Stewart steps up Cathedral Reader in Saratoga's Test Stakes
After a quiet opening to the meet, with just four starters through the first 13 days, trainer Dallas Stewart is looking to make some noise in the coming weeks starting with G M B Racing's Cathedral Reader in Saturday's Grade 1, $500,000 Longines Test Stakes.
A chestnut daughter of 2011 Grade 1 Preakness winner Shackleford, Cathedral Reader will be making her stakes debut in her third career start. She romped by 6 ½ lengths over older horses in her unveiling going 5 ½ furlongs May 13, one of just three of the Test's nine fillies to have faced and beaten her elders.
Last time out, she finished third as the favorite in a six-furlong optional claimer in the Churchill Downs slop June 21. She has breezed four times since then, her half-mile in 48.34 over Saratoga's main track July 27 - eighth-fastest of 60 horses - convincing Stewart to try the Test.
"She got up here and she worked great. We were kind of thinking either an allowance race or this race, and she worked really good, so I said, 'Let's go ahead and give it a shot,'" Stewart said. "She's light on experience, but she won first time and she didn't have a great trip the second time, but I thought she fought hard. So, we'll see."
Cathedral Reader will break from post 6 in a competitive edition of the Test and will be ridden for the first time by meet-leading jockey Luis Saez, winner of the 2016 running with 55-1 long shot Paola Queen. Cathedral Reader is 20-1 on the morning line.
"It's a great field. She's going to have to run hard to win it," Stewart said. "I think we've got a nice filly, so we're going to try it. She's pretty professional."
Friday morning Stewart sent out Rock Ridge Thoroughbreds homebred Auspicious Babe for a half-mile work on the Oklahoma training track ahead of the Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama August 18.
Under jockey Florent Geroux, the 3-year-old daughter of Bodemeister was caught by clockers going a quarter-mile in :25 3/5 and a half in 49.99 seconds, galloping out five furlongs in 1:03 1/5.
"She worked great. I was going to work on the main track but with the weather we brought her over here and she worked awesome," Stewart said. "I might work her back over here. We're happy. That's a good work over here."
Auspicious Babe went unraced at 2 and was seventh in her one-mile maiden special weight debut May 4 at Churchill, but has since reeled off back-to-back victories going 1 1/16 miles, the most recent coming in an entry-level optional claiming allowance June 29. Geroux was up for both wins.
"Her first start, she ran in the mud on [Kentucky] Oaks day and didn't do very well. We stretched her out and she won, and we brought her back in a one-other-than going long and she won. Everything's good," Stewart said. "She's a big, strong filly. The way she won at Churchill, it looks like she can handle a mile and a quarter. Some of the other ones that are pretty good fillies might not want to go that far. I know it's going to be a great race; it's the Alabama. So, let's take a shot."
Stewart is pointing 2017 Grade 1 Clark Handicap winner Seeking the Soul to the Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward September 1 at Saratoga. The 5-year-old most recently ran second in the Michael G. Schaefer Memorial Stakes July 14 at Indiana Grand, his first start since a fifth-place finish in the Grade 1, $16 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational January 27 at Gulfstream Park.
On Thursday, 3-year-old Quality Road colt Wild Road ran fourth for Stewart in a maiden special weight at Saratoga. The trainer also had Thirteen Songs finish fourth in the Grade 2 Honorable Miss July 25.
"We're just kind of getting rolling. We had a horse run good yesterday, we've got the filly that's going to go in the Alabama, we've got the Test, we've got Seeking the Soul for the Woodward," Stewart said. "We'll be all right. We might be a little noisier than you think later on. We've got some 2-year-olds that we like, too, so we'll see."