Week two of the 2021 racing season at Saratoga Race Course beginning July 21 will contain 7 stakes races, 4 of them graded, including the Grade 1 Coaching Club America Oaks for three-year-old fillies and the first steeplechase stakes of the year – the Grade 1 A. P. Smithwick Memorial. Five of the stakes races this week focus on the distaff set at distances ranging from five and one-half furlongs to a mile and one-eighth.
The Coaching Club America Oaks will highlight Saturday’s card. For three-year-old fillies at a mile and one-eighth it offers a purse of $500,000. Among the most influential races in racing history, this race has been won by a host of champion fillies, including, Shuvee, Chris Evert, Ruffian, Davona Dale, Mom’s Command, Lite Light, Sky Beauty, Songbird and Monomoy’s Girl. Malathaat an undefeated (5 for 5) daughter of Curlin, who most recently won the Kentucky Oaks for Hall of Fame inductee Todd Pletcher, is expected to head this year’s field with regular rider John Velazquez. The Coaching Club America Oaks is familiar territory for these connections as Todd Pletcher has trained 7 winners of this race and John Velazquez has won it five times.
Saturday will also feature the Caress a grade III run on the grass at 5 ½ furlongs for older fillies and mares.
Despite the historical significance of Saturday’s feature, the best horse of the week may be running Sunday when Swiss Skydiver returns in the Grade III Shuvee. The Shuvee is also at one mile and an eighth but is for older fillies and mares 4 & up. Named after Shuvee, a Hall of Famer who won the 1969 filly Triple Crown, this race has gone through numerous iterations since its inaugural running in 1974. It is fitting that Swiss Skydiver is running in the Shuvee since both fillies became famous by defeating colts.
Swiss Skydiver defeated colts last year in the Preakness and then won over the Saratoga course taking the Alabama in front of an empty grandstand. Swiss Skydiver is trained by Kenneth McPeek and has been working solidly at Saratoga leading up to the Shuvee. This is an opportunity to witness a future Hall of Fame runner.
Before the big weekend races, Wednesday features a stakes for New York-bred two-year-olds at six-furlongs. The race is named in honor of Rick Violette who was a prominent trainer on the New York racing circuit for more than 35 years. Violette was the Chairman of the New York Thoroughbred Horseman’s Association board for 25 years; the chairman of the New York Jockey Injury Compensation Fund and co-chair of the board of the Backstretch Employee Service Team. He passed away in 2018 after a long illness.
Veteran trainer James Bond remembered Rick Violette saying “Rick fought hard for the horses and the owners every day and deeply cared about the horses’ retirement from racing. He worked tirelessly to make things better. Horses were his world. Great horseman and man.”
Fittingly, July 21 is also the first New York Thoroughbred Aftercare Day at Saratoga. The day will highlight various aftercare programs for retired racehorses. The post parade for the aforementioned Violette Stakes will be led by New York-bred millionaire Zivo. The winner of the 2014 Suburban Handicap, Zivo is now retired and enjoying life as the stable pony for trainer Cherie DeVaux. Barese, (named after the owner’s ancestral Italian home) was an impressive winner in his only start, is expected to top the field for trainer Mike Maker and owner Paradise Farms.
Thursday brings the jumpers to Saratoga with the Grade 1 A. P. Smithwick run over the hurdles at the elongated distance of 2 and 1/16th miles. The race is named in memory of Alfred Patrick “Paddy” Smithwick, who died in 1973 at the age of 46. Smithwick rode 398 winners during a career that began in 1945 as an amateur and ended in 1966 after a fall. Winning the Temple Gwathmey four times, the New York Turf Writers’ Cup three times, and the American Grand National three times. Smithwick was inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame in 1973.
History-making trainer Keri Brion is hoping to send out three runners for the race – Galway Kid, French Lite and Baltimore Bucko. Ms. Brion, a former rider herself and assistant to legendary trainer Jonathan Sheppard, has exploded on the scene in 2021 with numerous winners. She made history earlier this year as the first American trainer to train a bumper winner and a hurdle winner in Ireland. She points to steeplechase as “a great outlet for flat horses to switch to and have a new career.”
Thursday also has the filly counterpart to the Rick Violette when New York Bred two-year-old fillies compete at six furlongs for a purse of $100,000 in the Stillwater. West Point Thoroughbreds’ Ready A.P., an impressive first out winner from the Christophe Clement barn, is expected to top a small field.
Friday’s stakes race is the Grade III Lake George at one mile on the grass for three-year-old fillies. The race is always a competitive event giving late blooming runners the opportunity to gain stakes’ experience. Top trainer Chad Brown has won three of the last five runnings and is expected to again have multiple entrants.
