The stars will be out early on Friday’s nine-race program at Aqueduct, which kicks off with a pair of high-level allowance races, each of which have lured graded stakes-caliber fields.
The opener is for fillies and mares going 1 3/8 miles on the grass. The second will be decided at a mile over the main track and features the return of last year’s Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Highland Falls, who has been idle since finishing a distant ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 2.
In his previous race and Saratoga debut in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Highland Falls stalked the early pace before drawing off to a convincing four-length decision over Pyrenees while stretching out to 1 1/4 miles for just the second time. He matched a career-high 104 Beyer Figure in the process.
Highland Falls has been training forwardly at Churchill Downs for his much-anticipated 2025 debut. His works include a bullet five furlongs in company with fellow Grade 1 winner Saudi Crown on June 14. Despite being a Grade 1 winner, Highland Falls is eligible to compete against allowance company by virtue of the condition written for horses who have not won a race since December 27, 2024.
“I was aware they have been writing this race with that condition for a while and it’s been on my radar,” trainer Brad Cox revealed. “He’s really a true two-turn horse, as he showed in the Jockey Club, and this race is only a mile but I feel like it’s a great spot to get him started.”
Cox said he is a little bit late getting Highland Falls back to the races following a planned winter hiatus.
“We gave him a break after the Breeders’ Cup, then had a small setback with him on the farm, but he’s ready to start back and has been training great,” Cox said. “Based on his works, I think he’s going to run really well, although I don’t know if that necessarily means he’s going to win off the layoff. We’re just getting a race into him to get things started and see how it goes.”
Highland Falls will break from the rail under Flavien Prat, who was aboard the son of Curlin for the first and only time in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. He will face just five rivals, two of whom, Castle Chaos and Full Screen, also have Grade 1 experience. The field includes last-out allowance winners Strapped and Reddington along with the stakes-placed New York-bred General Banker.
Trainer Miguel Clement had the option of waiting until July 5 and running La Mehana and/or Sacaya in the Grade 3 Robert Dick Memorial at Delaware for a $250,000 purse. Instead, he has chosen to keep both home for Friday’s opener, which lured four other fillies and mares along with a pair of main-track-only entrants. There is a 50 percent chance of rain in the forecast at Aqueduct on Friday.
“Frankly, even though it’s an allowance race I’m not entirely sure this field is going to be weaker than the prospective field for the Robert Dick. But I plan to keep both horses here,” said Clement. “I’m a young trainer and I need to support New York racing. I’ll be here for a long time.”
La Mehana has yet to run a poor race since joining the Clement stable during the winter of 2024. Her U.S. résumé features victories in the Grade 2 Waya at Aqueduct in October and the Via Borghese at Gulfstream Park in December. She is winless in four starts this year but has been Grade 3-placed on three of those occasions.
“She’s never run a bad race, she’s very consistent, tries hard, and is very game all the time,” said Clement. “She might have run a touch below form in her last start, but she’s done very well since then.”
Sacaya finished sixth making her U.S. debut in the Grade 3 Orchid on March 25 at Gulfstream Park and Clement is expecting improvement from the filly, who was Group 3-placed in Italy a year earlier.
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“We were a bit disappointed in her last race,” Clement admitted. “We were hoping to be on the front end and those will be the instructions to Dylan [Davis] moving forward on Friday. She has also been training very well in company with some very good horses.”
Five of the six turf entrants in the opening half of Friday’s star-studded early daily double are nominated to the Robert Dick. Along with the Clement pair, the group includes Immensitude, No Show Sammy Jo, and Dazzling Dictator. Lady Firefoot rounds out the lineup.
Immensitude has traded narrow decisions with La Mehana in their prior two meetings. Immensitude has also often been close in graded stakes company, although she does not have a win since arriving in the U.S. and joining trainer Bill Mott’s barn at the start of her 2024 campaign.
No Show Sammy Jo will get some class relief after finishing off the board against Grade 1 competition in her only two starts this season. No Show Sammy Jo easily defeated Immensitude when beaten a nose by Be Your Best in the Grade 3 Long Island at Aqueduct in her 2024 finale.
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