The Fillies and Mares Open at Saratoga Casino Hotel has belonged to trainer Melissa Beckwith this season.
Putting the finishing touches on what will be her ninth local training title, Beckwith has had a couple of distaffers who have thrived in the ladies’ feature throughout the 2022 campaign.
Sea Shadows owns a track-best seven Open wins this year but it was a different Beckwith trainee who competed in Monday’s installment of the $16,000 feature. Probert has had a terrific ’22 season while racing both locally and at
Following a pair of Open scores and a third-place finish at Plainridge, Probert was back in town on Monday and despite drawing post six in the six-horse feature, the Beckwith trainee was the public’s 3-5 betting favourite. Young reinsman Brett Beckwith found an early landing spot with Probert in a race in which Always Watching (Jordan Derue) was cutting the mile. Always Watching got to the half in :57 but when Beckwith gave Probert her cue, the five-year-old surged to challenge the leader who would not relent.
Always Watching and Probert battled stride-for-stride until hitting the stretch, and at that point the Beckwith trainee powered away to win in 1:53.3. Always Watching finished second while So Amazing (Jimmy Devaux) was third.
It was the fourth Open score at the Spa for Probert who is owned by Howard Jacobs, Jim Winske and Marcus Kemblowski. The earnings for Probert push her seasonal total to over the $140,000 mark.
Live racing resumes on Saturday evening at
(Saratoga Casino Hotel)