First Saturday card of the meet features the Grade 1 Diana for fillies and mares on turf, supported by the Grade 2 Sanford for 2yo colts sprinting six furlongs.

The Diana is all about Chad Brown. He saddles three of the seven horses entered with , all of them Grade 1 winners already.

Sistercharlie disappointed a bit when falling far behind early as a heavy favorite in the Grade 2 New York last time, and then coming up short at the end. One start prior to that she was a strong winner of the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley with new Lasix, and based on that evidence I am willing to give her another chance.

A Raving Beauty has been excellent since arriving from France, winning the Grade 3 Beaugay and the Grade 1 Just a Game in her first two starts. She has shown excellent tactical speed in her races, and that may give her an edge on her stablemate.

Proctor's Ledge was no real match for A Raving Beauty last time, but she's a talented filly in her own right, and she was a dual graded stakes winner up her last year as a 3yo. She appears to be the main threat.

The Sanford will go with a field of nine juvenile colts and they have their work cut out for them if they are planning to go better than the filly Catherinethegreat did in ringing up a Beyer of 84 in the opening day Schuylerville for 2yo fillies.

Catherinethegreat is owned by John Oxley and trained by Mark Casse, and they will saddle the likely Sanford favorite in Strike Silver. Strike Silver made a winning debut at Churchill while showing speed and burning off a couple of challengers, and then digging in gamely in the stretch to fend off the highly-regarded Nitrous to the wire. Nitrous is entered in a loaded-looking MSW earlier on the card, so expect Strike Silver's stock to rise should that horse come through with a strong effort.

I sided with Strike Silver but will try to find a way to use Knicks Go somewhere after his show of early speed first time out at Ellis Park, which came only 17 days ago.

Race 4 is for older maiden fillies going long on grass. Having been unimpressed with the known quantities in the field I went looking for strangers. War Cabinet was heavily backed for her debut in France before missing the break, and she was rank and wide in her stateside debut at Keeneland. I could easily give her a chance here at anything close to her ML odds of 8:1.

That 6th race MSW field appears to be a strong one, but there is no doubt that Nitrous is the one to beat. He not only owns valuable experience that most of the others lack, but he ran very well in that first start to just miss tracking down Strike Silver after encountering some early trouble and then racing greenly.

Most Mischief also owns experience and also encountered trouble in his debut, and there are several firsters in this field that look dangerous. It's a race worth watching, no matter how it turns out at the end.

The 7th is a stakes-quality allowance field, this one for turf routers.
I sided with Hello Don Julio, hoping that he can get the run of the race this time after enduring a pair of pressure-packed paces in his first two starts of the year, but this race is open to several different horses and trips will be paramount.

In race 8 I'm giving one more chance to Romantic Babe. She returned last time in a race that featured a fast pace, but she stumbled badly after the start and she never appeared to be put all in by Javier Castellano while riding the rail through the stretch. She was impressive winning her debut up here last summer over course and distance, and I think she can go with these horses with any improvement.

The finale is the kind of $50k claimer on turf that you will find only at a place like Saratoga. I am trying to get Marengo Road involved at a price as stretches out off a non-effort sprinting off the layoff.