Caesars Saratoga Derby

Invitational (Grade 1)

THE weekend proved one that trainer Charlie Appleby will long remember on his first trip to the Spa.

Godolphin raiders took home the $1 million Grade 1 Caesars Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes courtesy of Nations Pride’s decisive win on Saturday, the middle leg of the New York Racing Association’s Turf Triple series for three-year-olds, and added Sunday’s Grade 3 Saratoga Oaks with the Irish-bred Frankel filly With The Moonlight.

Nations Pride, a son of Teofilo, proved strongest down the stretch to win the mile-one-and-a-half-furlong race by a length and a quarter after being sent off as favourite.

A fast-finishing second under Frankie Dettori from a wide draw in the Belmont Derby, this time William Buick pushed him forward from the start and was able to sit much closer to the pace from stall four as Belmont winner Classic Causeway once again went to the front.

From stall 10, Aidan O’Brien’s Stone Age was forced wide and John Velazquez kept him racing in fourth, while Buick had the rail through mid-race.

Heading for the final bend, Stone Age could find nothing more and Nations Pride challenged outside Classic Causeway, quickly finding more than the leader as Annapolis then finished best for Todd Pletcher.

Doing his job

“I saw him in the corner of my eye. All I had to do was keep my horse doing his job. You never know until you pass the wire, but I was quite happy with the way he was running throughout the race,” Buick was quoted afterwards by BloodHorse.

“We were confident coming into this that Nations Pride had done very well since the Belmont Derby,” Appleby later told www.godolphin.com. “The team have done a fantastic job and he looks to have come on physically since his last run.

“The key was trying to get him to jump quicker from the gates because he was slow into his stride at Belmont. He was a little bit sluggish still but William gave him a great ride – he got down on the fence and thankfully the pace held up on the front end as well.

“We felt he was the right horse to come to America in the spring. We had to let him take his chance in the Derby; there is only one, and we want to have runners in it.”

Nations Pride will likely stay stateside and compete in the $1 million Grade 3 Caesars Jockey Club Derby on September 17th - that meeting usually takes place at Belmont Park but with that course undergoing construction work, it has been moved to Aqueduct.

Buick was also making his first appearance at Saratoga, and made the trip well worth it the following day.

With The Moonlight was the second favourite for the Grade 3 in the $700,000 Saratoga Oaks Invitational and the Frankel filly cruised to a length-and-three-quarters victory.

With The Moonlight had finished second under Frankie Dettori in the opening leg of the Turf Tiara in Belmont where she could not hold off the Chad Brown-trained McKulick and had to settle for second in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes at 10 furlongs.

This time around, at a half furlong shorter distance, the homebred daughter of Frankel was able to chase the pace from second through much slower fractions to six furlongs in 1m 15.18secs on firm turf before taking charge and holding off a late bid from the same rival in McKulick, another daughter of Frankel.

Confident

“We respected Chad’s filly but we were confident coming in,” Appleby said. “She was traveling well within herself. It was nice, even fractions so I knew coming off the turn, she was in A-1 position.

“It’s my first time at Saratoga and I thoroughly loved it. It’s an amazing place and I can see why there’s been a lot of history and lot of fun here,” he told media.

The victory was the first in a graded or group stakes for With The Moonlight, who had won impressively at Newmarket in May but was last in the Oaks behind Tuesday.

Out of the Dubawi mare Sand Vixen, she is a full-sister to the Group 1 winner Dream Castle.

Another winner to note on the Saturday card was Bill Mott’s War Like Goddess as she took the Grade 2 Glens Falls Stakes for older fillies over the turf mile and a half. She was third, only beaten three quarters of a length by Loves Only You, in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf and could be a big rival to the Europeans again this year.

Del Mar

The Grade 1 L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar last Saturday threw up a shock result when Blue Stripe added a Grade 1 win by upsetting Shedaresthedevil, last year’s Hirsch winner.

The Argentine-bred mare, a Group 1 winner in her native country, made her first US start in last year’s Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff will try again this year.

Private Mission and Shedaresthedevil went a lively pace on the front, completing the first quarter-mile as Blue Stripe raced easily in third of the five.

The winner chased leaders on outer, was ridden to lead over a furlong out, and soon went clear, she was pushed out as Desert Dawn ran on inside final furlong to be nearest at the finish, a head to the good over Shedaresthedevil, for the trainer-jockey combination of Marcelo Polanco, and Hector Berrios.