Tonalist's Shape: CCA Oaks is 'best chance to be competitive'
A few weeks ago, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said the next stop for Tonalist's Shape was likely to be the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland, but he's opted for another race that was under consideration: the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) at Saratoga on Saturday.
And he's very eager to see how she'll race with blinkers.
During a conference call hosted by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association on Wednesday, Joseph said: "Initially, we were all in for the Ashland. ... They’re both being Grade 1, and it’s important — she’s obviously won a Grade 2 race and a Grade 3, if we can get Grade 1 on the resume, it would be very important for her as a broodmare.
"Coaching Club just seems like it’s a spot that we could probably be the favorite. Doesn’t mean we’re going to win, but it seems like it gives us the best chance to be competitive. That was our decision finally. We all talked it over with the owners, and we decided we were going to go to the Coaching Club."
The daughter of Tonalist is owned by Slam Dunk Racing, Doug Branham and Legacy Ranch Inc.
She has scored in six of her seven starts, the only loss being a seventh-place finish in the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2) on March 28. She came back with a win last out in the Hollywood Wildcat Stakes at Gulfstream on May 15.
Saffie said in late June that Tonalist's Shape, wearing blinkers for the first time, had a "breathtaking" workout, breezing a half-mile in 45.35 seconds at Gulfstream.
And he's still excited about the equipment change.
"Recently, one of the owners was recommending you might check blinkers on her," he said Wednesday. "I wasn’t opposed to it because I thought we need to find a couple more lengths to be a top-tier horse. She’s already proven she’s a nice filly, but to jump to another level … she needs to improve. And we put blinkers on her one morning to work, and she worked phenomenal at Gulfstream. I mean, she worked so good, it’s like, it’s almost scary how good she worked in the blinkers.
"The next week, we took them off, and she ran a little quicker than ideal, and we put them back again, and I was just blown out. Yesterday at Saratoga, we put them back on and again, she did the same thing."
In that work at Saratoga, she breezed three furlongs in 34.26, the best of 17 that day at that distance.
Still, he wasn't quite sure whether to believe what he had seen.
"I mean, sometimes … you question yourself, is it for sure? Are we seeing right?" Joseph said. "But I even asked some of the respectable clockers … everyone seems to think she’s much better in the blinkers, and that’s what I think too. … That is a question mark that as a trainer you always have when you’re making a change, and any change … you never know until you do it. But the blinkers seem to have made all positive. I wish I could tell you for sure, but I’ll tell you for sure on Saturday."