The filly Swiss Skydiver is back with her own kind for today's 140th running of the Alabama Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York.
Trainer Ken McPeek has options regarding the next start for Daredevil's daughter, winner of the Grade 3 Fantasy Stakes May 1 at Oaklawn Park. It almost certainly will be at Churchill Downs in a Grade 1 race, same as the Alabama, but it could be the nine-furlong Kentucky Oaks Sept. 4 or the mile-and-quarter Kentucky Derby the following day. Swiss Skydiver leads the point standings for the Oaks and, with 50 points for second in the Blue Grass Stakes against males last time, has earned a starting spot in the Derby.
The mile-and-quarter Alabama is sure to tip the hands of McPeek, who finished second in the 1995 Derby with Tejano Run (he has not won the Oaks). Taking precautions, McPeek has entered two fillies in the Alabama including Envoutante, third in Keeneland's Grade I Ashland on the card that Swiss Skydiver finished behind Art Collector in the Grade 2 Blue Grass.
Swiss Skydiver won the Fantasy and two other stakes before McPeek tested her against males at the Oaks distance. Her Oaklawn win was flattered with a subsequent victory over Speech in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks. Speech came off a good Oaklawn second May 2 against Gamine, who was later disqualified for a drug violation but has paired two Grade 1 victories in New York by more than 25 lengths.
Tyler Gaffalione rides Swiss Skydiver, the even-money program favorite, from post five in the seven-horse field. Jose Ortiz, who has won the Alabama the last three years (in 2018 with the McPeek-trained Eskimo Kisses) has the rail post with Envoutante, which translated from French means bewitching. An Oaks qualifier entering its final prep, Envoutante is an early 8-1 choice.
Brad Cox sends out one of his two Oaks contenders in Oaklawn winner Bonny South, who has trained at Churchill Downs since placing fourth in the Ashland and gets Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard. A daughter of Munnings, Bonny South outfooted new stablemate Shedaresthedeviil in early season at Oaklawn before winning the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks in March. Shedaresthedevil, co-owned by Staton Flurry of Hot Springs, is an Oaks contender off Grade 3 wins in Arkansas (Honeybee) and Indiana.
Cox, a Louisville native, won the 2018 Oaks with future champion Monomoy's Girl. Bonny South and Shedaresthedevil, whom Flurry bought privately, are numerical replacements for last year's champion juvenile filly, British Idiom, who has not started since 10th in the Fantasy at Oaklawn and is winless at 3.
Also in the Alabama are Spice Is Nice, John Velazquez riding for Todd Pletcher; Crystal Ball, Javier Castellano with the mount on the Bob Baffert trainee; Harvey's Lil Goil, Junior Alvarado for Bill Mott; and Fire Coral, Ricardo Santana Jr. with Steve Asmussen. Fire Coral, one of two daughters of Curlin in the field (Spice Is Nice, 3-1 second choice, is the other), broke her maiden and won an allowance race at Oaklawn but has struggled in graded stakes.
The Alabama goes off at 4:43 p.m. as race nine out of 11.
Prominent trainer, 93, dies: For almost a quarter-century, Oaklawn patrons need only scan their daily program for a reminder of trainer Mel Stute's influence on the local product.
Since April 1987, Snow Chief has held the track record for nine furlongs. A year after winning the Preakness in a championship season, the California-bred stallion won the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap in 1:46 3-5, a fifth of a second faster than Wild Again in the 1984 Oaklawn Handicap and equaled one day later by the filly Althea in the Arkansas Derby.
Under Stute's training, Snow Chief earned more than $3.3 million in three seasons racing for breeder Carl Grinstead and co-owner Ben Rochelle. Although disappointing in the 1986 Kentucky Derby, the horse won the Florida Derby, Santa Anita Derby and Jersey Derby as a 3-year-old and the Charles H. Strub Stakes at 4.
Twice a Breeders' Cup winner, both times with fillies, Strub retired in January 2011 with 2,000 career wins, dead-heating with Lazaro Barrera atop the 1984-85 Santa Anita winter/spring standings. Stute died this week at age 93 while in the company of his family, including his wife of almost 70 years, Annabelle.
"He was like no other person I ever met," said his son Gary Stute, who trained 2009 Arkansas Derby winner Papa Clem, fourth in that year's Kentucky Derby. "He saw the good in everyone. He woke up every day thinking he was going to win, cashing a bet or winning a race. He loved life and he loved racing, everything about it."
With Alex Solis riding, Snow Chief ran the race of his life in the 1986 Preakness by four lengths over Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand. He did not compete in the Belmont Stakes, won by trainer Woody Stephens for the fifth consecutive year with Danzig Connection.
Mel Stute won the 1986 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita with Brave Raj, subsequently named champion 2-year-old filly. Very Subtle beat the boys in the 1987 Breeders' Cup Sprint at Hollywood Park, the year that Stute's filly was declared the winner of Oaklawn's Fantasy Stakes upon the disqualification of Up the Apalachee.
Stute also enjoyed success with Telly's Pop, owned by movie mogul Howard W. Koch and actor Telly Savalas, who named the horse for his father. The colt won four stakes in his 2-year-old season and was regarded as a Kentucky Derby favorite before placing fifth as the favorite in the 1976 Santa Anita Derby.
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