The July 14 Wilton Stakes may be just a $135,000 restricted stakes for 3-year-old fillies, yet it promises to be one of the most analyzed races of the 40-day meet at Saratoga Race Course.
Scheduled as the seventh of 10 races on the eagerly awaited opening-day card, the Wilton will pay homage to the 1974 Peter Allen song "Everything Old Is New Again," as it will serve as the reintroduction of a one-mile chute at the fabled Spa. Known as the Wilson Chute, the layout marks a rebirth of a distance last used by the New York Racing Association in 1992, which will give horsemen a middle ground between seven-furlong sprints and two-turn, 1 1/8-mile routes on the main track.
"It's another tool for (New York Racing Association senior vice president of racing operations) Frank Gabriel to use in building his racing program at Saratoga," said NYRA senior vice president of operations and capital projects Glen Kozak.
The first condition book for Saratoga (through July 31) lists 11 races at one mile on dirt, and the chute will also come into play when mile or 1 1/16-mile turf races are moved to the main track. In the past, those races were shifted to seven furlongs or 1 1/8 miles, which made them even more of an ill fit for some grass horses and resulted in additional scratches.
"We're going to try to manage it gradually and make sure we have it as an offering for the program, but we will also make sure it does not become a detriment to the 1 1/8-mile races on the dirt, which are important to Saratoga," Gabriel said.
The groundwork to bring back the mile chute began in 2020, when NYRA renovated Saratoga's main track and did preliminary work on the area where the chute would be built. That made it a relatively easy project for Kozak and his crew when they started construction in early June.
"It only took a couple of weeks of work to get it done," Kozak said. "We relocated some of the trees next to the tailgate area and built a surface similar to the main track, with limestone underneath and cushion on top. We put the safety rail in and sodded the outside area. We relocated the camera for the head-on shot and relocated one of the Trakus poles. It was a pretty straightforward and simple process."
Belmont Park and Aqueduct Racetrack are among a limited number of tracks with a mile chute. The Wilton will provide the first glimpse of how it will be embraced at Saratoga and if the layout may favor certain posts.
The turnout for the race was strong with a field of nine, especially since races using the chute will be limited to 10 starters. Though restricted to non-stakes winners, four of the entrants have placed in graded stakes, topped by three of them from the barn of Todd Pletcher, a winner of 14 Saratoga training titles in his Hall of Fame career.
The most accomplished of the three would be Red Oak Stable's Goddess of Fire, who was 11th in the May 6 Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) after runner-up finishes in the Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2) and Rachel Alexandra Stakes (G2).
"She's coming out of the Kentucky Oaks, which was a difficult race, but she's done well with a little bit of time," Pletcher said of the homebred daughter of Mineshaft . "She didn't fire that day but she showed in the Gulfstream Park Oaks and Rachel Alexandra that she's a nice filly."
MyRacehorse Stable and Spendthrift Farm's A Mo Reay was grade 1-placed at 2 as a maiden and is coming off a pair of wins sandwiched between an April 8 Keeneland allowance optional claimer in which she was eased. She won a June 10 allowance optional claimer at Laurel Park in her last start, and broke her maiden at a mile at Aqueduct in December.
"She came back well from her last start and we felt this would be the logical progression," Pletcher said about the daughter of Uncle Mo who was a $400,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale buy from the Kingswood Farm consignment. "She was training lights out and was actually training with Nest (who won the April 8 Central Bank Ashland Stakes, G1), so (the Keeneland race) was a classic throw out race with no explanation."
Stonestreet Stables' Favor was last seen finishing fifth in the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (G2) after winding up third in the Fair Grounds Oaks (G3). Prior to that, she won a pair of one-turn miles at Gulfstream Park.
"I thought she had the right trip in the Black-Eyed Susan. But she rebounded well and has trained good," Pletcher said about the daughter of Pioneerof the Nile bought for $500,000 from the Gainesway consignment at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearlings Showcase.
While Pletcher was not an avid supporter of reopening the chute, his decision to start three fillies in the Wilton reflects a willingness to at least give it a try.
"I wasn't a big fan of it to begin with, but it's there and so I'll give it an open-minded approach. They had it back in 1992 and it seemed post positions played a huge role in who did well and how the race unfolded. They experimented with it in 1992 and didn't do it again for 30 years, so...," said Pletcher, two of whose fillies will break from the rail (Goddess of Fire) and the outside post (A Mo Reay).
The other filly in the field of nine with graded-stakes black type is LBD Stable, Manganaro Bloodstock, and David Ingordo's Tarabi, a First Samurai daughter who was third in the NetJets Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1). In her lone start since the World Championships, she was second June 18 in a seven-furlong allowance optional claimer at Churchill Downs for trainer Cherie DeVaux.
The field also includes Gina Romantica (Into Mischief ) for owner Peter Brant and trainer Chad Brown; Angitude (Violence ), a winner of two of three starts for trainer Brad Cox; and Sweet Solare (Into Mischief), who was third in the Jersey Girl Stakes for Horacio De Paz.
Saratoga Race Course, Thursday, July 14, 2022, Race 7Entries: Wilton S.
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Goddess of Fire (KY) John R. Velazquez 120 Todd A. Pletcher 3/1 2 2Gina Romantica (KY) Flavien Prat 122 Chad C. Brown 8/1 3 3St Maarten Girl (KY) Ricardo Santana, Jr. 120 Juan C. Vazquez 30/1 4 4Angitude (KY) Joel Rosario 122 Brad H. Cox 8/1 5 5Sweet Solare (KY) Kendrick Carmouche 122 Horacio De Paz 20/1 6 6Favor (KY) Tyler Gaffalione 122 Todd A. Pletcher 7/2 7 7Tarabi (KY) Javier Castellano 120 Cherie DeVaux 5/2 8 8Let's Be Clear (KY) Jose Lezcano 122 Linda Rice 20/1 9 9A Mo Reay (KY) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 122 Todd A. Pletcher 5/1
