"No, I mentioned the bisque."
I can just imagine how a post-race interview with Dayatthespa after tomorrow’s Yaddo Stakes might go...
Zipseatthetrack: "Listen to this. Chad comes over after the race and he tells me that his unraced juvenile looked great this morning and yaddo yaddo yaddo, today was a good day. You wouldn't think he'd yaddo yaddo a stakes race?"
Dayatthespa: "I've yaddo yaddo'd a stakes race."
Zipseatthetrack: "Really?"
Dayatthespa: "Yeah. I went up to Saratoga, we went out to dinner, I had the lobster bisque, we went back to the track, yaddo yaddo yaddo, I never saw the other mares again."
Zipseatthetrack: "But you yaddo yaddo'd over the best part."
Dayatthespa: "No, I mentioned the bisque."
No offense intended to the five other fillies and mares entered in tomorrow’s $150,000 Yaddo Stakes, but the proceeding adaptation from a memorable Seinfeld scene was the only possible way I felt I could adequately demonstrate how the multiple graded stakes-winning filly, Dayatthespa, towers over this 1 1/16-mile grass feature for New York-bred fillies and mares at the Spa.
She doesn’t often dip her toes into the state-bred pool, but when the 4-year-old daughter of City Zip does, it’s sure to mean curtains for her overmatched competition. Known best for her five-race, all-stakes winning streak, including a convincing score in the Grade 1 QE II last fall at Keeneland, this NY-bred happens to be one of the top female turf horses in the land.
A winner of 7-of-11 lifetime, (she’s never raced on anything but grass), Dayatthespa would seem to better fit in races like the Diana or Beverly D, but trainer, Chad Brown, obviously wanted a confidence builder for her after a surprising second place finish in her last start.
"We're expecting to get her back and running in graded stakes," said Brown. "Right now, it looks like the right race for her. Being a New York-bred, it gave us an extra couple races on the calendar [to choose from], and if we need them, we can use them. I like the timing of the race; I like the distance of the race; I like that I can get [jockey] Javier [Castellano] back on her, and she likes Saratoga."
It all makes sense, I guess, for Dayatthespa. She’s dominated in one start at Saratoga in each of the last two summers, as I’m sure she will again tomorrow. I just hope she enjoys the bisque.