Ready To Fire: Saratoga Is The Launching Pad For Maidens

[Wandering Eyes]

SARATOGA SPRING, NY – Since racing began here in the 1860s, Saratoga has been a career launching pad for 2-year-old maidens. It should not be a surprise that the tradition continued last summer.

Dozens and dozens of young horses destined for greatness picked up their first victories at the Spa. A very short list of those standouts includes:

• The filly Ruthless, winner of the inaugural running of the GI Belmont Stakes
• Aristides, who won the first GI Kentucky Derby
• Maskette
• Zev
• Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox
• Tom Fool
• Sword Dancer
• Winning Colors
• Easy Goer.

Some, like Godolphin's Derby and Belmont winner Sovereignty (Into Mischief), lost in maiden races at Saratoga and developed into stars. Sovereignty was fourth behind 'TDN Rising Star' Tip Top Thomas (Volatile) on Aug. 24 and has four wins and two seconds since. Tip Top Thomas won the GIII Indiana Derby on Saturday. Amerman Racing's Test Score (Lookin at Lucky), second in his maiden try at Saratoga, won the GI Belmont Derby Invitational on Saturday at Saratoga.

While it's far too early to tell whether the class of 2024 will produce an all-timer, we can see that some of them have already laid the foundations of promising careers.

From the winners of the 36 Maiden Special Weight races with purses of $100,000 and with no restrictions–regarded as the most challenging of the many maiden contests of the Saratoga season–winners include:

• Godolphin's champion Immersive (Nyquist)
• Sandman (Tapit)
• La Cara (Street Sense)
• May Day Ready (Tapit).

Through the decades, the competition has proved to be pretty stout in some of Saratoga's maiden contests.

“I don't think anything's changed historically there,” Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher said. “You come to Saratoga with a 2-year-old, you better have them well prepared, and they better have some talent. You know you can run an awfully good one that might not win first time out.”

The top-level maiden races in 2024 were made up of sprints and routes:

• Twenty were run on dirt
• 16 were contested on the grass.

So far, the maiden winners have secured:

• a total of nine Grade I victories, six as 2-year-olds and three this year
• Immersive, trained by Brad Cox, was voted the Eclipse Award-winning 2-year-old filly champ after following her debut victory at Saratoga with wins in the GI Spinaway, the GI Alcibiades and the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.
• D. J. Stable LLC, St. Elias Stable, West Point Thoroughbreds and CJ Stables' Sandman earned his berth in the Kentucky Derby, where he finished seventh, with a score in the GI Arkansas Derby.
• Tracy Farmer's La Cara picked up her two Grade I wins this year in the Ashland and the Acorn.
• Flanagan Racing's 'TDN Rising Star' Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie) moved from his maiden win to take the GI Hopeful and the GI Champagne.
• A month after notching her first career win at Saratoga, Live Oak Plantation's And One More Time (Omaha Beach) won the GI Natalma at Woodbine.

Chancer McPatrick | Sarah Andrew

Seven of leading trainer Chad Brown's 45 victories were earned in the open $100,000 maiden races.

• His top performer thus far from that group is Chancer McPatrick with $623,625 in earnings.

Tip Top Thomas was one of Pletcher's four winners.

Mark Casse enjoyed a solid summer with his 2-year-olds, picking up five wins.

“We had a great bunch of young horses,” Casse said. “We have another great bunch of young horses again this year.”

Casse's winners were:

• Sandman
• La Cara
• And One More Time
• Abientot (Not This Time)
• She's Got Will (War of Will).

She's Got Will, who Casse said is coming back from injury, was the only one who debuted at Saratoga. The other four, all now graded stakes winners, had lost in races at other tracks before competing at Saratoga.

“That's a typical Mark Casse,” Casse said. “My friend, Aron Yagoda, who introduced me when I got inducted into the Hall of Fame, he tells everybody, 'Mark doesn't train for a race. He trains for a career.' When you look at Sandman and you look at La Cara, you can see that's a little bit of what I do.”

Sandman ran third in the GI Preakness Stakes and is expected to make his next start in the GII Jim Dandy to prep for the GI Travers. La Cara is headed to the GI Coaching Club American Oaks and could face Casse stablemate Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro) in the GI Alabama.

Casse said he likes to spread out his maidens and give them a test before Saratoga.

“If you see me run a first-time starter here, he's really good or he's a New York-bred, because, if not, I've gotten them started somewhere else,” Casse said. “That was the case with Sandman and La Cara. I always say, 'this is New York. You have to earn your way there.”

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