Seeking The Dirt, Chatalas Hit The Road For The GI Alabama

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.–A long-term plan and a recent decision brought California-based, Indiana-prepped Chatalas (Gun Runner) the rest of the way across the continent to run in the GI $600,000 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.

Feeling that she is better on dirt, her owners and trainer Mark Glatt decided last winter to avoid grass racing and point her to 3-year-old filly stakes in the Midwest and East. In her first start in seven months, Chatalas won the GIII Indiana Oaks by a head on July 6. Four weeks later, when trainer Kenny McPeek announced on Aug. 3 that three-time GI winner Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) would face males in the GI Travers on Aug. 24 rather than the Alabama, Chatalas was Saratoga-bound.

A field of eight will contest the 1 1/4 miles of the historic Alabama, which was first run in 1872. From the rail out: Intricate (Gun Runner), the only horse to beat Thorpedo Anna, in the GII Golden Rod ; Chatalas, Power Squeeze (Union Rags),winner of the Gulfstream Park Oaks and the Delaware Oaks; Iowa Oaks winner Just Basking (Arrogate), who is making her graded stakes debut; America's Vow (Constitution); two from trainer Todd Pletcher, Miss Justify (Justify) and GI Alcibiades Stakes winner Candied (Candy Ride); and Neon Icon (Arrogate), trained by Rusty Arnold.

Candied, who drew the rail in her last four starts, will start from No. 7 under Manny Franco and is the 7-5 morning-line favorite. The Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners's filly was second by 4 1/2 lengths to Thorpedo Anna in the GI Coaching Club American Oaks.

“She's probably the most accomplished one in the race,” Pletcher said. “I thought she ran well last time, the second-best to Thorpedo Anna, but no disgrace in that. Hopefully she's going to move forward in the Alabama”

Trainer Mark Glatt | Benoit

Glatt said Chatalas's connections agreed that they should try to play to her strength on dirt.

“In Southern California in the summer the 3-year-old filly and colt division actually is centered around turf,” Glatt said. “We ran her on the turf, our final start of her 2-year-old campaign, just to see how she might run on the turf, realizing that the better races for 3-year-olds were going to be on turf this summer. Although she ran well, we didn't think she was quite as effective on turf. She's got natural route speed, but she's kind of a stayer. She didn't show an explosion.”

Chatalas was caught near the wire by Medoro (Honor Code), now a GIII winner, and finished second by a neck in that turf test, the Blue Norther Stakes, on Dec. 29 at Santa Anita. It was her sixth start of the season, during which she was 2-1-1 and won the GII Chandelier Stakes.

“We felt it was the right time to give her some time,” Glatt said, “let her kind of regroup from that pretty solid campaign as a 2-year-old, otherwise we wouldn't have much come this summer and fall. As she was getting ready, we could tell she was training even better than she did as a 2-year-old. We just felt like trying to see where she fit back there in some of those races initially could help us manage her the rest of the year.”

Glatt sent Chatalas to Kentucky to his friend, trainer Grant Forster, at Churchill Downs and nominated her to the Indiana Oaks, the Delaware Oaks and the Iowa Oaks, which were all scheduled for the same weekend. They opted for the Indiana Oaks because it was an easier ship from Louisville. She stayed in Kentucky with Forster, who will saddle her in the Alabama for Glatt.

Dan J. Agnew, a member of the Washington Racing Hall of Fame since 2007, bred Chatalas and is her majority owner with Rancho Temescal Thoroughbred Partners and William Chatalas. She is out of Indian Safari (Indian Charlie), who suffered a career-ending injury in a stall accident after winning her debut in 2014 and became a broodmare.

Agnew said his wife, Kim, suggested that they name the filly after their neighbor, the late Susan Chatalas. Following her debut victory at Del Mar last summer, Chatalas's husband, William, became a partner in the horse.

“He went to the maiden race,” Agnew said.” He used to work at the racetrack 70 years ago so he knew a little bit about it and said 'Gee, I'd like to buy a part of this horse. Will you sell me part?' I said, 'Absolutely.' For a guy like him, who has lost his wife, this filly has given him a little bit of renewal. He gets pretty excited. Something to live for. He's been down to watch her train. He's got a couple of boys who have come to the races to watch her run. He's a wonderful friend, a wonderful guy and a great owner.”

