Acorn, New York feature rematches from Derby week

A rematch of the top three finishers from last month's Kentucky Oaks (G1) is on tap at Saratoga Friday in the $500,000 Acorn (G1).

Always a Runner, who defied her relative inexperience to win the Oaks in only her third lifetime start, will again face Santa Anita Oaks (G2) winner Meaning, who finished second at Churchill Downs, and Fantasy (G2) heroine Counting Stars, who grabbed show honors.

Prom Queen, the Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2) winner who finished a belated fifth on the first Friday in May, is another potential player in the field of five that will go 1 1/8 miles.

The $750,000 New York (G1), the most lucrative of Friday's offerings for fillies and mares, also features a rematch from Kentucky Derby weekend. Kathynmarissa rallied to defeat Gezora in the Modesty (G3) on May 1, but the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1) and Prix de Diane (G1)-winning Gezora is sure to come on from that over a slightly longer 1 3/16-mile trip.

The remainder of the field will have to hit new peaks but have notable graded form. Portfolio Duration, Pretty Picture, and City Girl are a three-pronged challenge for trainer Chad Brown, who recently saw Gezora depart his barn for Bill Mott's. Laurelin and Bellezza have won at Saratoga before, while French invader Cankoura was a respectable third to Gezora in the French Oaks last summer.

Nitrogen, last year's three-year-old filly champion, will look to bounce back from back-to-back losses at Oaklawn in the $500,000 Ogden Phipps (G1) over nine furlongs. An odds-on favorite in both the Azeri (G2) and Apple Blossom H. (G1), was well held in both, including by the recently deceased Claret Beret in the Apple Blossom.

Fully Subscribed and Bless the Broken recently placed in the La Troienne (G1), while Alpine Princess was a graded winner twice in Kentucky over the span of her last three starts.

Ways and Means is back to defend her title in the $300,000 Bed o' Roses (G2) over seven furlongs, but does not figure to be as short as the 1-2 she was last year, when she won by 7 3/4 lengths.

The five-year-old has run just once since, a second-place effort five weeks ago in the Derby City Distaff (G1). While she should come on for the run, Grand Job appears a serious threat in the female sprint division following a win in the Inside Information (G2) and a photo-finish loss in the Madison (G1).

Among the three-year-old fillies lining up in the $300,000 Wonder Again (G2) at 1 1/16 miles on the turf are Fitz Right, a decisive winner of the Memories of Silver S. at Aqueduct in late April, and Grade 3 winner Lion Lake, who fell a neck short in both the Appalachian (G2) and Edgewood (G2) in her last two starts.