Faithful Departed back to the Spa for Friday's G2 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Oaks
A competitive edition of the Grade 2, $500,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Oaks takes the spotlight on Friday, August 7, at Saratoga Race Course, as the famed oval hosts its eighth edition of the 1 3/16-mile Mellon turf affair. A race that has been won by the likes of proven Grade/Group 1 types Concrete Rose and Cinderella’s Dream, as well as stakes record-setting Laurelin last year, the Saratoga Oaks continues as a major summer staple for top sophomore grass fillies.
Looking to join the honor roll in 2026 and seeking her chance to shine at the Spa is Frank Ferrogine, Richard Rendina, Nick Coniglio and Greywood Farms’ Faithful Departed, a three-time winner from eight starts who enters off a 1 3/4-length second to Kensington Lane in the nine-furlong Grade 1 Belmont Oaks last out on July 4 here.
An inspired winner of Churchill Downs' Grade 3 Regret one race prior on May 30, the Grant Forster-trained daughter of dual-surface luminary Yoshida - winner of the 2018 Grade 1 Woodward and 2017 Grade 3 Hill Prince - faces some familiar foes and gets the return services of Jose Ortiz from post 6.
“She’s doing excellent, and we’ve had a really good four weeks since the Belmont Oaks,” Forster said. “She really just seems to be thriving, despite all the races she’s had this year. Her energy level is great, and I thought her work this week was one of her best works - actually might have been her best ever.”
Faithful Departed worked a bullet-of-15 half-mile in 48.20 seconds on July 30 at Churchill Training. Forster, winner of three Grade 2 and four Grade 3 races, seeks his first graded stakes win in New York, having won his previous in Louisiana, Kentucky, New Jersey, Indiana and Washington.
“I definitely think her running style helps her take care of herself,” Forster continued. “It’s not like she’s a dirt router on the lead grinding all the way and exhausting herself. She gallops along at a pretty easy clip and comes flying late, really only running the final three-eighths strenuously and that’s a big part of why she stays so fresh. She’s just a really tough-minded and tough-natured filly. That’s a big part of being a really good athlete, as well.”
The imposing yard of Chad Brown unleashes a triad into the fray, led by Belmont Oaks third Fitz Right [post 2, Flavien Prat], a half-length astern Faithful Departed last out. Winner of the Grade 2 Wonder Again over 1 1/16-miles on this course two back, the well-bred Charlatan filly will seek her fifth win in her eighth run. Out of swift Grade 3-winning sprint mare I’m a Looker, she campaigns for Michael Dubb, William H. Lawrence, The Elkstone Group and Michael E. Kisber. Flavien Prat, aboard for both of her stakes victories, including April’s Listed Memories Of Silver at Aqueduct Racetrack, returns from post 2. Prat will seek his third win in the race, having won with Elusive Princess in 2023 and Con Lima in 2021.
“Fitz Right has been a model of consistency,” Brown said. “I originally thought that maybe she doesn't want to run that far - and maybe she doesn't - but looking at the field, I figure even though it might be a touch further than she wants to go, the quality of field matches up with her having a chance to run a little further than she wants.”
Getting a second chance over the course after a seventh in the Belmont Oaks is stablemate Just Aloof [post 7, Dylan Davis], carrying the recognizable silks of breeder Whisper Hill Farm. Winner of the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante last November at Del Mar, the blue-blooded daughter of Justify from the immediate family of top sire Churchill has been a bit unlucky in stakes tries this year, including a pair of close fourths beaten a neck and a half-length in Grade 2 company, but gives it another go for top-tier connections. Just Aloof worked a half-mile in 49.25 in company with Fitz Right over the Oklahoma training turf August 1.
“If there's some give in the ground, I think she is going to move forward,” Brown said. “She's been looking for that. There was some give in the ground on the turf course [in her work] and I saw the best of her.”
