Technical Analysis holds on to win the Ballston Spa (G2) Aug. 27, 2022 at Saratoga (Chris Rahayel)
By Keith McCalmont – NYRA Press Office
ELMONT, N.Y.— Four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown sends out a three-pronged attack in Technical Analysis, Haughty and Customer List for Sunday’s $150,000 Perfect Sting, a one-mile Widener turf test for older fillies and mares, at Belmont Park.
Klaravich Stables’ multiple graded-stakes winner Technical Analysis [post 2, Jose Ortiz, 124 pounds] will make her first start since finishing fourth in the Grade 1 First Lady on October 8 at Keeneland. The 5-year-old Kingman mare has won three graded events at Saratoga Race Course, including the Grade 3 Lake George and Grade 2 Lake Placid in 2021 as well as the Grade 2 Ballston Spa last year. She traveled to win the Grade 3 Gallorette last May at Pimlico Race Course.
Technical Analysis has worked extensively over the Belmont inner turf for her return, including a five-eighths effort in 1:02 flat in company with last-out allowance winner Beaute Cachee.
“She had a couple minor issues here and there, but she seems to be good now,” said Brown, who previously won this event with Daring Kathy [2015] and Uni [2019]. “The mile should suit her good. She loves Saratoga so if she’s able to hold up in health and form, it’s the track she’s had the best record at.”
Brown said Bradley Thoroughbreds, Belmar Racing and Breeding, Cambron Equine and Team Hanley’s Haughty [post 3, Flavien Prat, 124 pounds] was “excellent” while breezing a half-mile in 50.25 over the inner turf here Sunday while working in company with graded-stakes winner Prerequisite.
The lightly-raced Haughty, who sports a ledger of 7-3-0-2, broke her maiden at second asking in 2021 en route to a third-place finish in that year’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar.
She captured the Penn Oaks over soft going last June at Penn National and was a gate-to-wire winner of the 1 1/16-mile Grade 2 Lake Placid in August at the Spa. The Empire Maker bay was last seen finishing last-of-6 in the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile on Kentucky Derby Day at Churchill Downs.
Klaravich Stables’ Customer List [post 1, Irad Ortiz, Jr., 118 pounds], a 4-year-old Wootton Bassett bay, boasts a record of 6-2-1-0 and enters from a rallying allowance score on June 3 over the Monmouth Park turf.
The Estate of Robert J. Amendola’s Evvie Jets [post 5, Javier Castellano, 124 pounds] cuts back in distance from an off-the-board effort in the 1 1/16-mile Grade 3 Beaugay on May 7 here.
Trained by Mertkan Kantarmaci, the 5-year-old Twirling Candy mare was pressed on the lead by the eventual winner Marketsegmentation through splits of 24.06 seconds, 48.43 and 1:11.99 before fading. Marketsegmentation exited that effort to win the Grade 1 New York during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, while runner-up Consumer Spending returned to win the Grade 3 Eatontown at Monmouth Park.
“I think she can hopefully be a slow pace on the lead, not like last time,” Kantarmaci said. “She was more aggressive last time and she put up a faster pace than she can go. That was a mile and a sixteenth and now it’s her distance – one mile.”
Prior to the Beaugay, Evvie Jets had finished first or second in seven straight starts dating from last June through to a frontrunning score in the one-mile Plenty of Grace on April 16 at Aqueduct Racetrack. Along the way, Evvie Jets was a close second in the nine-furlong Grade 3 Athenia at Belmont at the Big A in September ahead of making the grade one month later in the one-mile Grade 3 Noble Damsel over the same course.
Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano, winner of two-thirds of this year’s Triple Crown, guided Evvie Jets to her maiden win in August 2021 at the Spa and will take over from regular pilot Eric Cancel.
“Javier is the only other rider to win with her. He knows her well and he’s also one of the soft-handed riders and that’s what she needs,” Kantarmaci said. “She’s had almost two months and she’s feeling good. She’s good fresh.”
Rounding out a compact field is Randolph Guill, Gregory Steigler and Andrew Bedard’s multiple stakes-placed Tic Tic Tic Boom [post 4, Trevor McCarthy, 118 pounds], who enters from a fourth-place finish in the PTHA President’s Cup on June 18 at Parx Racing for trainer Alan Bedard.
The Perfect Sting is slated as Race 3 on Sunday’s nine-race card. First post is 1:05 p.m. Eastern.
