Saratoga: Gerrards Cross goes for 2nd straight stakes in Galway

Gerrards Cross will attempt to double up on stakes victories in Saturday’s $200,000 Galway, a 5 1/2-furlong Mellon turf sprint for sophomore fillies, at Saratoga Race Course.

Trained by Kathleen O’Connell for owner-breeder James Chicklo, Gerrards Cross is 2-for-3 sprinting on turf, and enters from a 2 1/4-length victory in the 5 1/2-furlong Monmouth County on July 5 at Monmouth Park. The Midshipman chestnut graduated on debut over the Gulfstream Park main track last June, and made a successful switch to turf in the five-furlong Colleen that July at Monmouth.

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Four months later, she returned with a pair of off-the-board stakes efforts over dirt at Tampa Bay Downs, but bounced back with aplomb in June when returning to the grass to finish a neck second to Hark Theangelssing in the Stormy Blues at Laurel Park ahead of the Monmouth County.

“Each race this year it seems like she’s getting better, and I know she’ll have to step up to the plate here, but she’s doing good,” O’Connell said. “Right now, she’s running good on turf, but if something came up on dirt, we might take a whack at it, too, like if it were to come off the turf.”

Gerrards Cross is out of the stakes-winning Concerto mare Spanish Concert, who O’Connell conditioned through 29 starts of a 31: 8-10-6 career that included a win in Tampa’s Minaret in 2017. She also trained each of the filly’s four half-siblings to race, including multiple stakes-placed Dream Concert, and winners Spanish Noble and Princess Norma.

“I had her mother and I’ve had several of her siblings, and they’ve all been really nice horses to be around,” the trainer said. “She and her mom are both very opinionated and they both have a lot of natural speed.”

Gerrards Cross, who is 6-1 on the morning line, has set the pace in five of her six career starts and will hope that speed carries her to victory on Saturday from the inside post under Dylan Davis.