Rounding out Brown's troika is lightly raced Consensus View [post 8, Manny Franco], a $376,513 Tattersalls October 2024 yearling by superstar Frankel from a deep Aga Khan family. Out of a half-sister to globetrotting dual Group 2 winner Ebaiyra, the Klaravich Stables color-bearer was a rallying winner of a June 25 turf maiden at the Big A.
“She broke her maiden nicely and came home a nice fast quarter at Aqueduct going a mile and three-sixteenths at the Oaks distance,” Brown explained. “I normally wouldn't do something like this [step up into graded race second out], but I like running against straight 3-year-old fillies. I didn't run her back in the '1X' recently because I didn't want to cut her back and I had a different Klaravich horse named Crossover Capital that won [on July 25] and I don't want to wait for the next one as it's not likely to be far enough for her. She's a mile and a quarter filly at the end of the day. There aren’t many spots, so I'd rather run her here and keep her development moving forward. She's a very well-bred horse by Frankel.”
Mark Dobbin’s classy Imaginationthelady [post 5, Tyler Gaffalione] looks to manifest a better outcome than her 7 3/4-length sixth in the Belmont Oaks, a run that followed a smart victory in Churchill Downs’ Grade 2 Edgewood on May 1. Winner of last fall’s Grade 2 Jessamine and a good fourth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, the Brendan Walsh-trained daughter of in-vogue sire Not This Time was set alight in the first quarter-mile of the Belmont Oaks after dwelt favorite Abashiri bolted past the field entering the first turn, setting off a chain reaction that ultimately took the starch out of both horses.
Laurelin’s conditioner, Graham Motion, seeks his second consecutive victory in the race, this time with Robert S. Evans’ last-out allowance winner Bless Her, a homebred daughter of Twirling Candy and multiple graded stakes-winner Irish Mission, winner of the 2014 Grade 3 Glens Falls here and a dual Sovereign Award-winner in Canada.
Winner of 2-of-6 runs, Bless Her was imperious last out at Colonial Downs against open older fillies and runs at her seventh different racecourse in as many starts. Hall of Famer John Velazquez, winner of the 2020 edition with Antoinette, pairs up from post 4.
“She's made for stamina,” Motion said. “We've been waiting for these longer races. I thought she was a little unlucky at Keeneland when she just missed on the head-bob. She came back and won pretty comfortably last time against older mares. I've always had this race in the back of my mind if it didn't seem too ambitious and I think she's doing really well. She’s a big filly; a very attractive filly. She's very manageable and a straightforward ride, I think. She seems in really good form. I like the timing and the spacing of the race.”
Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Walmac Farm’s Code [post 3, Luis Saez] steps up in class for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, who conditioned Con Lima to victory in 2021. A maiden winner at Gulfstream Park in May, the chestnut daughter of Grade 1 Travers champ Tiz the Law was subsequently a neck second in a Churchill Downs first-level allowance before a respectable third in the Listed Wild Applause on July 3. Code scratched out of the local Grade 3 Lake George presented by Surfside on August 1 in favor of the Saratoga Oaks.
“It’s wide-open on paper and she’s a progressive filly,” Eclipse principal Aron Wellman said. “We figured it was a nice opportunity to garner some more important black type with her.”
Rounding out the octet is WinStar Farm homebred Kentucky Belle, a daughter of Justify who enters relatively fresh, last seen taking a Keeneland allowance over this distance on April 18. A dual winner from five starts who has never been off the board, the Brad Cox pupil was ridden by Prat last out, but reunites with Irad Ortiz, Jr., aboard for her graduation in November at Churchill Downs, from the inside post.
“She’s training really good over here on the turf training track with solid moves,” Cox said. “I like this distance for her. She won at it last time and obviously she hasn’t run in a little while, but she looks really good and she’s ready to go. It’s going to be a tough race off that freshening, but there’s not a lot of options for 3-year-old fillies who have won two races, and I think she wants the distance. We’re hoping this can be a steppingstone to races even farther like the Dueling Grounds Oaks. She’s not super-fast early, but she comes steady.”
The Saratoga Oaks is slated as Race 10 on Friday’s 11-race card, which features the Grade 2, $400,000 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in Race 9. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern.
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