A Grade I Doubleheader at the Spa

After a parade of dangerous storms tore through town and put a damper on everyone's best laid plans last Saturday, the silver lining is a grade I doubleheader of the Alabama Stakes and a redrawn Fourstardave Handicap Aug. 20 at Saratoga Race Course.

The Fourstardave and Alabama are races 9 and 10 on a 12-race card Saturday, and the middle legs of a pick four with a $500,000 guaranteed pool. As well, they begin an all-stakes pick four with the Del Mar Handicap (gr. IT) and Pacific Classic (gr. I) at Del Mar. 

One piece of advice for the afternoon (and evening): There's no rush for anything. There are nearly 6 1/2 hours between first and last post at the Spa, and if you get past the first two legs of the cross-country pick four, you've got almost 2 1/2 hours from the Alabama to the Del Mar Handicap. Enjoy being "live" all through dinner, which, on Broadway, will take about that long anyway.

Alabama Stakes (race 10, 6:18 p.m. EDT)

The signature event of the meet for 3-year-old fillies affords us another chance to enjoy a legend in the making, because Fox Hill Farm's Songbird (#6) is becoming a filly of historic proportions. Owner Rick Porter says flat out that at this stage she is the best filly he has ever had by far—this from someone who campaigned 2011 Horse Of The Year Havre de Grace, 2000 Alabama winner Jostle, and ill-fated Kentucky Derby (gr. I) runner-up Eight Belles.

Mike Smith, who has piloted the greatest mares in the game from Azeri to Zenyatta, asked Songbird to dig down and fight back against the classy Carina Mia in the July 24 Coaching Club American Oaks (gr. I). He noted afterward that going through such an experience may move her up, which is an awe-inspiring thought.

While the unbeaten champion effectively turns pick fours into pick threes, they can still pay well if surrounding legs prove chaotic. Songbird was 3-10 when she turned back Carina Mia, and even with another winning favorite in the pick four, it paid a whopping $10,786 courtesy of winners at 29-1 and 20-1 in races that looked inscrutable on paper.

In terms of exactas and trifectas, it's wide open underneath the favorite.

Dark Nile (#1) has won four in a row while judiciously spotted by Arnaud Delacour, who has patiently taken things one step at a time with the Delaware Oaks (gr. III)-winning daughter of Pioneerof the Nile  .

Weep No More (#2) is the only grade I winner other than the favorite, but seems a long way from the form that garnered her the Ashland (gr. I) in early spring.

Going for Broke (#3) makes her stakes debut after three straight wins for Chad Brown, and is already as fast or faster than anyone except the choice.

Go Maggie Go (#4) has been absent since a fourth in the Acorn (gr. I), but if Dale Romans could beat American Pharoah   with Keen Ice in last year's Travers (gr. I)...

Family Tree (#5) was good enough to take the Iowa Oaks (gr. III) and Indiana Oaks (gr. II) in the span of 17 days, with a bullet workout in between. By the late Smart Strike and out of a Giant's Causeway mare, her pedigree is certainly stout enough for the Alabama's 1 1/4 miles.

Flora Dora (#7) gets blinkers on after running the race of her life in the CCA Oaks. Unfortunately, that was only good enough to finish a distant third behind Songbird.

Other than singling Songbird in multi-race exotics, and perhaps taking a small one-way exacta with Going for Broke in the second slot if 4-1 can be had, there's not much else to do besides watch and enjoy.

Fourstardave Handicap (race 9, 5:40 p.m.)

Even with an additional week to mull things over, this reshuffled version of the same nine runners entered for turf last week looks like anyone's race.

With heavy-heads such as Ironicus, Obviously, and Tepin bypassing the newly-minted grade I for one reason or another, David Donk has opted to try King Kreesa (#1) for a third time. The durable New York-bred was good enough to give six-time champion Wise Dan a scare in 2013, and was beaten a length a year ago. The redraw served him well, as he went from post 7 to the rail.

Any discussion of turf stakes in New York nowadays necessarily involves Chad Brown, who runs A Lot (#7) and Takeover Target (#9). A Lot has raised his game in two starts coinciding with a change of address, and I'm liking his chances more and more as time goes by. Takeover Target would move up quite a bit were he to get rain-softened ground, which was looking good for a while there last week.

Ring Weekend (#6) and Tourist (#8) remain solid threats in a deep field where defending titlist Grand Arch (#2) might be double-digit odds.