Alabama Stakes Preview

by Patricia Woo | Aug 17 2009

Our race of the week is the prestigious $600,000 Gr. 1 Alabama Stakes which will be held on Saturday, August 22, at Saratoga Race Course. Three-year-old fillies will be in the spotlight for the 10-furlong test over Saratoga’s main track - and though the lineup likely won't include Preakness Stakes champion Rachel Alexandra or Gozzip Girl, one of the leading 3-year-old grass runners, the Alabama Stakes will feature plenty of talent in Careless Jewel, Don't Forget Gil and Funny Moon, who are all likely to start.

With three wins in four races under her belt - one of them a Grade 2 win in her graded stakes debut - Careless Jewel tops the list of horses to watch in the Alabama Stakes. The Kentucky-bred filly made a seamless leap from Polytrack to dirt in the Gr. 2 $250,000 Delaware Oaks on July 18 at Delaware Park, taking home top prize by 7 ¼ lengths. And her latest work at Woodbine racetrack before shipping to Saratoga pleased trainer Josie Carroll, who called her charge's five furlong breeze at 1:00.60 "perfect."

Mark Hennig trains the New York-bred Don't Forget Gil, one Alabama Stakes nominee who has been looking for her first graded stakes win since capturing the Gr. 3 $200,000 Florida Oaks on March 14. Aside from a ground-losing trip and a last-place finish in the Gr. 2 $150,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes on May 15 at Pimlico, Don't Forget Gil has come just short of victory since then - runner-up in both the Gr. 2 $150,000 Comely Stakes at Aqueduct on April 11 and the Gr. 1 $300,000 Coaching Club American Oaks Stakes at Belmont Park on July 25, a race in which she closed strongly after running into traffic in the stretch run. In her latest work over Saratoga's main track on August 14, Don't Forget Gil breezed five furlongs in 1:00.05. "She's training great; she's really happy," Hennig commented. Don't Forget Gil is 6-1-2-2 in 2009 with lifetime earnings of $291,867.

Christophe Clement’s charge Funny Moon should relish the distance of the 10-furlong Alabama Stakes, as her last outing at the same distance in the Gr. 1 Coaching Club American Oaks Stakes resulted in a win. Unraced at 2, Funny Moon is developing into a prominent miler, with four wins in her last five races. The Malibu Moon filly will be racing outside Belmont Park for the first time since May and will be looking to add to her lifetime career earnings of $265,900. "She's on course for the race," Clement said after watching Funny Moon gallop at Saratoga on August 15.

Also among those likely to start in the Alabama Stakes are Milwaukee Appeal, Tasty Temptation and Wynning Ride.

2008 Kentucky Oaks winner Proud Spell won the Alabama Stakes last year with a tremendous stretch run - her final win before being retired. Who will win the Alabama Stakes this year?

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