The Saratoga season’s first Grade 1 major stakes on dirt takes place Saturday as top Breeders’ Cup Distaff division contenders meet in the 3-year-old filly ranks. The $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks inaugurated in 1917 and shifted from Belmont Park to Saratoga in 2010.
Let’s meet the contenders for the 108th running of the CCA Oaks (Race 11):
#1-CANDIED: Trainer Todd Pletcher looks for a record-padding ninth Coaching Club American Oaks victory, having won most recently in 2022 with Nest. Candy Ride filly exits a victory in Monmouth’s Lady’s Secret last month, her first score since Keeneland’s Grade 1 Alcibiades last October. She’s won 3 of 5 and will be ridden for the first time by Manny Franco.
#2-BARBRATINA: Rank outsider in the Oaks was a Churchill allowance winner June 1 before transferring barns from Brad Cox to George Weaver. Distant sixth in the Grade 3 Gazelle after a troubled trip in her only graded stakes bid to date. Junior Alvarado takes over the mount on a filly who is 5-for-6 in the exacta while facing easier competition.
#3-THORPEDO ANNA: 12 Kentucky Oaks winners have added the CCA Oaks, most recently Abel Tasman and Monomoy Girl in 2017-2018, respectively. Star filly held her form from the first Friday in May through a blowout victory last month in the Grade 1 Acorn over this Saratoga track during the Belmont Stakes Festival. She’s won 5 of 6 lifetime and hasn’t had a rival within 4 lengths of her in those scores. $40,000 Fast Anna filly has earned $1.7 million for trainer Kenny McPeek and regular pilot Brian Hernandez, Jr.
#4-LESLIE’S ROSE: $1.15 million yearling purchase won the Grade 1 Ashland in April, but has been no match for Thorpedo Anna in the Kentucky Oaks or Acorn since. Did bounce back from a disastrous Oaks finish to be runner-up over this track last month in the Acorn, though still beaten 5-1/2 lengths. Five-time CCA Oaks-winning jockey John Velazquez looks to forge past Mike Smith in the record books with another score. Trainer Pletcher’s 8 successes in the CCA Oaks are most all-time.
#5-INTRICATE: The only filly ever to beat Thorpedo Anna, she dominated that rival last November in Churchill Downs’ Golden Rod Stakes. But she’s lost all 3 starts this year and hasn’t made the necessary step forward as a sophomore. Runner-up in the Rachel Alexandra and Monomoy Girl Stakes gets a 4-pound weight break from Thorpedo Anna and will be making her Saratoga debut. Regular rider Tyler Gaffalione is back aboard for Brendan Walsh.
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