Saratoga: Saturday Flirt is Sunday winner in Soaring Softly
Saturday Flirt used a strong outside move to overtake 2-1 favorite Cloe in the stretch and power home a 3 3/4-length winner in Sunday’s $175,000 Soaring Softly Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Saratoga.
Originally slated for 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf, the 11th edition of the Soaring Softly was kept at the same distance but moved to the fast main track. By rule it lost its Grade 3 status with the surface change and will be no higher than listed when the American Graded Stakes Committee reviews it.
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Trained by Wesley Ward for owner Fitri Hay, Saturday Flirt finished powerfully under Júnior Alvarado, who rode Sovereignty to victory less than 24 hours earlier in the Belmont Stakes.
Alvarado’s victory Sunday came thanks to a patient trip. Saturday Flirt stayed off Yougottahavehope’s early fractions of 22.36 seconds for the opening quarter-mile before Cloe took temporary command with the half-mile in 45.65 seconds.
Alvarado kept Saturday Flirt comfortable in fourth in the pared, six-horse field, and his charge had plenty in reserve for the final furlong to surge from the outside and draw away to a winning time of 1:04.00.
Cloe, who was graded-stakes placed by finishing third in the Señorita (G3) in April at Santa Anita for trainer José D’Angelo, finished three lengths clear of stablemate Spirited Boss for second. New York-bred Yougottahavehope ran fourth, Hey Bertie fifth and Fortuna Mia last. Love Cervere, Brindi, Make Haste, Abientot and Rojo Rita were scratched.
Saturday Flirt, off at 4-1, returned $10.60 on a $2 win wager and improved her career earnings to $210,020. She has won three of her first four starts and was successful in her first foray on a main track for Ward, who bred the filly out of the Broken Vow mare Dragic.
“There’s always a worry. You never know until you do it,” Ward said of the surface switch. “I decided she breezed so well at Keeneland on the dirt, that being her home track, a lot of my turf horses breeze good on the dirt. So this was a little bit of an unknown, but I think the track’s got some moisture in it, and that’s the reason why she got over it so well.
“I still have the dam. I partnered with Gonçalo Torrealba of Three Chimneys on a couple of Gun Runners, so that’s going to make him happy.”
The Alvarado-Ward tandem won a dirt sprint early on Sunday’s card when Diblasi took a $100,000 maiden contest at 5 1/2 furlongs in race 3.
“I’ve been lucky with Júnior,” Ward said. “He’s not one of the guys that I usually go to. Mike Sellitto, his agent, is such a nice guy, and he’s great friends with my friend Cliff Collier, another agent, so from time to time we put him on, and every time he seems to ride for me, he wins. He’s my lucky guy.”
Alvarado also had high praise after riding Saturday Flirt for the first time.
“I had a beautiful trip. She broke good, sat off the pace a little bit,” he said. “They were dueling on the lead a little bit. I was sitting in a perfect spot in there. When I starting picking it up, she was moving forward really nicely. I put her in the clear, and she took off for home and did it very nicely.
“She handled the dirt beautifully today. The dirt was a question mark for me today. I didn’t know if she was going to be able to handle it or not. I think she answered that question pretty clearly today.”