Crazy Party
photo by Adam Coglianese

Last year’s 2-year-old turf races at Saratoga Race Course were incredibly productive, with graded stakes winners Excited, J. B.’s Thunder, More Than Real, Silver Medallion, and Winter Memories all having made winning debuts on the grass at the Spa. Crazy Party, who dashed clear to victory yesterday at Saratoga, will now attempt to follow in their footsteps.

Crazy Party joins the New York Watch, which profiles promising maiden winners at Aqueduct Racetrack, Belmont Park, and Saratoga Race Course and featured J. B.’s Thunder, More Than Real, and Winter Memories following their wins at the Spa last year.

Always prominent, Crazy Party raced behind cover in third through fractions of 48.90 and 1:13.61, angled outside at the top of the stretch, and burst past the front runners to register a two-length victory over Regalo Mia.

Crazy Party, who completed 1 1/16 miles on the turf in 1:43.09, ran the final sixteenth of a mile in a quick 5.58 seconds and returned $7.90 as the 5-2 second choice.

Owned and bred by Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, Crazy Party is by Belmont Stakes winner and renowned sire A.P. Indy and out of Wakigoer, making her a half-sister to turf stakes winners Quiet Royal, Acago, and Sandwaki. Wakigoer herself is a half-sister to Go Deputy, who won the Grade 1 Sword Dancer on the turf at Saratoga, and Dare and Go, who upset Cigar in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic on the dirt and placed in three Grade 1 turf events.

After Crazy Party turned in a 49.32 four-furlong breeze around dogs on the turf at Saratoga on June 20, trainer Todd Pletcher knew the filly, like her siblings, would likely do her best running on the grass.

“We were hoping being by A.P. Indy that she’d do well on the dirt, but her works were OK on the dirt,” said Pletcher. “We gave her a spin on the turf and she seemed to move up.”

Pletcher added that the $75,000 P.G. Johnson at 1 1/16 miles on the turf on August 31 would be a logical next start for Crazy Party.

Besides J. B.’s Thunder, More Than Real, and Winter Memories, horses previously featured in the New York Watch series include 2010 Champion Two-Year-Old Colt Uncle Mo; Boys At Tosconova, victorious in the Grade 1 Three Chimneys Hopeful; and To Honor and Serve, who swept the Nashua and Remsen. Other graded stakes winners on the New York Watch list are Eightyfiveinafifty, Position Limit, Flashpoint, and Royal Delta.