The $200,000 Lake Placid (G3) headlined a pair of stakes on Saturday’s Alabama (G1) undercard at Saratoga.
Lake Placid (G3)
Haughty sped to a clear lead at the break and never relinquished the advantage in the Lake Placid, winning the 1 1/16-mile turf test wire-to-wire. Trained by Chad Brown, the three-year-old filly earned her first graded win scoring as 5.70-1 fourth choice among six rivals. Jose Ortiz subbed for an ill Joel Rosario.
Saratoga Oaks Invitational (G1) winner and Belmont Oaks Invitational (G1) runner-up With the Moonlight, the 6-5 favorite, tried to catch the winner in deep stretch, but came up three-quarters of a length short.
A close third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) and winner of June’s Penn Oaks in her 2022 opener, Haughty has now bankrolled $251,200 from a 6-3-0-2 record for Bradley Thoroughbreds, Belmar Racing and Breeding, Cambron Equine, and Team Hanley.
She found the 1 1/4-mile distance of the July 9 Belmont Oaks too taxing, sustaining her lone unplaced finish, but bounced back nicely on Saturday. Haughty provided Brown with a record-extending fifth win in the Lake Placid.
“She had speed before and she broke well and put me into a good position,” Ortiz said. “I looked to my inside and I broke better than the two-horse (Sail By) and that was the other speed, so I decided to go on to the lead and just took the lead and never looked back.”
With the Moonlight, who wants more ground than 8 1/2 furlongs, wound up more than a length clear of Lake George (G3) winner Dolce Zel in third. Consumer Spending, Eminent Victor, and Sail By came next under the wire.
By Empire Maker, Haughty was purchased for $310,000 last year as an OBS two-year-old. The bay lass was bred in Kentucky by Gainesway Thoroughbreds, and Haughty is out of the Kingmambo mare Soaring Emotions, who is also the dam of multiple stakes winner and Grade 2 runner-up Souper Colossal.
Smart N Fancy
After being eliminated at the start in the July 23 Caress (G3), Caravel returned to the win column in the $150,000 Smart N Fancy S., holding Change of Control safe by a half-length. The multiple Grade 3-winning five-year-old mare logged her eighth stakes victory when finishing 5 1/2 furlongs on turf in 1:01.92.
Luis Saez was up for Qatar Racing, Marc Detampel, and Sol Kumin’s Madaket Stables, who purchased the Pennsylvania-bred daughter of Mizzen Mast for $500,000 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November sale, and Caravel made her fifth start for Brad Cox.
Winner of last year’s Caress, the gray captured the Intercontinental (G3) at Belmont in June before experiencing a disastrous trip as the favorite last time, checking in ninth after being steadied early from her innermost post.
Off as the 3.90-1 second choice among nine females, Caravel broke from an outside post Saturday and tracked Robin Sparkles and Sarah Harper three-wide through an opening quarter-mile in :21.69. She struck after turning for home, taking a short lead with three-sixteenths of a mile remaining, and held gamely to the wire.
Change of Control, off at 5.50-1, experienced traffic trouble in midstretch before angling out with a determined rally, winding up a neck better Illegal Smile in third. Miss J McKay, the 2.45-1 favorite, came next in fourth, and she was followed by Fouette, Too Sexy, Robin Sparkles, and Sarah Harper.
Bred by former owner/trainer Elizabeth Merriman, Caravel improved her career record to 17-10-0-3, $647,777. She counts multiple stakes victor Witty as a half-brother.
