Grade 1 Acorn winner Counting Stars, one of Mark Casse’s contenders, looks to double her Saratoga success in Saturday’s Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks. (NYRA Photo)
Christian Abdo
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – West Point Thoroughbreds’ Counting Stars captured the Grade 1 DraftKings Acorn last out and will look to double her Spa success in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks, a nine-furlong test for sophomore fillies, at Saratoga Race Course.
Trained by dual Hall of Famer Mark Casse, the Honor A. P. bay defeated returning rival Always a Runner by 3 3/4 lengths in the Acorn over course and distance on June 5. Counting Stars was previously a 2 1/4-length third to that foe in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks on May 1 at Churchill Downs.
In the Acorn, Counting Stars traveled 1 1/2 lengths back in third-of-5 to the inside of Always a Runner through the half-mile in 47.73 over the fast dirt. Always a Runner angled wide in the far turn to make her run at Meaning, and while she was trying to inch clear nearing the eighth-pole, Counting Stars stormed up the outside to victory in a final time of 1:48.85.
“Right now, she’s at the top level,” Casse said. “She’s as good as any 3-year-old filly in the country. This is a Grade 1. It’s a big race and I think she’s going to be tough.”
Counting Stars, ahead of her Kentucky Oaks third, was a prominent winner of the Grade 2 Fantasy at Oaklawn Park. Her four other wins have come with stalk-and-pounce tactics, as employed in the Acorn by Irad Ortiz, Jr. as he rode Counting Stars for the first time since her winning debut in September at Churchill Downs.
“Last time, she was able to shut off and make a run,” said Casse. “Irad knows her well now. She just needs to get in the clear when the time is right. I think she’s better than ever. I expect her to run an even bigger one.”
Counting Stars [post 1, Irad Ortiz, Jr.] is 9-5-1-1 with over $1.3 million in earnings and four total stakes wins. She was a $150,000 purchase at the OBS Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training out of the Paynter mare Paynterbynumbers.
Casse also sends out Gary Barber, Bridlewood Farm and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners’ Measure [post 5, Manny Franco], who was a one-length second last out to returning foe Directive in a nine-furlong optional claimer versus elders on June 4 here. The Essential Quality dark bay was 6th-of-7 along the inside rounding the far turn, pausing her run to await racing room before re-rallying to place honors.
”Her last race was good. She will appreciate the distance,” Casse said.
Measure, 5-1-2-0 overall, graduated third-out in November at Churchill, returning as a sophomore in May there to finish sixth in an optional claimer. Measure, a $250,000 purchase at the 2024 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, is a half-sister to Grade 3-winner Bob and Jackie out of the Eskendereya mare Fateer.
Douglas Scharbauer and breeder Three Chimneys Farm’s Always a Runner [post 6, Jose Ortiz] won the nine-furlong Grade 3 Gazelle second-out in April at Aqueduct Racetrack ahead of the Oaks and Acorn. Trained by five-time Eclipse Award-winner Chad Brown, the Gun Runner dark bay closed to victory in the Oaks, rallying from 8th-of-13 under Jose Ortiz to a 1 1/4-length score over Meaning, as Counting Stars traveled inside and ran on for show honors.
“She’s doing excellent,” Brown said. “She looks like she has rebounded well after her last race. She seems to be in good form going into this race.”
Brown said the five-horse field last time in the Acorn was no excuse for Always a Runner’s first defeat.
“She got a good trip. I don’t think there’s any excuse,” said Brown. “The winner ran super, and my filly may have regressed just a touch off her hard Oaks effort. I see a horse that is fully recovered now from that race, and looks rested and well right now. So I’m hoping that in her last start, she was feeling the Oaks a little bit and that was the reason for a slightly off effort.”
Always a Runner, who sold to Scharbauer for $1.05 million at the 2024 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, is out of the Grade 2-placed Malibu Moon mare Always Carina, a half-sister to 2019 Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf-winner Structor, both trained by Brown.
Brown will also send out Juddmonte’s Kentucky homebred Directive [post 7, Flavien Prat]. The Gun Runner bay is 2-for-3, graduating second-out over a muddy and sealed one-turn mile in April at the Big A ahead of her aforementioned nine-furlong optional claiming score versus elders on June 4 here.
“She’s doing super,” Brown said. “I sent her back to train at Belmont after running here, because she seems to be happiest there. If she runs well in this race, she may stay up here, but she’s been a filly that in her development has taken a little extra time mentally, so I didn’t want to change her environment too much. She may graduate on to staying up here at Saratoga.”
Directive comes from a classy family of Brown trainees. She is a half-sister to the dual Grade 1-winning Segesta and Grade 1-winning Salamis, out of the 2017 Grade 1 Just a Game-winning First Defence mare Antonoe – all of these family members winning their top-level races on turf.
“This is a completely different horse though,” Brown said of her turf pedigree. “The mare is an outstanding broodmare. She’s off to an outstanding start.”
Repole Stable’s Zany [post 8, John Velazquez, blinkers ON] finished sixth last out as the slight favorite over Always a Runner in the Kentucky Oaks. Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, the American Pharoah chestnut was bumped at the start, traveling seventh early and running on mildly to finish 5 1/2 lengths back.
“She got bounced around a little bit, but just ran evenly I thought,” Pletcher said. “That was disappointing. I think she’s better than that. It seemed like it took her a little while to bounce out of it, so we freshened her up a little bit. She seems like she’s rounded back into form in her training, so hopefully that translates to a good effort.”
Pletcher said Zany will be cross-entered in Saturday’s Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks at its namesake oval.
“We enter Tuesday for Monmouth, we’ll survey the fields and make a decision,” Pletcher said.
Zany began her career 3-for-3, dominating the nine-furlong Grade 2 Demoiselle second-out in December at Aqueduct and returning in February to easily win the one-mile and 40-yard Listed Suncoast at Tampa Bay Downs. She was then a 2 1/4-length second to Percy’s Bar in the 1 1/16-mile Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland one month before the Oaks.
Zany will add blinkers in her upcoming race. She breezed a bullet half-mile in blinkers in 47.79 seconds on July 13 over the Spa main track and covered the same distance without blinkers in 48.40 on Sunday, both in company with Courting.
“She’s always a good work horse. She just worked good without them, worked good last week with them, but I feel like it is time to mix things up a bit and make a change,” Pletcher said.
Zany, a $350,000 purchase at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale, is out of the Grade 3-winning Uncle Mo mare Mo’ Green.
Rounding out the field is 2-for-2 La Rascasse [post 3, Axel Concepcion], the last-out Monomoy Girl winner at Churchill Downs for trainer Will Walden; turf Grade 3 Florida Oaks-winner Dandona [post 2, Tyler Gaffalione] for conditioner Saffie Joseph, Jr.; dual stakes-winner Miss Fulton Gal [post 4, Jaime Rodriguez] for trainer Michael Gorham; and dual stakes-placed Nycon [post 9, Luis Saez], who is cross-entered in a local Friday optional claimer for trainer Whit Beckman.
The CCA Oaks is slated as Race 10 on Saturday’s 12-race card, which also features the Grade 2 Alfred G. Vanderbilt in Race 9. First post is 12:35 p.m. Eastern.
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