Saratoga Treasure Circles Field in Autumn Days

SOUTH OZONE PARK, NY – Patricia Generazio homebred Saratoga Treasure waited for the right to pounce, then drew off convincingly in her stakes debut to win Saturday’s $125,000 Autumn Days Stakes at Aqueduct.

Breaking from the far outside 8 post under Eric Cancel at 17/1 odds, Saratoga Treasure settled comfortably at the rear early while Boos and Broadway Run dueled through opening fractions of :23.36 and :47.99.

Tipped out to run widest of all in the far turn, Saratoga Treasure completely circled the field with ease before drawing away sharply in the stretch. The David Donk trainee hit the wire 3 1/2 lengths ahead in a final time of 1:11.68 for the 6-furlong sprint over the yielding outer turf course.

“She’s been running pretty well,” said Cancel, who rode Saratoga Treasure for the first time after Jose Ortiz opted to ride fourth-place finisher Fire Key. “The last time, she made a really nice run. I just rode her with a lot of confidence. She seems to like the track the way that it is. I tried not to get in her way. I just tried to find the right spot for her and make one big run. Everything worked out really well.”

Rocky Policy got up at the wire to take second in a four-horse photo by a nose over Rose Flower, who similarly nosed out the 6/5 favorite Fire Key for third. Jc’s Shooting Star was a head back in fifth, while behind her came Broadway Run, Mentality, and Boos to complete the order of finish.

Moonlight Romance and Wildcat Combat were trainer scratches. Angel At War, Calinas Song, Carrizo, Miss Imperial, Our Circle of Love, and Slimey were main track only entries.

Saratoga Treasure’s win was her second straight and third in her past four starts to improve her record to 16-5-2-3. The New York-bred 4-year-old daughter of Treasure Beach, who fittingly broke her maiden at Saratoga on August 28, 2017, has now earned $310,603.

“It was a jump up in class, but she really likes the ground and she’s certainly on the improve,” Donk said. “Her last three races were real good coming into today, and she ran to it.”

Saratoga Treasure returned $37.80 to win, $19.60 to place, and $8.30 to show. Rocky Policy brought back $9.30 to place and $4.50 to show, while Rose Flower paid $4.10 to show.