Counting Stars Chases History, Del Mar Hands Out a Golden Ticket

Two Coasts, One Saturday: The Alabama Coronation and a Million on the Sand

Every so often the calendar hands you a Saturday that needs two screens and a friend to watch the other one. August 22nd is that day. Saratoga sends out the Alabama, one of the oldest and proudest prizes in the sport, and a few hours later Del Mar fires off the $1 million Pacific Classic with a paid berth in the Breeders' Cup Classic riding on the result.

Start at the Spa, where the 146th running of the Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama has turned into something close to a coronation. West Point Thoroughbreds' Counting Stars has been flawless up here, taking the Acorn and the Coaching Club American Oaks, and she stretches to a mile and a quarter as the lone stakes winner in a field of six. Mark Casse sends her out with Irad Ortiz Jr. from post 6 at 1-2 on the morning line, which would make her the biggest stakes favorite of the meet. The race lost its natural rival when Chad Brown announced that Kentucky Oaks winner Always a Runner would skip this spot and wait for the Cotillion at Parx on September 19th. Brown still fires back with My Gun's Loaded, a daughter of Gun Runner who is two for two since joining his barn and takes a huge class leap at 3-1. Casse also saddles Measure, third behind her stablemate in the CCA Oaks and now picking up Flavien Prat at 6-1, while Bill Mott's late-blooming Ati Girl (10-1), Peter Eurton's A. P.'s Girl (12-1) and Whit Beckman's Nycon (20-1) round out the sextet. It goes as race 11 at 6:42 Eastern, and FOX has it nationally. Casse won this last year with Nitrogen. Going back to back would be a nice piece of business.

One race earlier comes the Grade 2, $300,000 Ballston Spa over a mile and a sixteenth on the grass, and if you have watched Saratoga at all in the last decade you already know the story. Chad Brown is chasing a record ninth win in the race. Juddmonte's Segesta is favored at 7-5 with Prat aboard, a five-year-old Ghostzapper mare who has spent five straight starts in Grade 1 company without ever finishing off the board or losing by two lengths. Grayosh carries the other half of the barn's hopes at 8-1 off a win in the Grade 3 Matchmaker, defending champion Ozara is back for Miguel Clement, and Group 3 winner Sunlit Uplands ships over for Stuart Williams looking to spoil the party at a price.

Then California takes over. Eleven go in the Pacific Classic, a mile and a quarter for a million dollars and a free pass to Keeneland on Halloween weekend. Bill Mott's Knightsbridge is the 5-2 morning line choice after a front-running demolition of the Grade 3 Monmouth Cup in July, and he shipped west from Saratoga with Junior Alvarado set to ride. He faces Dubai World Cup winner Hit Show, the streaking Navajo Warrior off three straight including the Cornhusker, Japanese raider Finger, and John Sadler's Full Serrano, who won the 2024 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile over this same strip. Remember, Flightline turned this into a 19 1/2-length exhibition in 2022, so the race has form for producing goosebumps. The rest of the card is stacked too: the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks drew ten fillies including four from Ireland and two from Britain, headed by Belmont Oaks shocker Kensington Lane and Joseph O'Brien's Royal Ascot winner Green Carrera, while the Grade 2 Green Flash Handicap sends another winner to the Breeders' Cup and the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile closes the 11-race program.

Sunday belongs to the seaside oval too, with the 82nd Caesars Sportsbook Del Mar Derby, a $300,000 Grade 2 over a mile and an eighth on grass, carded as race 7 at 5 p.m. Pacific. Nine go, and the one they all have to catch is Proletariat, who ran off with the Oceanside on opening day in stakes record equaling time for Jeff Mullins and Kyle Frey and now chases a third straight win. Tim Yakteen's Secured Freedom gets another crack after finishing 5 3/4 lengths adrift that day, Phil D'Amato counters with Irish imports Jordi Bear and Melismatic, Doug O'Neill tries Sunland Park Derby winner Pavlovian on turf for the first time, and Unrivaled Time is the only one in here who has actually won at the distance.

Get through this one, because next Saturday brings the 157th Travers, and Kentucky Derby and Belmont winner Golden Tempo is pointed straight at it. Summer is not slowing down.