90% Chance of Slop
Opening day at Saratoga looks wet, with rain, sometimes heavy, and thunderstorms forecast for Wednesday. I’m hoping dark clouds do no more than lurk menacingly until after the second race, which is a maiden special sprint stocked with babies who could be any kind, including Pious David, half to Blue Grass Stakes winner Monba, and Cognito, half to Fountain of Youth winner Cool Coal Man. First crop sire Speightstown is represented by In Speight of It, whose dam, Honest Deceiver, is a half-sister to stakes winner Yes It’s True, both 2-year-old debut winners. In Speight of It is 15-1 on the morning line, but offspring of his rookie sire are proving quite precocious: Speightstown’s six runners to the track so far have a combined record of 8-3-1-3.
7/23 Addition: Left at the Gate commenter Discreet Cat checks in with more details on Cognito over there. That the colt ran second in his debut to a next out overnight stakes winner at Canterbury is interesting, although company can be an iffy angle with 2-year-olds early in the season (a lesson I have to learn repeatedly). Also of relevance — especially to the Schuylerville later in the afternoon — is that Cognito worked five furlongs over the Oklahoma track on July 14 with stablemate Ocean Colors, morning line favorite for the opening day feature.
