Saratoga Picks | Wilton Stakes 2024

Chief Horse Futures’ Striker Has Dial will make her stakes debut in Friday’s $135,000 Wilton, a one-mile main track test from the Wilson Chute for sophomore fillies which have not won a sweepstake other than state-bred, at Saratoga Race Course. 

The Wilton is slated as Race 8 on Friday’s 10-race card at Saratoga that also features the Listed $150,000 Coronation Cup in Race 9. First post is 1:10 p.m. 

Trained by Horacio De Paz, the Dialed In dark bay finished second to the Chad Brown-conditioned and Grade 1-placed Ways and Means in a one-mile allowance on June 6 during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga. 

There, Striker Has Dial, a 28-1 longshot, led the eight-horse field of 3-year-olds and up through an opening quarter-mile in 23.69 seconds and splits of 46.82 and 1:11.16 over the fast main track, before being passed in the turn to finish 8 1/4 lengths back of a much-the-best Ways and Means. 

In defeat, the previous Laurel Park maiden-winner Striker Has Dial registered a career and field-best 89 Beyer Speed Figure, and it was another 6 1/2 lengths back to third-place finisher Miz Sense.

“It was a very honest effort. Coming from Maryland, breaking her maiden, that was a huge step up,” said De Paz. “I think this is a good spot. Everyone is kind of in the same position, no one has won a stakes in the race.” 

The lightly-raced Striker Has Dial won her debut by six lengths when setting the pace over muddy and sealed footing sprinting seven furlongs in May at Laurel Park. 

“In her first race, she ran them off their feet. In New York, she placed herself in the same [forward] position in a pretty competitive field,” said De Paz. “Ways and Means was way superior, a nice filly there, but with the other fillies finishing behind her, she held her own considering she was coming off of one start versus fillies that have run multiple times as well.”

Striker Has Dial, a $180,000 purchase at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, is out of the winning Smart Strike mare Lotta Lolly, who is a full-sister to Grade 1-winner Square Eddie. 

Kendrick Carmouche will be aboard from post 4.

Four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown captured last year’s running of the Wilton with Randomized, who exited to win the Grade 1 Alabama also at Saratoga, and this year he will send out a promising candidate in Bells Beach [post 6, Irad Ortiz, Jr].

Jeffrey Drown’s last-out winner Bells Beach will rise to stakes company after graduating at second asking when traveling one-mile versus elders on June 1 at Churchill Downs. 

The Curlin bay tracked from fifth position in the 11-horse field before making a bold bid near the quarter-pole and surging home a 5 1/2-length winner in a final time of 1:35.58. The score earned a career-best 81 Beyer.

Bells Beach, out of the Grade 1-placed Tale of the Cat mare Luminance, was a $675,000 purchase at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga Select Yearling Sale. Her third dam, Versailles Treaty, won a trio of Grade 1s in 1991 in the Alabama, Test, and Gazelle, in addition to the 1992 Ruffian. 

Sonata Stable’s Dazzling Move [post 7, Joel Rosario] has made her last three starts at one-mile, winning a pair on the dirt and finishing fourth on the turf in the Honey Ryder in May at Gulfstream Park for trainer Michael Trombetta. 

The Ontario-bred Not This Time dark bay sandwiched the turf stakes attempt between a sixth-out wire-to-wire graduation in a March maiden tilt at Gulfstream, which earned a career-best 86 Beyer, and a last-out stalking optional-claiming score on June 1 at Laurel Park.

“The one-mile seems to be a race she has done well with and has been successful with,” said Trombetta. “We tried the grass because we had run her on the grass before but going short. She actually ran fairly respectable in that race, but it does seem like she does her best running on the dirt.” 

Dazzling Move, a $135,000 purchase at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale, is out of the winning Saint Liam mare Lady Liam.   

Richard Perkins’ Kentucky homebred Windy Walk [post 2, Jose Ortiz] has won three of her last four, entering off two straight victories traveling one-mile at Churchill Downs versus older claiming company in May and starter-allowance elders in June. 

Trained by Christopher Davis, the Munnings chestnut graduated at fifth-asking when closing to win a seven-furlong sprint by 7 1/4 lengths on April 14 at Keeneland. The performance earned a career-best and much improved 76 Beyer, which she matched in her claiming score in May at Churchill. 

Davis said 2017 Eclipse Award-winning jockey Jose Ortiz, who has been aboard for the last four outings, has been instrumental in the filly’s success. 

“I think Jose and her get along fantastically. I think he gets on her, and they just click,” Davis said. “We were always very high on her early, so we were just kind of surprised that she ran as poorly as she did in a few starts. Again, Jose gets along with her really well, and I think she’s matured.” 

Davis said that while last year’s Wilton was a strong race that produced this year’s Grade 1 Ogden Phipps at Saratoga winner Randomized, he is willing to elevate a now-confident Windy Walk in class. 

“I’ve been around a lot of these horses where they break their maiden, the lightbulb clicks, and they’re able to progress and go forward. Like she figured how out to win, and she’s gotten pretty good at it,” Davis said. “She’s won three of her last four, not against the caliber competition-wise that we will be up against, but she doesn’t know who she is going to run against.” 

Hall of Fame conditioner Todd Pletcher will send out a pair of last-out optional-claiming winners including Miss Justify [post 1, Flavien Prat] and Courbe [post 3, Luis Saez]. 

Miss Justify’s respective optional-claiming win came traveling forwardly going one-mile on June 1 at Churchill, earning a career-high 86 Beyer. The Justify bay, who is campaigned by Twin Oaks Bloodstock, Joseph Bulger, Will Campbell, and IEE Racing Stables, was making her second start for Pletcher after beginning her career for Susan Cooney.

For Cooney, the $200,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale purchase graduated on debut in a 5 1/2-furlong sprint in October at Laurel Park ahead of a third there in the six-furlong Smart Halo in November. 

Wertheimer and Frere’s Kentucky homebred Courbe is 2-for-3 lifetime and will return from a near nine-month respite dating to her last-out score going 1 1/16 miles on October 15 at Keeneland. Prior to the effort, the Quality Road gray finished fourth in the one-mile Grade 3 Pocahontas on September 16 at Churchill Downs. 

Rounding out the Saratoga field is Lady Moscato [post 5, Tyler Gaffalione] for Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, a two-time winner from 13 career starts owned by BC Stables.