Cavorting Looks to Complete Stakes Trifecta in Prioress
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Photo:
Chelsea Durand/NYRA
A winner of both her starts at Saratoga Race Course, each in graded stakes, Stonestreet Stables' Cavorting can complete the trifecta with a victory in Sunday's Grade 2, $300,000 Prioress for 3-year-old fillies.
The 68th running of the six-furlong Prioress is the fourth since being moved to Saratoga following a 25-year run at Belmont Park. It is the second of the summer meet's two dirt sprints restricted to sophomore fillies, coming 29 days after the Grade 1 Test.
Trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, Cavorting became a Grade 1 winner with her 2 ½-length victory in the seven-furlong Test, nearly a year to the day since taking the Grade 2 Adirondack at Saratoga in 2014.
"It was huge. Grade 1s are hard to come by, and for a Bernardini filly and Stonestreet and the whole team, it was great. It's a great race to win," said McLaughlin. "We just thought it's straight 3-year-old fillies, it's here and she likes this track. Let's give it a try and then we can go to the Breeders' Cup."
Cavorting won her first two starts at 2, including an 11-length debut victory, before finishing last in the one-mile, Grade 1 Frizette last October. She opened 2015 with a distant ninth in the Grade 2 Davona Dale at Gulfstream Park, three races before stablemate Frosted led but faltered in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth.
Given a brief freshening, Cavorting returned with a solid three-quarter-length triumph in the June 5 Jersey Girl Stakes at Monmouth Park, her second win in as many tries at the Prioress distance.
"She's been very talented, and she trains aggressively. She has some gaps in her form and a couple of bad races for weird reasons," McLaughlin said. "[In the Frizette] it was really wet and standing water down inside and she didn't run great. Then we skipped the Breeders' Cup and when she came back in the Davona Dale, that was the track that Frosted ran on that day and didn't like. After that, we just tried to fill up the gas tank and point for the Jersey Girl, and she ran huge. And she was huge here. She's a very talented filly."
Meet-leading jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. returns to ride from post 10, sharing the 122-pound highweight with Ekati's Phaeton and Irish Jasper. McLaughlin will also saddle Clothes Fall Off, making her stakes debut under Jose Ortiz from post 4 at 116 pounds.
Trainer John Kimmel hopes to reverse the finish of the Test with Chester and Mary Broman's Bar of Gold. The New York-bred Medaglia d'Oro filly was in front by 1 ½ lengths at the head of the stretch before being reeled in by Cavorting but stayed on for second, three-quarters of a length over Grade 1 winner By the Moon.
Bar of Gold broke her maiden last summer at Saratoga in her lone start at 2, continuing her win streak off a seven-month layoff with back-to-back victories at Aqueduct Racetrack, including a 9 ¾-length optional claiming allowance score over older horses April 23.
"My filly came out of her race in good order, and we're kind of looking forward to running her back," Kimmel said. "She does have tactical speed, and maybe she got out there by herself [in the Test] and got a little bit lost; that might have factored in. Cavorting is a big, strong mare and she made a great finishing kick. For her to make that kind of closing move, you sure have to like her chances. Going back another furlong might shift the pendulum a bit in our direction."
Jose Lezcano, aboard in the Test, gets a return call from post 7 at 118 pounds.
Horse Owners Development's Sky Gold is making her graded stakes debut in the Prioress. Trained by Gulfstream Park-based Jose Garoffalo, the daughter of multiple graded stakes winner Successful Appeal was most recently second facing older horses in a six-furlong optional claiming allowance August 9 at Monmouth Park.
First or second in four of her five career starts, she was ninth in the Miss Woodford Stakes July 19 at Monmouth, her stakes debut.
"My plan was to run her in the Miss Woodford to prepare her for the Test, but she had a problem in that race," Garoffalo said. "She lost a shoe and didn't run good. She came back in the allowance race and I used that as a prep for the Prioress. She ran a hell of a race, so I decided to bring her here. I'm very optimistic."
Sky Gold and jockey Cornelio Velasquez will break from post 3 at 116 pounds.
Newman Racing's Tricky Zippy stretched her win streak to three races with a 4 ¾-length triumph in the August 20 Union Avenue Stakes, her first for trainer Jimmy Jerkens. The Prioress will be her first graded try and first in open company.
"It's back close. You usually don't want to do that, especially with one as flighty as she is," Jerkens said. "But, it's an opportunity to run her against straight 3-year-olds for that money. Sometimes, you've got to try it. If she was showing any signs of it bothering her, we wouldn't do it, but she's been eating good. You never know until you run them. It's one of those deals where you put your head down and go."
Hall of Famer John Velazquez rides Tricky Zippy from post 6 at 118 pounds.
Rounding out the field are multiple graded stakes winners Ekati's Phaeton, unraced since finishing last in the Grade 3 Eight Belles May 1, and Irish Jasper, in her first start for trainer Chad Brown after having a three-race win streak snapped when fourth in the Test; Grade 3 winner Promise Me Silver, who began her career with eight straight victories capped by the Eight Belles but off the board in her last two races; Miss Woodford winner Fusaichi Red; Paid Up Subscriber, who took an entry-level allowance at the Spa July 25; and stakes-placed Hot City Girl.
Source: NYRA Communications
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