Harper’s Corner much the best in Listed $200K Schuylerville

Charles Bigg’s Harper’s Corner made every pole a winning one in Friday’s Listed $200,000 Schuylerville, a six-furlong sprint for 2-year-old fillies, at Saratoga Race Course.

Trained by Cathal Lynch and piloted by Paco Lopez, the dark bay, who became the first stakes winner for her sire, Speaker’s Corner, validated her first-out 7 3/4-length score on June 12 at Laurel Park with a powerful 5 1/4-length romp in her stakes debut.

Lopez, who was involved in a spill one race earlier, said he was not surprised to see Harper’s Corner back in the winner’s circle.

“That filly, she’s special,” Lopez said. “I know she beat nobody at Laurel. I said, ‘let’s go to Saratoga.’ He [Lynch] thought about it, and he listened to me. He knows she’s a special filly, and he agreed and she came to Saratoga.”

Harper’s Corner showed the way through splits of 22.02 seconds and 45.18 over the fast main track while being watched by Luminous Beauty to her outside and Prime Aurora along the rail.

The Jose Ortiz-piloted maiden Voyager tipped out three-wide for the stretch run and took dead aim at the leader, but there was no reeling in Harper’s Corner, who continued to find more while pulling away to win in a final time of 1:09.96.

Voyager completed the exacta by 6 1/4-lengths over Prime Aurora with Pot’s Right – who stumbled badly at the start - Luminous Beauty and Madeleine Swann rounding out the order of finish. Washton and Costa Linda were scratched.

Harper’s Corner returned $26 for a $2 win bet as the 12-1 second longest shot on the board. Lynch said he was not surprised that Harper’s Corner was able to step into stakes company successfully.

“Delighted, not shocked. I'm delighted. I think she's a real filly,” Lynch said. “She showed everything at home that she was doing very, very good. We try not to get in their way.

"Paco seems to think she'll go longer,” Lynch added. “She worked at Fair Hill there last week on the turf track. Then we gave her a breeze up a hill, and it seemed to get her a little tighter. Her first race, I told him that she probably wasn't as tight as she needed to be, but I think she's a little tighter now." 

Ortiz said the dual Hall of Famer Mark Casse-trained Voyager performed valiantly in defeat.

“I think she ran pretty good. I don't take nothing away from the winner, she ran a very good race,” Ortiz said. “I wanted to break good and be as close as I could without using her a lot. The winner was loose on the lead, nobody went with her, but she was going fast enough, nobody could've kept up with her." 

Harper’s Corner, out of the Speightstown mare Toscana, was purchased for $70,000 at the OBS Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training where she worked in 10.2 seconds. Her second dam is Nikkis Smartypants, a Grade 3-winner on turf and a three-time winner on synthetic.

Lynch said he’ll speak with the connections before deciding on a next start with the next logical local spot on the main track being the Grade 3, $225,000 Adirondack going 6 1/2-furlongs on August 2 at Saratoga.

“I'll talk to Charlie [Biggs] and we'll go from there. Paco, he didn't seem to think distance was an issue, so fingers crossed she comes back OK, and we'll go from there," Lynch said.

Bred in Kentucky by Bishop Racing, Harper’s Corner banked $110,000 in victory while improving her record to 2-for-2. 

Live racing resumes Saturday at Saratoga for an 11-race Independence Day program that features a pair of Grade 1s in the Belmont Oaks in Race 7 and the Belmont Derby in Race 9, along with the Grade 2 Suburban presented by Subourbon Life in Race 8 and the Grade 3 Sanford in Race 5. First post is 12:35 p.m. Eastern.  

Saratoga Live presents daily coverage and analysis of the summer meet at Saratoga Race Course on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule/.

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