Saratoga Picks | Shuvee Stakes 2024

Omar Aldabbagh and Jeff Ganje’s graded stakes-winner Shotgun Hottie bears strong form as she guns for Sunday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Shuvee, a nine-furlong main track test for older fillies and mares, at Saratoga Race Course. 

The Shuvee is slated as Race 5 on Sunday’s 11-race program at Saratoga that also features the Grade 1, $150,000 A.P. Smithwick Memorial, which was originally scheduled for Wednesday and was postponed due to overnight rain. The race was redrawn and brought back as Race 1 on Sunday’s card. 

First post at Saratoga is 1:10 p.m. Eastern.

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Trained by Cherie DeVaux, the 5-year-old Gun Runner bay enters from a pair of encouraging efforts at the distance, including a 5 3/4-length romp of the Listed Allaire DuPont Distaff on May 17 at Pimlico Race Course ahead of a last-out neck defeat to multiple graded stakes-winner Scylla in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis on June 29 at Churchill Downs. 

There, Shotgun Hottie closed strongly through a tight seam along the rail, passing the well-regarded Taxed and Xigera before just missing to a wide-rallying Scylla, who found clear air down the center of the lane. 

“She ran well last time. She was just unlucky having to get through on the rail,” said DeVaux. “She’s raced herself into form. The form that she had historically. She’s having a good run.”

Shotgun Hottie earned a career and field-best 99 Beyer Speed Figure in her Allaire DuPont Distaff conquest. The number beat her previous mark of 98, earned when making the grade in the Grade 3 Molly Pitcher last July at Monmouth Park to cap her past campaign. 

This year, Shotgun Hottie turns to the Shuvee rather than try for a title defense in the 1 1/16-mile Molly Pitcher, slated for Saturday at Monmouth, also the race that reigning Champion Older Dirt Mare Idiomatic has pointed towards and entered. 

“This race is a Grade 2. You’ve also got Idiomatic going there, who is the division leader right now, so we will come here instead,” DeVaux said regarding the decision. 

Shotgun Hottie also looked for graded success this year in three 1 1/16-mile events at Oaklawn Park, finishing sixth in the Grade 3 Bayakoa in February, and fourth in both the Grade 2 Azeri in March and Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap in April.

Out of the Malibu Moon mare Re Entry, Shotgun Hottie was a $45,000 purchase at the 2021 OBS Spring Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training. Her second dam, Swift Girl, produced Grade 1-winner Sky Diva and multiple Grade 1-placed Quick Little Miss. 

Paco Lopez, aboard for her last three efforts and scores last year at Monmouth in the Molly Pitcher and Listed Lady’s Secret, retains the mount from post 1 carrying 122 pounds. 

Resolute Racing’s Misty Veil [post 4, Ramon Vazquez, 124 pounds], who has raced 38 times with a 8-12-5 record, earned a career-best 95 Beyer last-out with an 8 1/2-length romp in the nine-furlong Listed Lady Jacqueline on June 22 at Thistledown. Trained by Mike Maker, the Tonalist chestnut contested the same graded events as Shotgun Hottie at Oaklawn, finishing third in the Bayakoa, a close second in the Azeri and off-the-board in the Apple Blossom. 

Maker said that after her dominant performance in the Lady Jacqueline, the 6-year-old deserves another shot versus graded company.

“She’s a classy filly. No disrespect to the other horses in her last race, but it was kind of a drop in class compared to who she competed against all winter,” said Maker. “She earned the opportunity to come back here and run.”

Misty Veil began her current campaign with a win in the 1 1/16-mile Listed Pippin in January at Oaklawn. She seeks to make the grade in her seventh attempt. She is cross-entered in the Molly Pitcher. 

Out of the Birdstone mare Genuine Class, Misty Veil was a $210,000 purchase at the 2024 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale.  

Four-time Eclipse Award winner Chad Brown will send out Raging Sea [post 3, Flavien Prat, 124 pounds], a Grade 1-placed and dual Grade 3 winning Kentucky homebred for Alpha Delta Stables. The 4-year-old Curlin chestnut looks to rebound off a fourth in the nine-furlong Grade 1 Ogden Phipps presented by Ford on June 8 here during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga.

The last-out fourth was to a trio of multiple Grade 1 winners in Randomized, Idiomatic and Pretty Mischievous. It was Raging Sea’s second start of the year, winning the 1 1/16-mile Grade 3 Doubledogdare in her seasonal debut on April 19 at Keeneland. In victory, she doubled up on Grade 3 victories after taking the Comely in November at Aqueduct Racetrack. 

As a juvenile, Raging Sea finished a closing third in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland. Out of the Storm Cat mare Stormy Welcome, she is a half-sister to the multiple stakes-placed Welcoming. 

NY Final Furlong Racing Stable and Parkland Thoroughbreds’ multiple graded stakes placed New York-bred Venti Valentine [post 2, Irad Ortiz, Jr., 124 pounds] returns to graded company for trainer Jorge Abreu. The 5-year-old Firing Line chestnut was a 6 3/4 length victress of the state-bred Critical Eye last-out going nine furlongs on June 9 during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival. 

Venti Valentine added to past state-bred stakes success in last year’s Johnstone Mile Handicap at Saratoga and ub Finger Lakes’ Jack Betta Be Rite, in addition to the Bay Ridge and Listed Busher versus open-company in 2022 at Aqueduct. She also won the state-bred Maid of the Mist in 2021 at Belmont Park. 

In her most recent graded attempt, Venti Valentine earned show-honors in the one-mile Grade 3 Go For Wand in December at the Big A. She also finished a close second there on two occasions, including the Grade 3 Gazelle in April 2022 and Grade 2 Demoiselle in December 2021. 

Bred by Final Furlong Racing Stable and Maspeth Stable, Venti Valentine, out of the winning Medaglia d’Oro mare Glory Gold, is a half-sister to multiple stakes-winning New York-bred Espresso Shot and stakes-winner Landed, who won the state-bred Bouwerie on June 9 at Saratoga.

Rounding out the Saratoga field is the graded stakes-placed Just Katherine [post 5, Javier Castellano, 118 pounds] for trainer Jose Jimenez.

Owned by R.T Racing Stable, the 4-year-old Justify bay stretches out in distance from a runner-up finish, when defeated a neck by Accede, in the seven-furlong Grade 2 Bed o’ Roses on June 15 at Belmont at the Big A. She is also cross-entered in the Molly Pitcher.