The Galloping Hat Rack

Continuing the photo bloggage with my day at the races on Saturday, August 15, best known as Alabama Day at Saratoga, celebrating one of the oldest and most cherished races for three-year-old fillies.

Even though I’m used to going places by myself all the time– particularly the track– the hollow feeling I got from Slice’s departure made the lonely hours between crowds and quiet feel particularly emboldened. Yes, I will probably always believe that even an ordinary, cloudy day at Saratoga could be a great one lying in wait, but the way Saturday started out, it was as if the racing gods were testing me.

I don’t have the newest car or the finest of luck when it comes to cars. So while good ol’ Cammy has behaved herself since the spring, she likes to play games with me from time to time. On Saturday, it was a buy one get one free sort of day with a surprise missing gas cap (I must have left it back in Massachusetts where I last filled it) and a surprise half-deflated tire. Pair that with minimal car experience, and you’ve got stress, stress, stress to kick off your day. And just about the worst thing you can do to me is try to tell me what to do and play me off like an imbecile when it comes to horses… yes, there are some overbearing “fans” with cameras who frequent Saratoga that strongly resemble those I find crawling all over Zenyatta.com. I was in a dangerous mood thanks to all the frustrations of the early hours, so I made a quick exit from that situation before it boiled over.

BUT YES. PONIES. A big big reason I got up with the birds early on Alabama Day was the horses that were very likely to show up that morning. Word drifted by that Wise Dan already breezed on the main, but much before the gates were open to the public. Ugh, I am still just the ‘public’ to just about everyone! But it was worth the wait as Travers stars rolled out and an old friend in Jay Moran aka Mr. Easygoer showed up. If my brain is slow, I can usually count on Jay to help me ID horses. And yes, that is huuuuuge when there’s a hundred of them running around and you only have so many chances to hit the shutter and your brain goes to mush trying to figure out who that just was.

Princess of Sylmar worked well alongside stablemate Silsita (thanks bigcountry for the positive ID!). Nothing big or flashy in preparation for the Personal Ensign (I), and there were just too many Pletcher stars to list them all: Palace Malice, My Miss Aurelia, Cross Traffic, My Miss Sophia, and a whole bunch of strange new two-year-olds. John Velazquez came out riding a colt that a lot of photographers seemed interested in:

Big, brawny type just easy breezing out there. I’m sure I will be able to upload more mystery horse and developing two-year-olds with positive IDs later this fall and next spring.

Wicked Strong was one of those “blink and you’ll miss him” horses. AHH THAT’S HIM! We packed up our gear and ran down the street and across to the other side to catch him heading back to the barn.

With the main track closing, I returned to the Oklahoma training track in hopes of soaking up what was left of the morning light and maybe get a few nice shots in. It wasn’t long until I saw this one chestnut horse running wiiiiiiide around the bend on the dirt with her tongue poking out the left side of her mouth. I didn’t have to check to see if there was a “CB” on the saddle cloth to know it for sure. DAYATTHESPAAAAAA! (Also pictured best at the top of this post):

The flopping tongue and irregular blaze are the two dead giveaways it’s Dayatthespa galloping towards you!

Now how about some of those races?

I’ve never been to the Alabama Stakes, so it was a joy finally being able to attend this year. I was a bit upset that Untapable would not be attending whatsoever, but I was eager to see some great filly faces all day. With program in hand, it was time to catch some great runners doing what they do best, and wouldn’t you know it… the Alabama Stakes felt more like an undercard race due to the feels I got from the Lake Placid (II)…

Belmont Oaks (I) winner Minorette. French heavyweight Xcellence [FR]. The speedy underdog Duff One. And of course, the royal-looking Crown Queen. She gave me shivers in an allowance race just two weeks earlier, and here she was in her graded stakes debut against some tough company. Tracking early, she outkicked the class and outpowered the speed to win the Lake Placid by a half length. Such a beautiful horse, such freakin’ class. I loved her sis Royal Delta a whole lot, but Crown Queen has already inherited that love and a bit more. Like I said in a prior photo blog post featuring her… SHE MUST BE WATCHED!

Speaking of who to watch, since this IS Saratoga, one of the must-see events of any undercard is any and all maiden special weights for two-year-olds. One newly-stamped winner named Bold Conquest was a horse I had seen debut a couple of weeks ago, and if you guessed by his picture that he is a Curlin, you are 100% correct. Rallying late in the stretch to duel with Money Changer, he wound up on top in the photo finish and is quite the looker. (Also, last I checked, he finished 2nd in the Kentucky Derby points race the G3 Iroquois at Churchill Downs, by just a neck to winner Lucky Player). Again, not a huge fan of Curlins, but he looks like a nice horse already.

Fast forwarding to the race of the day… the Alabama (I)!

With many of the fillies coming hot off the Coaching Club American Oaks (I), naturally the horse to beat was its winner, Stopchargingmaria. As I mentioned leading up to the race, I liked Fortune Pearl best from a bettor’s perspective, believing that Stopchargingmaria would… ahem… stop charging once meeting the eighth pole. Joint Return was competitive on the stretch-out paired up with blinkers, and Got Lucky was getting another chance from me going further and with a new set of blinkers as well. 

Miss Besilu bobs out first from the break in a sea of fillies.

The pace was immediately taciturn. No one was making much of a move, and it seemed to stay that way for almost the whole race. Stopchargingmaria moved to a forward position and sat down on the couch to relax from there on out with the field packed tightly around her. Moving late, Miss Besilu sprung from just behind 'Maria to challenge as Joint Return emerged as another late threat. Johnny V poured into Maria, the fillies all bouncing down the stretch all rubber-legged. Reminded me a bit of the recent Schyulerville won by Fashion Alert… which is probably the reason I never cared to write home about that one…

I didn’t have to read the teletimer to know Stopchargingmaria captured an unimpressive running of the Alabama. There was just no way from where I was standing that it was a very telling race, and there was no way I was readily going to believe that a Montbrook-Storm Cat cross spat out a classic distance type. 2:05. One of the slowest Alabamas run, I believe just a bit faster than Shuvee’s shoo-in in '69.

Maybe you can impress me some other day, Maria.