As the Saratoga meet winds down, the eleven race Friday card features the P. G. Johnson Stakes for two year old fillies in race four. With two Midlantic bred entries scratching on Travers day including Book’em Danno, Senior Officer ended as the lone northbound shipper to compete in a stakes, narrowly missing with a late run. Still searching for a stakes win this meet, the Midlantic sends in Urgent Claire, a Maryland bred filly trained by Flint W. Stites who looks to tackle a tough group here at the longest morning line odds of 20/1. Facing an uphill battle in this spot, Urgent Claire will finally get a crack at grass with both of her two tries run on off tracks at Delaware Park. Despite the unfavorable surface changes, this filly by Lookin at Lucky – Awesomeloveofdeoro, by Awesome Again has picked up a place and win in two tries, even with far slower speed figures and splits than her competitors. Hopefully, the surface change and new level of competition will lead to improvement for Urgent Claire as she picks up Junior Alvarado in the saddle for the first time.

Going eight furlongs in both of her starts, Urgent Claire will now stretch out another half furlong breaking from post six in a seven horse field. She will likely stalk the early leaders here in what appears to set up for a slower first half mile based on this group’s past performances. Her tactical advantage here could be the biggest selling point for a strong race despite lower expectations, as these two year olds are still finding their footing on the turf with many who have less than stellar wins in their early careers. A win here would still be an unexpected result without a major step forward, as Urgent Claire ships up from her works at Penn National with a career best effort needed to compete. Urgent Claire was bred by Amy H. Daney Bloodstock and is owned by DeSales Eighty-Five.

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