The series of stakes for 2-year-old fillies comes to a close Aug. 31 at Saratoga Race Course with the Spinaway Stakes (G1), which has attracted a field of 11, seven of which have already posted a win at the meet.
Despite winning twice from three starts at the Spa, The Queens M G is the second choice on the morning line at 7-2. Her lone loss at the upstate New York track came during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga, when she was seventh by 18 lengths in the Astoria Stakes. During the summer meeting, she's won the listed Schuylerville Stakes and the Adirondack Stakes (G3), the latter by nine lengths. The Spinaway will be the first race in which she's not breaking from the farthest outside post, drawing stall 8. Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. still thinks his filly is the one to beat, telling the New York Racing Association that the other Spinaway runners will have to "step up" to beat the daughter of first-crop stallion Thousand Words .
The Queens M G is owned by C Two Racing Stable and Mathis Stable and will be ridden by Dylan Davis.
Winner of a maiden race at Saratoga Aug. 4 by 6 1/4 lengths, favored Quietside (3-1) will break from the far outside post 11 under Luis Saez. Owned and bred by Shortleaf Stable, the daughter of Malibu Moon had her owner's confidence even before her debut.
"We only bring our best 2-year-olds to Saratoga," said Shortleaf's Ed Anthony following that maiden win. "If you bring an average horse up here, you're going to get embarrassed."
Quietside was raised at Stone Farm near Paris, Ky, and vice president Lynn Hancock recalled that the dark bay/brown filly showed promise from the start.
"She was always a monster, a big, forward filly," she said. "It's good to get her to the races and find out what she can do."
Quietside is trained by John Ortiz.
Following New York-bred Bellacose's first-out win by 10 3/4 lengths at Saratoga July 17, John Stewart's Resolute Racing purchased a 75% interest in the Audible filly, joining Christopher Dunn, Blue Tarp Racing, Chris Mara, Greyhound Stables, Nicholas Sgroi, Arthur Sgroi, Jonathan Sacks, and Corrin Genovese as owners. Initially pointed to the Seeking the Ante for New York-breds Aug. 25, Bellacose was also entered in this race, with Stewart electing for the graded race instead.
"We've done a lot of analysis around Audible, and we hadn't owned any yet," he said. "We watched her work, and we thought she looked really good and moved really well. We think that she has the capacity to win a graded stakes race. We only want to run horses with the ability to win in stakes races."
Stewart has kept the filly in the barn of Jeremiah Englehart. Bellacose (15-1) will break from gate 10 under Junior Alvarado.
Trainer Mark Casse has been on fire with 2-year-olds at the meet, and he enters maiden Salted (8-1) seeking her first win after two runner-up finishes. Javier Castellano gets the call and will break from post 6. Casse also has Schuylerville runner-up Sherbini (8-1) entered with Florent Geroux up.
As part of the Breeders' Cup Dirt Dozen Bonus Series, the Spinaway will award $30,000 to the winner, $15,000 to the runner-up, and $7,500 to the third-place finisher to apply toward entry fees for the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) Nov. 1.
The Spinaway is race 11 of 13 on Saturday's card with a post time of 5:41 p.m. ET.
Saratoga Race Course, Saturday, August 31, 2024, Race 11Entries: Spinaway S. (G1)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Immersive (KY) Manuel Franco 120 Brad H. Cox 8/1 2 2Sherbini (KY) Florent Geroux 120 Mark E. Casse 8/1 3 3Reliable Source (KY) Ricardo Santana, Jr. 120 Steven M. Asmussen 20/1 4 4Tiz Purple (KY) Eric Cancel 120 Jorge Delgado 12/1 5 5Slang (KY) Kendrick Carmouche 120 Norm W. Casse 15/1 6 6Salted (KY) Javier Castellano 118 Mark E. Casse 8/1 7 7Pondering (KY) Luan Machado 120 Brendan P. Walsh 6/1 8 8The Queens M G (KY) Dylan Davis 122 Saffie A. Joseph, Jr. 7/2 9 9Strong State (KY) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 120 Albert M. Stall, Jr. 12/1 10 10Bellacose (NY) Junior Alvarado 120 Jeremiah C. Englehart 15/1 11 11Quietside (KY) Luis Saez 120 John Alexander Ortiz 3/1
