Perfect weather, fast & good conditions for the opening Saturday of the meet.

The only scratches on the card outside of horses that were entered MTO are the #1 and the #5 in Race 1.

The Sanford, for 2yos sprinting six furlongs, wound up with only five at entry time. After winning the opening day feature for 2yo fillies, the Schuylerville, with Comical, Doug O'Neill will look to sweep the juvenile stakes on opening weekend with Raging Whiskey. Privately purchased after his maiden win at Santa Anita in early June, this will be the 2yo Bourbon Courage colt's first start for O'Neill. 

In his career debut, Raging Whiskey did not break sharply from the gate and was outrun early by his now-stablemate Fore Left, who returned to win the Tremont in his next start at Belmont. Raging Whiskey found his stride late and put in a game finish to get up for a share of 3rd on the wire. He then showed big improvement in his second start while breaking much more alertly, showing more speed, and winning easily with a good finish at the end. He has to go six after going 4.5 furlongs in his first two starts but I like him right back in this spot, which does not contain much early speed for this kind of race. 

Cucina is the morning line favorite and I have no issue with him, though he will be closing in this race. Tomato Bill was a $500k purchase as a yearling and he had good speed to win first-up at Delaware. The Beyer came back light but I don't want to put too much stock in figures for 2yos with only one start and suspect he could be dangerous in here. 

The Diana has four from Chad Brown and one each from Bill Mott and Graham Motion. Considering that two of Chad's horses have combined for eight Grade 1 wins, and the other is 2 for 2 since arriving stateside and was multiple Group 1-placed as a 3yo in France, the other two appear to be in pretty tough. 

I'll try Homerique as the likely third choice, and will also use Rushing Fall strongly. Sistercharlie won this race last year and was the Filly and Mare Turf Champion at the end of 2018 after winning the BC FM Turf, but is making a belated 5yo debut while facing two sharp rivals from her own barn. She is very good and the horse to beat but this is a tough spot and she doesn't have to win. 

Homerique may not be as good as either of her stablemates, but she has certainly been impressive since arriving. She had plenty of excuses lined up to lose the Beaugay - layoff, shorter distance, reportedly interrupted training schedule, walking pace in front of her - but she overcame all of that with a big finish from last to first. She was even better last time in the New York when saving ground and then bursting through in the stretch to win as much-the-best. 

Spots:

Race 5: #8 Catch a Thrill (9/2 ML)

- Made an impressive debut sprinting on turf to win impressively under confident handling

- Effort in stakes company second time out is better than it looks when closing ground behind a front-running winner

- Back to sprinting after trying to stretch out in a Grade 2 over soft turf

Race 6: #1 Kokokomo (8:1 ML)

- Didn't have the speed to keep up sprinting on turf first time out but was racing on late behind an impressive front-running winner

- Was rained off in his second start and ran a carbon copy race, getting out-paced early and racing on late

- Stretches out with a distance pedigree for Pletcher -  past five years, 2yo maiden, sprint to route on turf: 12 for 42, 29%, $2.29 ROI, 4 of those wins at Saratoga

Race 7: #3 Kazmania (10:1 ML)

- Was off the layoff last time and maybe didn't get the greatest ride in the world when staying over behind horses on the rail for too long

- Has a 77 Beyer as a 2yo to build upon second off the layoff

- Is a price in a race with some question marks

Race 8: #7 First Wave (4:1 ML)

- Was meant for turf first time out and ran well when forced over to a sloppy main track

- Took a run at an odds-on winner in that race before settling for second-best

- War Front filly is bred grass on both sides of her pedigree