Counting Stars emphatically strengthened her claim as America’s leading 3-year-old filly with a 4 1/4-length victory in Saturday’s $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) at Saratoga.
The victory was the 199th stakes win in West Point Thoroughbreds history, moving the stable to the brink of the 200-win milestone.
Sent to the lead by Irad Ortiz Jr., Counting Stars established a comfortable rhythm through fractions of 23.86, 47.60 and 1:11.55. Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Always a Runner advanced through an opening along the rail turning for home and briefly drew even with Counting Stars as the two exchanged bumps in upper stretch.
Counting Stars quickly settled the highly anticipated rubber match. She turned back Always a Runner inside the final furlong and powered clear, completing 1 1/8 miles over the fast track in 1:48.98.
“She’s a special horse,” Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse said. “It was great for racing to see the two of them go at it. We said all along this week that this was round three, the rubber match. Luckily, we ended up on the right side of it.”
The Coaching Club American Oaks was a second consecutive Grade 1 victory for Counting Stars, who defeated Always a Runner by 3 3/4 lengths in the Acorn Stakes (G1) at Saratoga on June 5. Always a Runner had previously finished ahead of Counting Stars when they were first and third in the Kentucky Oaks.
Counting Stars has now won six of 10 starts, including the Fantasy Stakes (G2), Acorn and Coaching Club American Oaks this season, with earnings of $1,660,606.
The daughter of Honor A. P. was selected by L.E.B., agent for West Point Thoroughbreds, for $150,000 from the Wildheart Thoroughbreds consignment at the 2025 OBS April sale of 2-year-olds in training.
Counting Stars completed a mile and an eighth in 1:48.98, the fastest time for the Coaching Club American Oaks in 17 editions at that distance.
The filly came out of the race extremely well and the plan is to shoot for a rare Grade 1 triple at the Spa, taking aim at the $600,000 Alabama Stakes (G1) run at a mile and a quarter on the dirt on Saturday, August 22 at Saratoga.
Counting Stars will attempt to become the fifth filly to sweep the the Acorn, Coaching Club American Oaks and Alabama. That feat would match Shuvee (1969), Mom’s Command (1985), Open Mind (1989) and Sky Beauty (1993)—all members of the Racing Hall of Fame.
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