SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The 3-year-old filly division is begging for a leader and trainer Tony Dutrow believes he has the right horse for the job.
At the start of the year, reigning 2-year-old filly champ Take Charge Brandi seemed quite intent on holding onto the crown.
Channeling her inner Ronda Rousey, she was so dominant against her fellow females that after a string of four straight wins (three in 2014) there was loud talk that she would tackle American Pharoah in the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park. A bone chip detected shortly before the March 14 Rebel ended those thoughts as she headed to the sidelines for the next five months, and a last-place finish in her comeback race, the Test Stakes on Aug. 8, has pretty much clamped an arm bar on her title talk.
Lovely Maria made the first move to fill the void by winning the Kentucky Oaks, but she finished a luckluster fifth in the Grade 3 Delaware Oaks last month.
Turf star Lady Eli seemed a worthy heir apparent after impressively winning the Grade I Belmont Oaks, but she was recently afflicted with laminitis and her racing career is now sadly in doubt.
Curalina then stepped to the forefront by winning the Grade 1 Acorn and then walking off with a victory in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks when she finished second to I'm a Chatterbox by a nose but swapped placing with the runner-up due to bumping in the stretch.
On Saturday, Curalina, I'm a Chatterbox, Lovely Maria and even Include Betty, who won the Grade 1 Mother Goose and was third in the CCA Oaks, gathered at Saratoga for a showdown in the historic $600,000 Alabama Stakes. The mile-and-a-quarter distaff version of next week's Travers figured to be a stage for one of them to seize control of the division, but unfortunately for them, Dutrow awoke on Saturday morning with a different plan in his head.
"I slept like a baby last night. I told everybody we're going to win the Alabama today," Dutrow said. "I felt good about everything. I just did."
Clearly Dutrow's good night of sleep did wonders for his talented 3-year-old filly Embellish the Lace who added another notch to Saratoga's reputation as "The Graveyard for Favorites" by grabbing the lead at the start and never looking back while winning the 135th edition of the Alabama in a 6-1 surprise.
Dutrow has won a number of Grade 1 stakes with the likes of Grace Hall, The Big Beast and Seattle Smooth, but the closest he's come to saddling a champion came in 2010 when he trained Havre de Grace a year before she became 2011 Horse of the Year for Larry Jones.
Embellish the Lace will most likely need a win in her yet to be decided next start and/or the Breeders' Cup Distaff to sway the Eclipse Award voting in her favor, yet she certainly looked the part of a champion on Saturday at the Spa.
"This is a division looking for a leader going into the fall and I'm hopeful because our filly is lightly raced and fresh," he said.
Of course, that was the last thing that could be said after Embellish the Lace's previous start.
After opening her 2015 campaign with a eye-popping 13 ¾-length allowance win at Pimlico on June 4, Dutrow wheeled Alex and JoAnn Lieblong's filly back 23 days later in the Grade 1 Mother Goose and watched in dismay as his filly bounced like a basketball. Sent off at 7-2 odds in just her fourth career start, Embellish the Lace pressed the pace before fading in the stretch to finish ninth.
"I'm not making any excuses," Dutrow said about the Mother Goose. "I'm not that kind of guy. When you read the Daily Racing Form, yeah, I'll buy a bounce. I ran her back too quick. One turn is not what she wants. I made some mistakes of which I should have known better."
Dutrow said in his younger days as a trainer he would have been so disappointed by a race like the Mother Goose that he would have headed back to the drawing board with his filly. Instead, he pointed to the Alabama, brought in 2013 and 2014 Eclipse Award-winning jockey Javier Castellano to ride her, and the Embellish the Lace he knew and loved resurfaced.
Aided when a bad start prevented I'm a Chatterbox from contesting the early lead, Castellano and the half-sister to 2010 Travers winner Afleet Express cruised along on a clear lead through moderate fractions of 48.38 seconds and 1:12.85, then spurted clear in mid-stretch and held off a late bid by I'm a Chatterbox to win by 1 ¼ lengths.
Curalina was another 3 ½ lengths back in third, while Include Betty was fifth and Lovely Maria sixth in the field of seven.
"I didn't expect her to be on the lead but nobody went," Castellano said. "We put up good numbers all the way, and it paid off."
Indeed it did, with a $14 mutuel on the toteboard and a big step in the direction of a championship for Tony Dutrow.