Look for Party at Saratoga opener

Ron Flatter   Follow @ronflatter
VSiN.com

It was awfully easy to make Fifty Five (7-2) the morning-line favorite in the Grade 3 Lake George, the co-feature on opening day Friday at Saratoga. It is not so much the horse as it is the humans. Her trainer Chad Brown and her jockey José Ortiz were the Spa champions last year. And Ortiz did ride her to her most recent victory in a Grade 3 race at Gulfstream Park in March. But since she was moved to Brown’s barn by owner Peter Brant, Fifty Five is 0-for-2, losing once as a beaten favorite at Aqueduct. Her conqueror that day was Party Boat (6-1). The Graham Motion-trained Into Mischief filly might have made it back-to-back wins if she had not steadied with a furlong to go in the Penn Oaks. That was her last race seven weeks ago. In the meantime her jockey Joel Rosario has been on a roll. If her win at the Big “A” was not a fluke, the value play is on Party Boat.

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Friday's Saratoga stakes races in handicap order from e-ponies.com

See the entire card at e-ponies.com.