Alabama, Pacific Classic Mark the Stretch Run for Summer

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The New York Sun

This weekend marks the moment when it occurs to the racing fan that it’s the middle of August, and headlines about Saturday’s Alabama at Saratoga and Sunday’s Pacific Classic at Del Mar are circulating. “How can it be time for the Pacific Classic and the Alabama?” asks the fan. “I’ve only spent a couple of days at the track, and the Travers is already next week.” Now he’s practically sputtering. “That means it’s almost OVER!”


Try as we might to extend it, August is but one month, and these meets fly by. What once seemed like a big blue sky of limitless possibilities for adventure, pick-four scores, and vacationing at the two best race meets in the country starts to pale and becomes a scramble to break even before the other shoe drops, or simply to get there at all before they slap the bars shut over the windows and call it a wrap.


The Alabama is the beginning of the year’s best, most bustling week of racing in New York, culminating in the $1 million Travers next Saturday. This is like that moment at the party when all the guests have arrived and you have to stand really close to people to hear what they are saying over the din of laughter and popping champagne corks. This is the moment into which one gets swept up.


It’s also an excellent Grade 1 race for fillies over 1 1/4 miles, the third leg of a series of races known as the Triple Tiara.


Unfortunately, much of what race fans were looking forward to in the Alabama – namely the three-way rematch of Smuggler, Spun Sugar, and Summerly – will not materialize. These three had the trifecta in the first two Triple Tiara races – the June 25 Mother Goose and the July 23 Coaching Club American Oaks – with Smuggler out front both times, and the other two trading positions on the board.


Sadly, the cast has dwindled. Summerly is injured, and will miss the race. Perhaps the worst news, though, is that Shug McGaughey, trainer of Smuggler, has decided to keep Smuggler out of the race due to a fever. She is on medication and is pointing toward the Grade 1 Gazelle on September 10 at Belmont. These departures not only change the odds – Spun Sugar is now the likely favorite – they also alter the landscape severely. The Triple Tiara Trifecta had been on the front of both the Mother Goose and the CCAO all the way, pressuring each other, defining the way the race would unfold. They are all quick fillies, and brought a ton of horse to the front of those races.


Stepping up to fill that void, no doubt, will be the flashy Sis City, who has finished in front of a lot of races herself (she’s 5 for 11 starts). But her year is easily picked apart. She’s started four times in 2005. She racked up two early victories in graded stakes races by getting loose out front as the favorite in the February 5 Davona Dale at Gulfstream Park and the April 9 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland.


These tracks favor early speed in the spring, and at both places, past performance is not a solid predictor of future successes. Running at Keeneland and Gulfstream this year seems to have nothing to do with running elsewhere. This was proven to be the case in the Kentucky Oaks on the Friday before Derby Day at Churchill Downs, where Sis City finished a tired fourth.


Last out, in Delaware on July 16, she weakened to finish 14 3/4 lengths off the lead.


But Saratoga is a different story, and if Sis City is fit and speedy, the track could favor her front-running style. It’s a gamble, but coming under the wire that far up the track last out will chase a lot of money away to outclassed, lightly raced horses such as For All We Know and Ready and Alluring. So it’s a gamble that just might pay off pretty well.


Also expected: Dance Away Capote, R Lady Joy, and Sweet Symphony.


***


Out on the left coast, where the surf meets the turf, fans are getting ready for Sunday’s $1 million bash, the Pacific Classic at Del Mar.


All eyes are on the underdog turned champ – and the early favorite – Lava Man. The 4-year-old gelding was claimed last August at Del Mar for $50,000. At the Sunshine Millions $1 million Classic at Gulfstream park in January, Lava Man finished seventh. Then on the turf at Santa Anita in March, he finished fifth. The following month, he finished sixth in the Tiznow at Hollypark. Things were looking very bad.


So trainer Doug O’Neill dropped him a class and ran him at 1 1/16 in a May 14 optional claimer at Hollywood, with the addition of blinkers. He took that race by 1 1/2 lengths, and he hasn’t lost since. Lava Man won the Grade 2 Californian at Hollywood in June, and last out he dominated the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup, romping home by a record 8 3/4 lengths.


On Sunday, he will meet his stiffest competition by far in the Pacific Classic. The field of 12 includes Choctaw Nation, the winner of the San Diego Handicap on July 24; Perfect Drift, the winner of the Washington Park Handicap at Arlington Park on July 30, and Surf Cat, the winner of the Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park on July 9.


It’s all downhill from here, but this weekend is the beginning of what will prove to be a splendid denoument.



Max Watman is the author of “Race Day: A Spot on the Rail.” He can be reached at mwatman@nysun.com.


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