SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The $135,000 Saranac has the honor of being the final stakes race of the 2025 Saratoga meeting on Monday. It also might be as good a betting event as any that preceded it on this summer’s stakes schedule, bringing together a full and evenly matched group of a dozen 3-year-olds who have not won a graded stakes this year going 1 1/16 miles on turf.
Asbury Park is among the least experienced members of the lineup along with Stars and Strides, with only three previous starts on his résumé. But Asbury Park still could wind up going to post a tepid favorite on the strength of his impressive maiden win here June 6 along with a late-running style that should prove advantageous in a field loaded with speed.
Trained by Chad Brown, Asbury Park has made all three starts locally and gone to post the public’s choice in each of those outings. After finishing a late-running fifth, albeit beaten just two lengths in his lone try at 2, Asbury Park was sidelined nearly 10 months before returning Belmont Stakes weekend to win his maiden by 3 1/2 lengths, defeating older horses while earning an 85 Beyer Speed Figure.
Asbury Park made his only start during the current meet six weeks later, dropping back to last shortly after the start and trailing into the stretch before rallying mildly to finish a non-threatening sixth as the even-money favorite competing under entry-level allowance conditions.
“I’m not sure what happened in his last start. The horse trained really, really good into the race,” Brown said. “Maybe the course was a little too firm for him. He likes a little cut in the ground.”
Brown said that despite the subpar effort, he opted to step Asbury Park up into a stakes in large part due to the conditions of the race, which limits the field to horses who have not won a graded stakes in 2025.
“Because it’s a restricted stakes, I don’t have any problem going in there off kind of a bad allowance race because it’s really the same thing. And it is against his own age group,” Brown explained. “All the pace in this field should probably help him. He trains like a horse with a lot of promise.”
The honest pace Brown referred to will be due to the presence of speedsters Mi Bago, Tank, and Crudo in the lineup. Those three have registered a combined eight stakes wins, with the overwhelming majority of their success having come when able to relax on the front end during the early stages of their races.
Mi Bago is a four-time stakes winner but is without a victory in his last five starts after having launched his 3-year-old campaign with back-to-back, gate-to-wire wins at Gulfstream Park in the Dania Beach and Colonel Liam stakes. Fourth after setting the pace to midstretch in the Grade 1 American Turf on Derby Day at Churchill Downs, Mi Bago is coming off a tiring fifth-place finish here last month in the Grade 2 Hall of Fame.
Tank won three straight stakes earlier in the year and finished a solid fourth, beaten just 1 1/2 lengths by Test Score, after leading through midstretch in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby.
Crudo led at every call to capture the Sir Barton Stakes this spring at Pimlico but is a bit of a question mark trying turf for the first time Monday.
Stars and Strides also should benefit from the projected pace while stepping into stakes company for the first time off a game victory making his turf debut under first-level allowance conditions four weeks ago.
Cairo Caper, runner-up in the Grade 3 Penn Mile; recent New York-bred stakes winner Leon Blue; and stakes winner Siesta Key are among the other key contenders in the wide-open race.
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