Kentucky Oaks heroine Abel Tasman heads Sunday cast list

Preview: USA, Sunday 11.18pm BST

Saratoga: Coaching Club American Oaks (Grade 1) 1m1f | dirt | 3yo fillies | ATR

Kentucky Oaks winner Abel Tasman (Bob Baffert/Mike Smith) will start a warm favourite to confirm her superiority over old rival Salty (Mark Casse/Joel Rosario) in the 101st running of the Coaching Club American Oaks, the $300,000 highlight of Saratoga's Sunday card.

Since being switched from Simon Callaghan's barn the west-coast star has moved up the filly ranks, following up her late-running victory at a sloppy Churchill Downs in America's top race for three-year-old females with more of the same in the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park.

In that race Abel Tasman made a daring move around the far turn before scoring by a length from Gulfstream Oaks winner Salty, who was also fifth in the Kentucky Oaks.

"She shipped well, everything is good," said Abel Tasman's trainer Bob Baffert, who equipped the filly with blinkers in Kentucky.

"They made a big difference and she's been training really well since," added Baffert. "We ran her once and I didn't want to change a thing. Mike said she really needs blinkers after the race and he confirmed it when he worked her after, saying she'd changed – and she was pretty good before that."

Also lining up in a seven-runner field is Daddys Lil Darling (Ken McPeek/Julien Leparoux), the filly who forced Olivier Peslier to take evasive action when she bolted before the Oaks at Epsom in the midst of a torrential thunderstorm. She gets back on the main track after a fair fourth a couple of weeks ago in the Belmont Oaks.

>>Dream It Is (Barbara Minshall/Luis Contreras) was the star of Saratoga's opening card on Friday with a stunning nine-length victory in the Grade 3 Schuylerville for two-year-old fillies.

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