Clarke and Brookdale Farm, raced at 2 and 3 for Mike Repole, but now races for Louise and Kiki Courtelis’ Town and Country Farms. Todd Pletcher has trained the Tale of the Cat   filly throughout her 14-start career in which she has won eight times (seven stakes) and has earned $1,774,000. In her favor in the Personal Ensign is her affinity for the surface at Saratoga. She has five starts at the Spa and has four wins and a second—that coming in the slop in the Spinaway Stakes (gr. I) when she was 2 in 2013.



She stalked Untapable, the slight favorite in the Shuvee, while wide and was able to get the upper hand at the eighth pole.



Ron Winchell’s homebred Untapable, who was nearly unstoppable a year ago has struggled a bit this year with one win in four starts, although she has finished second in her other outings. A winner of the Apple Blossom Handicap (gr. I) this spring at Oaklawn Park, she was second, beaten five lengths by Wedding Toast in the Ogden Phipps Stakes (gr. I) on Belmont Stakes day. John Velazquez, who took over for the retired Rosie Napravnik last season, remains aboard for trainer Steve Asmussen.

Sheer Drama should add to the early pace scenario in the Personal Ensign with Joe Bravo aboard.

Pletcher is also the trainer of Got Lucky, a 4-year-old A.P. Indy filly who comes in the Personal Ensign off a 4 1/2-length win in Monmouth Park's Lady's Secret Stakes at a mile and 70 yards.



The Personal Ensign is one of six grade I races on Saratoga’s Travers day 13-race program. It goes as race 6 with an approximate post of 2:35 p.m ET and is a Breeders' Cup "Win and You're In" race for the Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (gr. I).