Salt Water Reign is entered to run in Monday's 9th race at Saratoga, which is the 5th running of The Union Avenue for New York-bred fillies and mares, 3-years-old and up going 6 furlongs. She drew post position 9 and jockey Ramon Dominguez is named to ride. Dominguez is currently ranked 3rd in the Saratoga jockey standings with 18 wins and a 15% winning percentage.

We had been monitoring the nominations and the entries on an almost daily basis. We had been working closely with the NYRA stakes coordinator and it had appeared from the beginning that the race was going to come up very reasonable with horses that appeared to be no better than Salt Water Reign. As of Friday afternoon we were told that it was shaping up to be a 6-horse field with the tougher horses such as Talking Treasure, Under Serviced, and open stakes winner Weathered not likely to enter. Speaking with Steve on Friday evening he advised us to "wear our Sunday best". When entries came out on Saturday afternoon everyone was quite surprised to see that Rick Dutrow had supplemented By the Light. By the Light was last year's champion New York-bred 2-year-old filly. She won 5 of her first 6 races including beating the boys in the $269k New York Breeder's Futurity and also winning the open $300k Delta Princess at Delta Downs. Her only loss was a second place finish in the G1 Prioress to champion Indian Blessing. She's already banked $547k in only 6 starts. Everyone wondered why that particular horse would show up in this spot. It turns out that By the Light was originally pointed to a 2-turn open stakes at Saratoga on Sunday but that race didn't fill. Racing her in The Union Avenue was a fallback position.

By the Light will likely go off as the odds-on favorite and will be extremely difficult to beat. That said, Salt Water Reign appears to fit solidly with the rest of the field. Hitting the board in any slot would give Salt Water Reign valuable black type on her resume and add to her residual value as a broodmare. Additionally, it will also establish her as a stakes caliber horse within her division. Steve has her razor-sharp and we're looking for a solid performance from her.

The purse for this race is $80,000.

First race post time is 1:00 PM and Salt Water Reign's race is Race 9 which is scheduled to go off at 5:30 PM. As always we'll be at the Hibiscus table in the clubhouse restaurant and also in an owner's box. Everyone is invited to join us at Saratoga for a fun day of racing.