THERE are two Grade 1s up for decision at Saratoga tonight.
It’s a small field for the famous Jockey Club Gold Cup, previously run at Belmont Park.
Godolphin’s Grade 2 Suburban Stakes winner Max Player, last year’s winner Happy Saver, and the four-year-old Forza Di Oro head the six runners.
Max Player ran well in all the Triple Crown races last year and should be a capable of stepping up here.
Happy Saver only reappeared in 2021 in a May allowance race before the Suburban where he raced four wide much of the way and finished third, suffering his first defeat and this may be his big target.
Forza Di Oro has won four of six starts but is making his first appearance in a Grade 1 stakes race in a career that has included two long layoffs and has a bit to prove.
The Flower Bowl Invitational Stakes on turf for fillies and mares has the English Channel four-year-old War Like Goddess as a warm favourite. She could emerge as America’s big hope for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare.
The fast-finishing War Like Goddess has won five of her six starts, with three consecutive graded stakes wins this year for Bill Mott.
She followed two Grade 3s with the best performance of her career, powering from the back of the pack to beat fellow Flower Bowl contender My Sister Nat by a decisive three and a quarter lengths in the Grade 2 Glens Falls Stakes here at Saratoga.
The Brendan Walsh-trained La Signare looks the danger with three consecutive Grade 1 placings. The French-bred was third in the April 10th Grade 1 Coolmore Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland before falling a half-length short of Grade 1 glory to Maxim Rate at Santa Anita when second in the Gamely Stakes in May.
Last time out, the Siyouni mare finished a troubled third behind the Godolphin duo of Althiqa and Summer Romance in the Grade 1 Diana Stakes over the Saratoga turf course in July.
The feature tomorrow in Saratoga is the juvenile fillies’ Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes where the favourite is Echo Zulu. The Steve Asmussen-trained daughter of Gun Runner won by over five lengths in a fast five-and-a-half-furlong race in July when debuting at Saratoga.