| Tuesday, July 15, 2013 Contact: Jenny Kellner vkellner@nyrainc.com Schuylerville, Sir Cat highlight Opening Day card at Saratoga Race Course SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Saratoga Race Course opens for its 146th meet on Friday with a pair of stakes races spotlighting two of the historic track's long-standing traditions - 2-year-olds and turf racing. The 96th running of the Grade 3, $150,000 Schuylerville, which drew five 2-year-old fillies including the stakes-winning Fashion Alert, will be run as race 3 on the 10-race card, while the $100,000 Sir Cat for 3-year-old grass horses, will be run as race 9. First race post time is 1:00 p.m. A daughter of the sophomore sire Old Fashioned out of the Tiznow mare Titan Queen, Fashion Alert fetched $125,000 as a yearling last September at the Keeneland Sales. "Every year we buy six to eight horses, and last year I wanted one more filly," said owner George Bolton. "She was a '10' physically, and the question was whether Old Fashioned would stand up as a sire to a very strong female side." On June 14, Bolton and trainer Todd Pletcher got at least part of the answer when in her first start when Fashion Alert sped to a 4 ¾-length victory in $100,000 Astoria at Belmont Park. The bay filly earned an 88 Beyer Speed Figure for her winning effort, in which she covered 5 ½ furlongs in 1:04.01. "She's special," said Bolton. "Obviously, Todd thought enough of her to start her off in a stakes. I hadn't seen her since March, and she'd grown up since then. From the way she gallops out and the Tiznow side, we're hoping distance won't be an issue for her this year." Fashion Alert, the 3-5 morning-line favorite with Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez back in the irons, drew post position 4. Pletcher will be seeking his fifth victory in the Schuylerville, which would narrow the gap between him and his former employer, Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, a six-time winner of the race. Lukas, whose most recent Schuylerville victory came in 2004 with Classic Elegance, will be represented in this year's edition by Take Charge Brandi, a first-out winner on June 22 at Churchill Downs. Owned by Willis D. Horton, who paid $435,000 for the daughter of Giant's Causeway, Take Charge Brandi ran the 4 ½ furlongs in 52.26. Corey Lanarie will be aboard Take Charge Brandi, 6-1 on the morning line. The pair will leave from post position 5. Rounding out the field are Mast Cove (20-1), who comes in from the mid-Atlantic off a third-out maiden win; Team Valor International's Tulira's Star (5-2), a winner on June 8 over Polytrack at Arlington Park; and Evrybdymstgetstonz (12-1), a six-length maiden winner on July 2 at Belmont Park. In the Sir Cat, the Graham Motion-trained Ring Weekend returns to the turf as he faces six others in the one-mile race. Winner of the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby, Ring Weekend was second to subsequent Grade 3 American Derby winner Divine Oath in his only other start on grass, a 7 ½-furlong maiden event on January 18 at Gulfstream Park. Also entered in the Sir Cat are multiple stakes winner Storming Inti, no worse than third in eight of nine starts; Cabo Cat, winner of the Manila at Belmont Park last time out; recent maiden winners Gourmet Delight and Vigorish; 2-1 morning-line favorite Tourist, recently victorious in a one-mile allowance at Belmont, and J to the Croft, who enters off a narrow score in a seven-furlong optional claimer on June 17 at Belmont. Pablo Del Monte is entered Main Track Only. The field for the Grade 3, $150,000 Schuylerville: The field for the $100,000 Sir Cat: -30- | 
