SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Like most trainers with horses entered in turf stakes during the Saratoga meeting, Tom Amoss has two things to worry about when it comes to Wednesday’s $150,000 P.G. Johnson Stakes – the weather, and that trainer Chad Brown has an entrant in the same event, in this case likely favorite Virgin Colada.
Amoss has Lady Orient in the 1 1/16-mile P.G. Johnson. Lady Orient overcame an eventful trip to win her only previous start going 5 1/2 furlongs over the turf at Ellis Park on July 13. She was scratched 10 days ago from the Bolton Landing Stakes, a race taken off the turf and ultimately won by her stablemate Kimchi Cat. She is also entered in, but will scratch from, a $250,000 allowance race Thursday at Kentucky Downs.
As of Monday, the Wednesday forecast in Saratoga was calling for a 40 percent chance of rain.
“The forecast doesn’t look great for Tuesday night and into Wednesday, but the logistics of getting her to Kentucky Downs were such that it led us to keep her here to run if the race stays on the turf,” said Amoss.
Amoss called Lady Orient’s first start “an adventure,” even though she managed to overcome the trouble to win her debut in game fashion. For the effort, she received a 72 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest of any member of the P.G. Johnson field.
“She broke well but didn’t have a lot of speed, got in trouble down the backside, had nowhere to go in the stretch, looked hopelessly beaten, then dove to the inside and just got up,” said Amoss. “She learned a lot from that race and I feel very comfortable about stretching her out around two turns.
“But I’m very fearful of Chad’s filly [Virgin Colada]. Visually, she was huge in her first start and is without a doubt the horse to beat.”
Virgin Colada raced at the rear of the field into the stretch of her lone start, angled outside for clearance to commence her bid at the top of the lane, and finished full of run down the center of course to win going away. Her effort was flattered when two of her victims, including third-place finisher Rare Art here last weekend, returned to win a maiden race at next asking.
“She was super impressive earlier in the meet, she’s had time to get over that, and it seems like she took her race well and has gotten some nice fitness from it,” Brown said of Virgin Colada, whose full sister Ready for Action won her only start on turf.
Lemonpeppasteppa is the only stakes-placed member of the lineup, having finished a distant second to trainer Wesley Ward’s speedy and still undefeated Dreamaway in the five-furlong Colleen Stakes at Monmouth Park on July 28. Trained by Jorge Delgado, Lemonpeppasteppa figures to have an early pace presence in the P.G. Johnson on the stretch-out along with Second Chance, who raced forwardly before posting a neck victory winning her lone start at 5 1/2 furlongs for trainer Bill Mott here on July 25.
Second Chance is one of six last-out winners in the lineup, a group that also includes She’s Our Tiz, Merry and Bright, and Reining Flowers, who, like Virgin Colada, has the benefit of having already been a mile and one sixteenth.
– additional reporting by David Grening
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