Aug 9, 2017
Coglianese Photo
Talented youth ready to roll in G2 Adirondack
by Anthony Affrunti
A field of eight 2-year-old fillies will contest 6 ½ furlongs on the main track for connections who hope that their youngster could be a future champion, competing in the Grade 2 $200,000 Adirondack Saturday at Saratoga Race Course.
Twin Creeks Racing Stable's Pure Silver is undefeated through two starts after wiring the field to break her maiden first out. The filly by Mission Impazable then returned to best three with her front-running style in Lynbrook on July 16 at Belmont Park for trainer Todd Pletcher.
"She's 2-for-2 so far and doing well," Pletcher said. "We were originally thinking about waiting for the Seeking the Ante, but she's training well and this looks like a relatively compact field so we are going to take a shot at open company. She's been very good so far, very straightforward. She's a precocious 2-year-old."
Pletcher will double up by adding StarLadies Racing's Stainless, off a wide trip to earn third place in the Grade 3 Schuylerville, the filly by Flatter broke her maiden at first asking at Gulfstream, and could be in the right spot with a little racing luck come race time.
Pletcher has won the Adirondack four times, and will look to begin a streak after capturing last year's race with Nonna Mela. His other winners include Kauai Katie (2012), Position Limit (2010), and Octave (2006).
Pure Silver drew the rail and is joined by John Velazquez in the saddle. Stainless will be alongside and break from post 2 and will get the services of Manuel Franco.
Trainer Horacio de Paz will saddle two for Sagamore Farm in the Adirondack with Southampton Way leading the pair. She is the only entrant who boasts a victory over the track after getting up to win by a length while debuting with blinkers to break her maiden on opening day. The victory was a little less than two months after the daughter of Into Mischief debuted as the favorite at Pimlico. Sent off as the 6-5 favorite, she tired to fifth over a muddy, sealed strip.
"Southampton Way came out of her race in real good order," De Paz said. "She stayed here after the race, it's a quick turnaround, but she recovered after that race really good, so we'll move forward. We thought highly of her as a weanling, a very grand looking filly. Everything she did seemed like she had the mind to be a very nice filly. She's very forward [and] professional, other than her first race. She lost it a little bit [of] her maturity in the post parade, then it rained and she took to the track as good as we thought she would, but other than that she has been very forward. We think very highly of her."
Proportionality is the other filly that De Paz will send into the fray after her 1 ¼-length score in her only career start. The Discreet Cat filly bobbled at the break before beating eight others to the wire in a five-furlong spree at Laurel. The time for her seems right, said DePaz.
"It seems like this can be a light field, so hopefully we can get some black type. I don't think she's better than the other filly, but we're going to take a shot," he said. "She's doing good off of that win down there in Maryland. I think 6 ½ furlongs is a little too far for her, probably three quarters would be her game, but for her first race, she necessarily wasn't a higher percent for that race, she still had a lot of conditioning she needed to get done, but the race is going to help her out with that. It was a gutsy win for her, so it seems like she wants to compete, and she came out of that doing really well. We worked her, and she settled in well, she's eating well, she's really happy."
Southampton Way drew the outside post 8 and will be joined by Ricardo Santana, Jr. Proportionality will break from post 5 and gets Paco Lopez in the irons.
Others entered is Sly Roxy for trainer Mark Casse and jockey Javier Castellano; Di Maria, for trainer James T Ryerson and jockey Luis Saez; Limited View for trainer John Salzman Jr. and jockey Kendrick Carmouche; Wall of Compassion for trainer Rudy Rodriguez and jockey Angel Arroyo.
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