Agnew and Chatalas are scheduled to attend the Alabama.

Like Just Basking, her breeders-owners, Wendy Schwarz Gilder and her brother Andrew Schwarz, are in their first graded stakes. They operate as Gilder-Schwarz Farms LLC. While growing up in New Orleans, they came to love horses and racing at Fair Grounds. In 2017, under the guidance of Pope McLean at Crestwood Farm, they embarked on their longtime plan to get into the breeding business. Schwarz is in the real estate development business and said he is comfortable with the time it takes–from conception to the sale or racing–in breeding Thoroughbreds.

The gem of their band of four broodmares is Spanish Star (Blame), the dam of Just Basking. Spanish Star is a half-sister to 2019 GI Belmont Stakes winner Sir Winston (Awesome Again). They bought her in foal to Arrogate (Unbridled's Song) for $275,000 at the 2020 Keeneland November Sale.

Spanish Star (Hip 1149) | Keeneland

“When you look at Spanish Star, physically, the hips, everything, she's structurally perfect,” Schwarz, 58, said. “We're not the only one who saw that that day because we had to bid for her, but it was our strategy.  Can't buy a horse that won the Alabama so we were going for horses on physical and that's what we bought. We paid more than we thought, but physically, you don't see horses like that that often. She never raced, so we thought she was a horse we could afford. It turned out we were right. And how lucky do we get being an Arrogate?”

At the 2016 Travers, his first stakes try, Juddmonte's Arrogate turned in a jaw-dropping performance, winning the race by 13 1/2 lengths in the track-record time for 1 1/4 miles of 1:59.36. He went on to win the GI Breeders' Cup Classic and the Eclipse Award as the 3-year-old male champion. Arrogate was retired to stud at Juddmonte in 2017 where he stood for three years before he had to be euthanized. Just Basking is from his final crop.

Spanish Star had two foals before being purchased by Gilder-Schwarz. The 2019 now-gelded colt One Timer (Trappe Shot) won the GII Franklin-Simpson at Kentucky Downs and has earned $914,135. The 2020 colt has not raced. Gilder-Schwarz has a business model of selling its colts and possibly retain promising fillies to race. They sold the 2022 filly Kilwin (Twirling Candy) for $225,000. She broke her maiden at first asking in July. Spanish Star's Essential Quality (Tapit) colt is being offered at Keeneland September and they have a Flightline (Tapit) colt on the ground. Schwarz said he may have trouble convincing his sister to sell the Flightline.

Schwarz said he and his sister waited until they were in a place in their lives where they could try to breed at a proper level.

“I want to breed graded stakes-quality horses and have a lot of fun with my family,” he said. “My big, audacious goal is to someday have a horse in the Alabama. I swear to God, I swear to God I said that.”

Just Basking–the name Basking was not available–the second flat horse to run in the stable name, has brought Gilder-Schwarz to the Alabama. She was being prepared to run as a 2-year-old, but got loose at the training center and came out of that jaunt with injuries. Just Basking made her first start for veteran trainer Ian Wilkes with a second over 6 1/2 furlongs at Turfway Park on March 13. She was a closer second at 1 1/16 miles on April 7 at Keeneland and broke her maiden by 7 3/4 lengths at the Alabama's 10-furlong distance against older horses on April 27 at Churchill Downs. Following a fifth in a 1 1/8 miles optional claimer she won the listed Iowa Oaks by 4 3/4 lengths.

Schwarz said they would have taken a shot in the Alabama with Thorpedo Anna in the field.

“Certainly, that would have been a challenge, but we were going to run against whoever showed up,” he said. “At a mile and a quarter with an Arrogate, you've always got a chance. If you could pick a distance, that's where we would want to send JB. That's her distance, so you've got a puncher's chance, even if I thought Thorpedo Anna was in it. Also, as a breeder, getting some black type, regardless.

“Now we think we have a big chance. I don't know if we could get to the wire first, but I know we'll be running probably the fastest with whoever hits the wire first. Hopefully we'll get there in time.”