Race 10 at Saratoga | Saturday, August 15 | Post Time 5:44 PM Eastern

Galway Stakes | Purse $200,000 | Five and One-Half Furlongs on Turf | Fillies, Three-Year-Olds

Top Win Contender(s): Triskelion (7), Mauna Loa (6)

Triskelion (7) ships from Kentucky, where she just won a similar five-and-a-half-furlong turf stakes race, the Pea Patch Stakes, on July 5. She doesn’t need the lead, but she has excellent speed. In the Pea Patch, Triskelion was third by one half-length early, and second by a one-and-a-half-lengths after the eighth pole, when she got up to win by a head. Before that, off a seven-month layoff from November to June, she was fresh, led from the start, and was still leading in the stretch by a length and a half, just missing by a half-length. She earned 91 and 92 Equibase Speed Figures in her recent races, and she should improve again in her third race off the layoff. In the Pea Patch Stakes, she was 3 to 1, but even though she is only one of two horses who won their last stakes, she starts at 6 to 1.

Mauna Loa (6) may lead this race, but like Triskelion, she can also stalk. She won her first career race last October in a turf sprint, stalking in third early and wearing down the winner. In June, she returned from a layoff of about 10 months, racing in a two-turn race where she went to the front and was too fast early (by six lengths) at the half before fading to eighth. In her last race, returning to a sprint for her third career start, she made the lead easily and won from start to finish. She improved to a 93 figure and should improve again. Although she is racing in her first stakes races, her three siblings from her dam have all won turf sprints, including her two-year-old filly half-sister, who just won the Riverside Rush Stakes, a $200,000 purse similar to the Galway Stakes.

Gerrards Cross (1) has won three of six races, including two turf races and a second-place finish by a neck. In all of her wins, she led from the start to the finish. Her last two races were stakes races. She missed by a neck on June 14, then won the Monmouth County Stakes on July 5, when she controlled the pace and earned a career-best 93 figure. Since she gets the rail, she has to try to get the lead. Even though I don’t think she can lead all the way, she can finish second. If she has no one to pester her early, she can win.

Win bets: Triskelion (7), Mauna Loa (6) at odds of 2 to 1 or higher.

Exacta: Box Triskelion (7), Mauna Loa (6)

Box: Triskelion (7), Mauna Loa (6), Gerrards Cross (1)