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Clearly Unhinged in a breeze at Santa Anita. (Ernie Belmonte/Past The Wire)
Saratoga Race Course Notes
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Rock Brother Racing’s Kentucky homebred Clearly Unhinged will look to make a successful return to graded company in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Test, a seven-furlong sprint for sophomore fillies.
Trained by Michael McCarthy, the Into Mischief bay will race outside of Santa Anita Park for the first time where she has won 2-of-3 starts, graduating on debut in February at 6 1/2-furlongs and battling to a game head win at the same distance last out on June 16 in an optional-claiming sprint.
Her lone loss came around two turns in the 1 1/16-mile Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks where Clearly Unhinged broke a step slow, but forged her way forward, taking control with three-eighths to run. She would duel with the eventual winner – the then undefeated multiple graded-stakes winner Faiza – through the turn before fading to fourth. The third-place finisher of that event, Window Shopping, came back to win the Grade 2 Summertime Oaks.
“A roughly run race, but she probably doesn’t want to run that far. At the time, it seemed like it was worth taking a shot,” McCarthy said of the Oaks effort. “She seems like she’s doing very well. She always puts herself in the game right away. It seems like she likes a good fight. She’s been a model of consistency around one turn.”
Clearly Unhinged, out of the Smart Strike mare Smart Win, hails from strong family lines. Her granddam, the graded stakes-winning Crafty Prospector mare Win Crafty Lady, produced multiple graded stakes-winner Harmony Lodge, who won the Spa’s 2003 Grade 1 Ballerina, and multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Graeme Hall, who captured the 2000 edition of the Grade 2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga.
McCarthy said he is hopeful Clearly Unhinged can follow her successful family line and win a graded race of her own at the Spa.
“We wouldn’t have sent her if we didn’t think she was that type of horse. It’s never easy to go from Del Mar to Saratoga with a relatively inexperienced horse, but there are very few options here in California for straight 3-year-olds, so this seemed like the right spot,” McCarthy said.
Clearly Unhinged will have a six-pound weight break on the favored Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks-winner Pretty Mischievous on Saturday, leaving post 2 and carrying 118 pounds with Hall of Famer Javier Castellano signed on to ride.
McCarthy said he is confident Clearly Unhinged doesn’t necessarily need the lead in a race that features the speed of undefeated Maple Leaf Mel and the pacey Munnys Gold.
“She’s kind enough that I think she would rate if need be,” McCarthy said.
Clearly Unhinged, who worked a sharp five-eighths in 58.20 on July 29 at Del Mar, boasts a record of 3-2-0-0 for purse earnings of $102,000.
