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Ring Weekend Stays on Lawn in Saranac (G3) / Friday, August 29, 2014

Ring Weekend returns to the lawn for the second time this summer in Monday’s $300,000 Saranac Stakes (G3) at Saratoga. The 3-year-old Tapit gelding most recently finished second to the highly regarded Tourist in the Sir Cat Stakes earlier in the Saratoga meet. Tourist then went on to finish second in the grade one Secretariat at Arlington.

Ring Weekend returns to the lawn for the second time this summer in Monday’s $300,000 Saranac Stakes (G3) at Saratoga. The 3-year-old Tapit gelding most recently finished second to the highly regarded Tourist in the Sir Cat Stakes earlier in the Saratoga meet. Tourist then went on to finish second in the grade one Secretariat at Arlington.

Winner of the Tampa Bay Derby (G2), Ring Weekend was pointing for the Kentucky Derby but was forced to miss the race due to a fever. He was 5th in the Preakness before being eased in the Pegasus Stakes on the dirt on June 15 at Monmouth. His runner-up effort in the Sir Cat earned him a 95 Beyer and 6 on the Ragozin Sheets, he certainly rebounded from the disappointing effort at the Jersey Shore.

"Coming off that poor race at Monmouth I was very pleased," trained Graham Motion said. "We kind of switched it up. I'm not saying we'll always keep him on the grass, but I kind of wanted to get him back on the grass. His race in Florida on the grass was very good, numbers-wise. Being the time of year it was, we needed to try him on the dirt, obviously, and it worked out."

 

Watch the Sir Cat Stakes:

“He ran a career best number in the Sir Cat, so after the race we decided to give him plenty of time to recover and immediately put a circle around the Saranac,” said WPT president Terry Finley. “The way he ran last time we think he’ll appreciate the added distance. Wallyanna is coming in off a big win in the Hall of Fame, but I like the fact that we have better spacing between tough races. At certain times during his career he’s looked one-dimensional, but we were really pleased with how he rated and came running last time.”

 

Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez stays aboard Ring Weekend. Post time for the Saranac is 5:21 ET on Monday.



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