Harper’s Corner Schuylerville Win Gives Cathal Lynch Saratoga Stakes Breakthrough

Harper’s Corner turned Saratoga’s Listed $200,000 Schuylerville into a front-running statement on Friday, making every pole a winning one for trainer Cathal Lynch and jockey Paco Lopez. The two-year-old filly, owned by Charles Bigg, stepped straight from a Laurel Park debut win into stakes company and answered with a 5 1/4-length success over six furlongs. According to NYRA’s race report, she also became the first stakes winner for her sire, Speaker’s Corner. Lopez had been involved in a spill one race earlier but returned to guide Harper’s Corner through fractions of 22.02 and 45.18 on the fast main track before she stopped the clock in 1:09.96. Voyager chased her home in second, with Prime Aurora third.

Adirondack Route Opens Up

Lynch said he was “delighted, not shocked” by the performance, having felt the filly had been showing enough at home to justify the step up. Harper’s Corner was a $70,000 OBS Spring purchase and is now unbeaten in two starts, with $110,000 banked from Friday’s win. The next obvious Saratoga target is the Grade 3 Adirondack over 6 1/2 furlongs on August 2, though Lynch said he would first speak with connections and check she comes out of the race cleanly. For a juvenile filly still at the beginning of her career, this was an emphatic first answer at a proper summer stage.