La Verdad Eyes First Grade I Score in Ballerina

La Verdad, who is undefeated this season, puts her four straight stakes-winning streak squarely on the line in the $500,000 Ballerina at Saratoga Race Course on Saturday as she attempts to notch the first Grade 1 victory of her career and earn her place in the gate at the Breeders' Cup.

 

The Ballerina, which will be contested over the main track at seven furlongs and has drawn a tremendously talented field of eight, is a "Win and You're In" race for the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint.

 

The Ballerina is also part of a spectacular day of racing at Saratoga, which is headlined by the Grade 1, $1.6 million Travers with Triple Crown champion American Pharoah among the contenders in the Mid-Summer Derby. Other Grade 1 events on the card are the $1 million Sword Dancer, the $750,000 Personal Ensign, the $700,000 Priority One Jets Forego, the $500,000 NYRA.com King's Bishop. The Grade 2, $400,000 Ketel One Ballston Spa is also on tap.

 

The only omission on the resume of the New York-bred La Verdad, who is owned by Lady Sheila Racing Stable and trained by Linda Rice, is Grade 1 black type. The multiple graded stakes-winning 5-year-old mare has 14 wins in 20 starts and has bankrolled $1,170,700. Since she is headed to her second career as a broodmare at the completion of this season, her connections would love to see her end on the highest note.

 

"She's doing really well. She's coming in off those four stakes wins this year so, obviously, we've got her in pretty good form," said Rice, who sticks with the mare's regular rider, Jose Ortiz. "We would sure like to get that Grade 1 for her. We anticipate her going to the breeding shed next year, and a Grade 1 is something that she certainly deserves. But she's got to earn it. They don't give those away."

 

La Verdad, a top-flight sprinter who rattled off successive victories in the Grade 2 Distaff at Aqueduct Racetrack, the Grade 3 Vagrancy and the Dancin Renee at Belmont Park, and the Grade 2 Honorable Miss at Saratoga in 2015, has won at different distances up to one mile in her career. Although she hasn't traveled seven furlongs since a fifth-place finish in last year's Ballerina, she easily took her last two tests at six furlongs by a combined 11 ¼ lengths, and Rice thinks she'll handle the trip just fine.

 

She has been installed as the slight favorite at 5-2 over Bobby Flay's 3-1 second choice Dame Dorothy, who won her first Grade 1 two starts back in the Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs May 2and punctuated that with a victory in the Grade 3 Bed o' Roses at Belmont last out June 20.

 

The 4-year-old daughter of Bernardini, who is named for Flay's mother, has never finished out of the money and has seven wins in nine starts. She is a perfect four-for-four at the Ballerina distance and runs extremely well when fresh.

 

"She's having a good season and looks really well coming up to this race. She seems to have found her niche at seven furlongs. We mapped out a campaign focusing on that," said trainer Todd Pletcher, who won back-to-back Ballerinas in 2011 with Hilda's Passion and 2012 with Turbulent Descent, and the 2003 edition with Harmony Lodge. "We respect La Verdad a lot, but we are looking for a good effort from our filly."

 

Dame Dorothy has three stakes wins in four starts this year.

 

"It's by design that we kept her fresh and pointed her to this. We'll see how this goes and this may be her final start before the Breeders' Cup," said Pletcher, who awarded the return call to Javier Castellano.

 

Another with dreams of capturing her first Grade 1 is Room for Me, who was claimed for $12,500 by owner/trainer David Jacobson at Santa Anita in February and has gone on to win four of six since, including a smashing 5 ¾-length romp in the Regret Stakes at six furlongs at Monmouth last out two weeks ago.

 

"This is much tougher company now. A Grade 1 at Saratoga? It doesn't get any tougher than that," Jacobson said. "She's turned around and she really likes it here. I think the extra furlong is an advantage to us. Some of these horses in the race are very tough sprinters, but that extra furlong, especially at Saratoga where those legs get weary, should help."

 

The 5-year-old Room for Me, who is 6-1 in the early line, tangled with La Verdad in the Vagrancy and Dame Dorothy in the Bed o' Roses, finishing second and fourth, respectively.

 

"She ran really well both times and was beaten only half a length by La Verdad. With a little racing luck, we could have won that race. I think she is really live in this race. I am excited about her and really excited to be saddling two horses in Grade 1 races on Travers Day," said Jacobson, who also runs Salutos Amigos in the Forego.

 

Sarah Sis, who shipped in from the Midwest, is the only 3-year-old in the field and she is the longest shot on the board at 20-1. When she captured the Grade 3 Honeybee at Oaklawn in March and the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks at Prairie Meadows last out, which were both run at 1 1/16 miles, she gave Ingrid Mason the only graded stakes wins of her career.

 

"I have never run a horse at Saratoga before," said Mason, who originally planned to put her in the Test before the filly coughed the night before she was to be vanned. "These older, seasoned mares who have excellent race records are awfully salty. But my filly has an excellent race record as well, it's just that she hasn't raced against this caliber of horses as of yet and has only competed against 3-year-olds. She's going to have to step it up, definitely."

 

Joe Ragsdale's Sarah Sis, who is five-for-seven this year, has been tearing up the Arlington Polytrack with a series of bullet works.

 

"She been training excellent," said Mason, who gave the call to Arlington-based rider Julio Felix. "It's just a very tough race. She certainly can come from off the pace and there is plenty of speed. I've got a nice filly. I don't know if right now is the time that she can compete with these, but I figure at some point she will be able to. She's definitely going in the right direction. You look at the numbers of the others in the race and think, 'Oh my God. They are salty.' But I'm not taking anything away from my filly, I just don't know if she's ready yet.  But I know she certainly has a lot of ability."

 

Rounding out the field are Merry Meadow, a multiple graded stakes winner for trainer Mark Hennig; Kiss to Remember, from the barn of trainer Marty Wolfson; Unbridled Forever, who won the Shine Again at Saratoga in her latest start; and Street Story, trained by Steve Asmussen.