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The top three finishers from last year’s Fourstardave will meet again on Saturday

The top three finishers from last year’s Fourstardave will meet again on Saturday

By New York Hot List staff // Friday, August 21


The top three finishers from 2019’s Fourstardave will return as part of this year’s nine horse field. Got Stormy comes back to Saratoga for Mark Casse trying to become the first horse to win back-to-back runnings of one-mile turf Grade 1 since Wise Dan. The Chad Brown pair of Raging Bull and Uni ran second and third last summer.

Got Stormy (ML 8-1) will need to regain her best form after four straight losses this year.

“She’s training well and she’s back to Saratoga, which is where she did her best running last year, so we’re hoping for the best,” Casse said. “We know she likes that course, we know that she likes firm turf. She’s got to come with her A game. She’s the same horse, she looks great and trains great. She’s just been a little bit unlucky. She ran over some good turf courses and she wants it to be really firm.”

After winning the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1), Uni (ML 3-1) was named the 2019 Champion Turf Female. In her debut this year, she ran third behind her stablemate Newspaperofrecord in the Just A Game (G1).

“She missed some time with a splint issue, and we stopped breezing for five or six weeks,” said Bradley Weisbord of BSW/Crow Bloodstock, who manages Uni on behalf of owners Michael Dubb, Head of Plains Partners, Robert V. LaPenta and Bethlehem Stables. “The ground might have been a little soft in the Just a Game and Joel didn’t think she got through it great, but she was short, and she really needed the race.”

Raging Bull (ML 5-2) began the year with a victory in the Shoemaker Mile (G1) at Santa Anita and then was third just a neck from another win in the Makers Mile (G1) at Keeneland after racing very wide.

“I’m hoping for a better trip,” Brown said.

Here’s the Hot List picks for the Fourstardave Stakes:

The $400,000 Fourstardave Stakes (G1), Saratoga, Saturday, Race 9.

(7) Valid Point (A) is one of four horses entered in the Fourstardave by trainer Chad Brown. In the Poker (G2), he never had a chance to show his stuff after getting shuffled back at the start and then he was blocked in the stretch. Last summer he won the Secretariat (G1) at Arlington Park, so the ability is there, and this Brown runner will come with attractive odds. (6) Uni was the Champion Female Turf horse last year for Brown after her win in the Breeders’ Cup Mile against the boys. In her 2020 debut, she ran into her stablemate Newspaperofrecord who got everything her way in the Just A Game (G1). (1) Raging Bull won the Shoemaker Mile (G1) for Brown in his 2020 debut and then was third in the Makers Mark (G1) at Keeneland missing the top spot by just a neck. Expect him to coming running down the stretch. (4) Got Stormy will try and win this race for the second year in a row. The Mark Casse barn is very cold at Saratoga this summer and her last two races at Belmont Park were not up to par. She will need a very firm turf course and return to her best form to contend in this salty field.

Analysis of the other New York Hot List races from the Fourstardave card, including the Special Saturday Pick 3, is available free of charge at this website.