Saratoga Snacks Ready for Comeback Race
Trainer Gary Sciacca on Friday avowed that Saratoga Snacks, owned by Bill Parcells’ August Dawn Farm, is ready for his comeback race, Sunday’s $100,000 Shy Groom overnight stakes.
“He may just go to the front [in the Shy Groom],” said Sciacca. “He should be dead fit. If somebody wants to go, he can lay right off of them, but he’ll probably just go. He’s fresh and is doing great.”
The Shy Groom, a seven-furlong race for New York-breds 3-years-old and up, will be Saratoga Snacks’ first start since winning the Alex M. Robb in December at Aqueduct Racetrack. He was given time off after the Robb to heal a bruised foot.
“I started getting him ready, but I just kicked him out and said, ‘Bill, he’s been real good to us. It’s the wintertime. I have to look at the long plans,’” Sciacca recalled. “Bill lives in Saratoga and wants to see him train and run in Saratoga. If I had run him all winter, you never know what would have happened. He looks fantastic.”
Sciacca said he plans to run Saratoga Snacks in the Shy Groom and then in an allowance at Saratoga Race Course. After that, the trainer hopes the 4-year-old ridgling can win stakes against open company.
“It’d be nice to win a Grade 1,” said Sciacca. “That would be on the agenda. I told Bill about that, and I have a private bet with him [about whether Saratoga Snacks can win a Grade 1].”
But first Saratoga Snacks must take on a Shy Groom field that includes stakes winners Mine Over Matter, Willy Beamin, Be Bullish, Fiddlers Afleet, and Sundae On Sunday. B Shanny and Dan’s Gold also were entered.
* * *
Sandwiching the Shy Groom on Sunday’s card are two seven-furlong turf races for 3-year-olds eligible for the New York Stallion series – the $100,000 Spectacular Bid and the $100,000 Cupecoy’s Joy for fillies.
Heading the Spectacular Bid, which will be run as race 9, is Long Island Racing Stable’s West Hills Giant, the 5-2 morning-line favorite as he returns to the turf for the first time this year. Most recently fifth in the Mike Lee after stumbling badly at the start, West Hills Giant will run without blinkers as he leaves from post position 5 with Hall of Fame jockey Edgar Prado aboard.
Huge Asset, Orino, Sneaky Freud, Captain Gaughen, Belief System, Lightnin Stone, Sunbio and Call for the Clock were also entered, along with two coupled entries: Treblemaker and Madam I’m Adam and Meeker Avenue and Escapefromreality, with the latter running only if the race comes off the turf.
In the Cupecoy’s Joy, Wellspring Legacy is the 5-2 morning-line choice over 11 other fillies as she makes her first start for Winning Move Stable and David Jacobson. Sixth in her stakes debut, the Little Silver on May 27 at Monmouth Park, Wellspring Legacy was victorious in her two other grass starts this year in Florida.
David Cohen will ride from the rail.
Lining up alongside her will be Bit Bustin, Image of Noon, Ideal Place, Zekes Surprise, Stellerite, Fantastic Eyes, Frosty Bay, Adriatic Dream, Saropia, John’s Mariah, and Maxana.