Fashion Alert out-battled a stubborn Take Charge Brandi to run her record to 2-for-2, both in stakes, in Friday’s $250,000 Schuylerville S. (G3) on Saratoga’s opening day.
Fashion Alert is Old Fashioned’s third graded stakes winner of 2014. The Taylor Made stallion, who stood for $8,000 this year, ranks third on both the Second Crop and Two-Year-Old sire lists.
After breaking fairly awkwardly to the inside, John Velazquez righted Fashion Alert and quickly engaged with Take Charge Brandi. That duo almost immediately began to pull away from the rest of the field, with Fashion Alert on the outside of her foe. They hit the top of the stretch together, some six lengths clear of the rest of their challengers.
Inside the final sixteenth, Fashion Alert began to get the better of ‘Brandi’, drawing clear to win by 1 1/2-lengths. The final time was 1:11.78 for the six furlongs on a fast track.
“She’s definitely very talented,” said Velazquez. “We wish we had a better break and got a better position at the first part. She kind of recuperated right away and got a good position going to the half-mile pole. From then on, I wanted to give her a little breather and see how she did, and down the lane she started leaning into the horse on the inside. Finally, she started getting away from her the last sixteenth of a mile. She didn’t break as bad as last time out, but today was a little bit bad. So, I knew she was going to be quick enough to be there anyway.”
Purchased by George Bolton for $125,000 at the 2013 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Fashion Alert began her career with a victory in the $100,000 Astoria S. June 14 at Belmont Park for trainer Todd Pletcher. The Schuylerville winner’s share improved her earnings to $250,000 when bolstered by a $100,000 NYRA bonus offered to any 2-year-old to break their maiden at Belmont or Aqueduct Racetrack and go on to win a graded stakes at Saratoga.
Fashion Alert is out of the mare Titan Queen, by Tiznow, and was bred in Kentucky by Mike Abraham and Jacob Nance. She is a half-sister to Renee’s Titan, winner of the Grade 2 Santa Ynez S.
