Alabama Stakes: America's Best Race for 3-Year-Old Fillies
by Steve Davidowitz | Aug 18 2011
Even though only six fillies are entered to run in the
2011 Alabama Stakes (Sat. Aug. 20 @ Saratoga), it would be hard to find a stronger field.
Consider: The 1-1/4 mile race will include the winner of the Kentucky Oaks (PLUM PRETTY); the winner of both the Acorn Stakes and Coaching Club American Oaks (IT'S TRICKY); the winner of the Queen's Plate Stakes over male rivals in Canada (INGLORIOUS), the Delaware Oaks winner (ST. JOHN'S RIVER); plus the winner of the Black Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico (ROYAL DELTA) and longshot PINCH PIE, who merely has won two straight on grass courses at Monmouth and Delaware Park.
If you can pick the winner of this Alabama in advance, you will be backing the filly who is destined to leave Saratoga as the clear cut leader in the 3 year old filly division. Fact is, that is exactly what the Alabama is about: To identify the best 3-year-old filly in America.
***
Get your
odds to win the Alabama Stakes at Bodog's
online racebook.
***
Some additional facts: Inglorious is the only 3-year-old filly to date who has won a Graded stakes at 10 furlongs this year and It's Tricky is the only filly to win the first two legs of the 'New York Filly Tiara', which consists of the one mile Acorn that was run in June, the 1-1/8 mile Coaching Club American Oaks that was run last month and is set to conclude with the 1-1/4 mile Alabama.
Six fillies, including DAMAGED GODDS in 1940 and five Hall of Famers -- TOP FLIGHT (1932); SHUVEE, (1969); MOM'S COMMAND (1985); OPEN MIND (1989) and the recently inducted SKY BEAUTY, (1993) -- have swept these three prestigious Grade-1 races that individually date back many decades, although the series was only formally created last year.
NBC TV will be telecasting the Alabama from 5-6 PM, EDT, as part of its "Summer at Saratoga" series. Should it play out as it has on so many prior occasions, NBC will have a race worth the hype they tend to put on such events.
For instance, [last year] future 3-year-old champion BLIND LUCK came from dead last to narrowly defeat her arch rival HARVE DE GRACE to take a firm hold on the 3-year-old filly division. Without over reaching, that Alabama was one of the most dramatic, most thrilling I have ever seen.
In other memorable renewals of this mid-summer classic, I still can visualize jockey Ron Turcotte turning in a flawless ride aboard the Elliot Burch trained SUMMER GUEST in the 1972 Alabama.
Aboard Summer Guest in the Alabama, Turcotte did not have to apply any special skill, but you could see in his body language that he was riding with all the confidence in the world. Who wouldn't? After all, Turcotte had just won the '72 Kentucky Derby and Belmont aboard Riva Ridge and was riding the whirlwind aboard Secretariat, the emerging mega-star of the sport. At the end of the meet, Turcotte would feel all of Secretariat's emerging power winning the Hopeful Stakes with a last to first move on the final turn that still haunts those who have spent time watching races from the 143-year-old wooden Saratoga grandstand.
I also recall vividly the 1-2 finish in the 1994 Alabama by the D. Wayne Lukas trained LIFE'S MAGIC and LUCKY LUCKY LUCKY.
At that precise moment in time, Lukas was taking racing by storm, winning virtually every major stakes at every major track, including a bushel of Triple Crown and Breeders' Cup races and dozens of meet championships at the nation's premier tracks. Behind the scenes, Lukas was not only breaking records for stakes and moneys won, he was silently developing protégés that would dominate the sport into the present century.
Todd Pletcher, Kiaran McLaughlin and Dallas Stewart to name just a few.
Jockey Jerry Bailey won three Alabamas in succession, with RUNUP THE COLORS in 1997; BANSHEE BREEZE in '98; and the Bob Baffert trained SILVERBULLETDAY in '99.
Baffert of course is back this year with Plum Pretty, who will have to find something extra if she is going to carry her form successfully a furlong beyond her best distance.
In the nine furlong Kentucky Oaks, she was desperate to outfinish St. John's River, while in the Coaching Club American Oaks at the same distance she was weakening late when It's Tricky took her measure approaching the wire.
It's Tricky certainly will have the same question to answer in the final furlong of the Alabama. A clear cut winner at one mile and a narrow winner at 1-1/8 miles, It's Tricky has the most early speed and might be forced to try a wire to wire bid in a race that rarely is won from flagfall to finish, especially if the Saratoga main track plays without a front runner's track bias.
That is in fact the underlying beauty of this race. The Alabama is not usually won by a filly who happens to get lucky with aberrant track conditions, or by a filly who has only one dimension—speed. It is the longest Grade-1 race for 3-year-old fillies on the American racing calendar.
When favorites have won it, usually they have asserted their inherent class and proven form. When longshots have upset the applecart, they usually show a new level of talent that survives the race and shows up again in races later in the season. It is very rare when an unheralded filly wins this race and then disappears from view.
The Alabama is a true classic race, sort of a mid-summer Kentucky Derby for 3-year-old fillies in that the fillies who compete in it are mature and ready for the task. On a personal level, I can assure you that I plan to be there to see it, to bet on it and to report on what took place. There have been very few years in the past 50 that I have not done that.
Get all your horse racing odds at Bodog Racebook. (Stay tuned for more!)
