US: Saratoga Options For It's Tricky

Monday, 16 July 2012: Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin has two decide between two Saratoga options for multiple G1 winner It's Tricky.

McLaughlin has to choose between the G1Ballerina Stakes on August 24 or the G1 Personal Ensign on August 26.

It's Tricky captured the G1 Ogden Phipps when she last raced in May.

Last year at Saratoga, the Mineshaft filly won the G1 Coaching Club American Oaks and was runner-up to eventual champion three-year-old filly Royal Delta in the G1 Alabama.

Opening weekend at the Spa could be a busy one for McLaughlin, who is looking at the G3 James Marvin on July 20 for Crossbow and the July 21 CCA Oaks as a possibility for Questing.

Crossbow worked four furlongs at the Greentree training centre in Saratoga on July 13.

"He's doing great," McLaughlin said of the four-year-old by Bernardini, who won his first two starts this year in optional claimers, at Aqueduct.

Questing, who was fourth and fifth in two turf starts at Gulfstream Park, returned to the dirt at Belmont on June 24 and was an impressive 3 3/4-length winner in a one-mile optional claimer.

"She ran huge that day," McLaughlin said of the UK-bred Questing, who began her career in England.

McLaughlin added that G3 Withers winner Alpha, unraced since his 12th in the Kentucky Derby, was likely to run in the G2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga on July 28.