A known commodity on the turf, Saturday Flirt proved to be a Sunday darling when debuting on dirt to win her first stakes race in the $175,000 Soaring Softly Stakes June 8 at Saratoga Race Course.
The 5 1/2-furlong Soaring Softly was originally meant to be run on turf at the same distance but the unrelenting rain Friday and into early Saturday necessitated the surface switch.
The 3-year-old daughter of Mendelssohn is owned by Fitriani Hay and bred by her trainer, Wesley Ward.
Ridden by Junior Alvarado, Saturday Flirt defeated a field that was scratched down to six. She sat in fourth position down the backstretch as the early leaders, Yougottahavehope and Cloe, set an opening quarter-mile in :22.36. With five-sixteenths of a mile remaining, Cloe, the 2-1 favorite, seized the lead. Saturday Flirt zeroed in on the leader and overtook that rival with a sixteenth remaining for a 3 3/4-length victory while stopping the clock in 1:04. Cloe finished second with Spirited Boss checking in third, three lengths behind the runner-up.
Hey Bertie, the second choice, went to her knees at the start and wasn't a factor while finishing fifth, beaten 10 lengths by the winner.
The winner returned $10.60 for a $2 win wager. The Soaring Softly was the fourth start for Saturday Flirt following two turf wins; in a maiden special weight at Keeneland in April 2024 and an allowance race there this April. In between, she finished off the board in the Norfolk Stakes (G2) last year at Royal Ascot.
Ward bought Saturday Flirt's dam, Dragic, for $100,000 as a yearling at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. A daughter of Broken Vow, Dragic was trained by Ward and was multiple stakes-placed for Steven Michael Bell. Saturday Flirt is her third foal and first stakes winner. Dragic has a yearling and a foal on the ground by Three Chimneys Farm's Gun Runner .
"I partnered with Goncalo Torrealba of Three Chimneys on a couple of Gun Runners, so that's going to make him happy," Ward said.
Kentucky Downs might be the next destination for Saturday Flirt. Ward is looking at the $2 million Music City Stakes (G2T) Sept. 6.
"You never know until you do it (running on the dirt)," Ward said. "I decided she breezed so well at Keeneland on the dirt, that being her home track, a lot of my turf horses breeze good on the dirt. So, this was a little bit of an unknown, but I think the track's got some moisture in it and that's the reason why she got over it so well."
Because of the surface change, the Soaring Softly was downgraded to listed status pending review by the American Graded Stakes Committee.
Mendelssohn, a half brother to Into Mischief , stands at Ashford Stud near Versailles, Ky., for a fee of $15,000 this year.
