Rodeo Creek Racing’s grade 1 winner Blazing Sevens will head to the starting gate as the favorite in the $135,000 Curlin Stakes at Saratoga Race Course at 1 1/8 miles on the main track July 21.
The classic-placed 3-year-old colt breezed four furlongs in :49.91 July 15 in New York ahead of Friday’s 1 1/8-mile test for 3-year-olds that have not won a graded stakes at one mile or longer in 2023.
The son of Good Magic will be making his first start since just missing in the May 20 Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico Race Course when he finished second, a head behind National Treasure . The Chad Brown trainee will have Flavien Prat aboard for Friday’s race. Prat guided Blazing Sevens to victory in last year’s Champagne Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park.
“He’s been doing well and it’s nice to have the Curlin as an option for him. Flavien is available to ride and I’m happy to have him back on,” Brown said.
Also making his first start since the Preakness will be Shug McGaughey-trained Perform , also by Good Magic. The colt campaigned by Woodford Racing, Lanes End Farm, Phipps Stable, Ken Langone, and Edard Hudson Jr. was unplaced in that classic and will be looking to add another stakes win to his resume after winning the Federico Tesio Stakes in April at Laurel Park.
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Eduardo Soto’s unplaced Belmont Stakes runner Il Miracolo will be making his first start since that 1 1/2-mile test. Rounding out the field are a half brother to 2022 champion 3-year-old filly Nest in Todd Pletcher’s Lost Ark . The stakes-winning son of Violence won last out in allowance company at Monmouth Park June 9 for owners Harrell Ventures.
“I thought it was good,” Pletcher said of Lost Ark’s last effort. “I was always concerned about going in that two-other-than condition with a 3-year-old, but he seemed to handle it pretty well. Hopefully, he set himself up for the Curlin.
“We were a little disappointed with how he ended last season because he was training with Forte and holding his own, so we felt like based on his first couple races and the way he was training that he belonged in that group (at the Breeders’ Cup) and he didn’t quite show up. But, I think he’s benefitted from the time off now.”
LNJ Foxwoods will send out its homebred Good Magic gelding, Scotland , for his stakes debut. While lightly raced, he has won two of three starts, with the last coming June 3 at Churchill Downs for trainer Bill Mott.
Friday’s Curlin Stakes for 3-year-olds begins in earnest the local road to the $1.25 million Travers Stakes (G1) Aug. 26 at Saratoga.
Entries: Curlin S.
Saratoga Race Course, Friday, July 21, 2023, Race 4
- STK
- 1 1/8m
- Dirt
- $135,000
- 3 yo
- 2:52 PM (local)
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