Schuylerville early chance for young fillies to show their stuff

BY MIKE MACADAM
 
 SARATOGA SPRINGS — Surprise: “Big Mama,” as they call her around trainer Gary Contessa’s barn, is big.
 
 But she is far from being a mama, and in fact is still a baby, by Thoroughbred racing standards.
 
 Not only is Becky’s Joker just 2 years old, but she hasn’t raced yet. Still, she serves as an example of the aspirations of many at the Saratoga Race Course meet, which opens today with a 10-race card.
 
 Despite the fact that Becky’s Joker has no racing experience, Contessa entered her in a graded stakes for her career debut, the opening day feature, the Grade III Schuylerville.
 
 Usually, a trainer will work a young horse through lower-level race conditions to build at least a little bit of a resume before taking on established winners in a stakes.
 
 With six graded stakes on dirt for 2-year-olds over the course of the 40-day meet, Saratoga annually is a proving ground for juveniles. Those baby races are also a mystery to predict, since the young horses are still learning their job, and don’t have much form — if any — on which to build a handicapping opinion.
 
 That’s not Contessa’s problem. He has an interesting filly who has shown ability during morning workouts, and after examining his options, the Schuylerville made sense.
 
 “What’s going to happen? I don’t know,” he said Saturday morning. “She’s a first-time starter. She might run green. She might run big. But she can run. If not now, maybe later. I’m not making any predictions about this race.”
 
 It’s been a few years since the veteran New York-based trainer has had stalls at Saratoga, after he moved his operation to Maryland to train privately for one owner at Fair Hill Training Center.
 
 Contessa has 12 horses here, and 10 of them, like Becky’s Joker, are 2-year-olds.
 
 She’s in his barn as the result of a long-standing routine Contessa and owner Lee Pokoik have followed, buying fillies as weanlings, training them to establish them as prospects at yearling sales, then at 2-year-old sales, and holding on to the ones who don’t sell for a profit.
 
 Twice, Becky’s Joker didn’t sell for their asking price, so here she is, getting ready to carry Pokoik’s silks in a graded stakes on opening day of the Saratoga meet.
 
 At 15-1 odds, Becky’s Joker is a long shot in the 11-horse Schuyler-ville field. The other 10 have not only raced, but have won at least once, and Closing Act is coming off a win in the Astoria at Belmont Park on June 11 in her second career start.
 
 “What are you facing, really? You’re facing a bunch of horses that broke their maiden,” Contessa said. “I could’ve met any one of them if she was ready two weeks ago, three weeks ago.”
 
 Contessa points to Sippican Harbor as a horse who went through the sales twice, and was retained by Pokoik to be raced.
 
 They raced her three times at the 2018 Saratoga meet, and after Sippican Harbor broke her maiden in the second start, she won the Grade I Spinaway on closing weekend.
 
 Contessa bought Becky’s Joker for Pokoik as a weanling at the Keeneland Mixed sale in 2021 for $130,000.
 
 “We tried to re-sell her as a weanling, and everybody said, ‘She’s too big, I don’t like her,’” Contessa said. “I kept saying to Lee, ‘She’s big, but I like her. She’s very athletic.’
 
 “So we took her to the yearling sale, and she worked really well. And everybody who looked at her said, ‘Aw, she’s too big.’ So I’m like, OK, she’s not too big for me.’ So we brought her here, and now I get to train her. And she’s shown us a lot of talent.”
 
 Contessa started 75 horses at the 2019 meet, but just one over the last three years.
 
 Besides Becky’s Joker, he has another 2-year-old filly, Classy Mischief, entered in a maiden race on opening day.
 
 “I walked away. It’s funny, when you leave New York, everybody thinks you’re out of the business,” he said. “I left New York, I went to Fair Hill and trained privately for a guy for the last two years. But nobody even notices that. Nobody notices south of New Jersey.
 
 “It’s really nice to be back. I had an opportunity. These are all my good old owners. So I’m back with 12 horses. The pressure’s off. The pressure’s on the other guys. I’m here just trying to get the most out of these babies.”
 
 Contessa said Becky’s Joker’s training has been “stellar,” and she breezed a bullet three furlongs in 34.88 on Friday.
 
 The 5-2 Schuylerville favorite is Wine On Tap, trained by Todd Pletcher, who has won this race six times.
 
 “Getting that stakes-placed on the pedigree enhances the price of her ovaries, and that’s the whole key to everything we do with these fillies for Lee Pokoik,” he said. “So if she can win this race or run good in it and be stakes-placed, that’s great. If not, we can always come back in a maiden race.
 
 “There was a maiden race at Belmont today [last Saturday], but after talking to Lee, we both decided, let’s try the stake. What’ve we got to lose? And you look at the race, every horse broke their maiden. That’s it. You’re running against a bunch of horses you would’ve faced in a maiden race, anyway, a couple weeks ago.”
 
Contact Mike MacAdam at mikemac@dailygazette.com. Follow on Twitter@Mike_MacAdam.