John Scheinman
NYRA/Saratoga Race Course

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – When jockey Rajiv Maragh eased Seventh Street back into an ideal stalking position in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Handicap on June 13 at Belmont Park, he could not have expected his Godolphin Racing and Darley Stable teammates Sea Chanter and Music Note to charge up and force a furious pace.

After a withering four-way war — that also included My Dinah — pushed the field through six furlongs in 1:09.96, Seventh Street cleared off by a length in the stretch of the 1 1/16-mile race but had little left to hold off Seattle Smooth at the finish, losing by 1¼ lengths.

Rick Mettee, Godolphin’s North American racing manager, said he expects a different scenario when Seventh Street returns in Sunday’s 56th running of the Grade 1, $300,000 Go For Wand, a 1 1/8-mile handicap for fillies and mares 3 years old and up.

“It wasn’t the way it was supposed to be, 46 and change, 1:09 and change,” Mettee said of the Ogden Phipps.

With trainer Todd Pletcher withdrawing Sea Chanter from consideration for the race and Music Note pointing toward the fall season at Belmont Park, Seventh Street figures to hold a strong hand in the Go For Wand . The 4-year-old chestnut daughter of Street Cry has won four of seven starts, and in her lone two-turn race, she topped the Grade 1 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park in April under Maragh, who retains the mount.

Godolphin will, however, enter a different stablemate in the 5-year-old Doneraile Court mare Cocoa Beach, and the pair will be the 4-5 morning-line favorite in the Go For Wand. Second to Zenyatta last fall in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic, Cocoa Beach has made one start this year, a last-place finish in the four-horse Floral Park at Belmont as the overwhelming favorite.

“She needed the race the other day more than we thought,” said Mettee, assistant to trainer Saeed bin Suroor. “When she breezes the way she did the last two five-furlong works at Belmont, galloping out in 1:12, we know she is doing well. I doubt she’s at her absolute peak for this, but it’s a Grade 1.”

The rising 4-year-old filly Miss Isella, second choice at 9-5, could be the horse to beat in the Go For Wand. The gray or roan daughter of Silver Charm, owned by Elaine Jones, scored back-to-back three-quarter-length victories in Grade 2 stakes races at Churchill Downs in May and June.

With Calvin Borel riding Rachel Alexandra the same day in the Haskell Invitational, trainer Ian Wilkes will put Julien Leparoux on Miss Isella for her first run at Saratoga. The filly closed out her 3-year-old season with a victory in the Grade 2 Fall City Handicap at Churchill Downs, but her two recent wins in the Fleur de Lis and Louisville Distaff clearly were her best.

“She’s just maturing,” Wilkes said. “Horses sometimes get better when they get older. She’s always been an honest filly; she tries. Can she compete with the elite horses? That’s something to find out.”

Pletcher will not be without an entrant. He will run multiple stakes winner Spritely, a 4-year-old bay daughter of Touch Gold owned by Edward P. Evans, and she has been with the pace in all of her starts, including a nose defeat to Porte Bonheur in the Grade 2 First Flight Handicap on June 28 at Belmont Park.

Also entered in the field of seven are Chevalier Stable’s Weathered, who won the Rare Treat Handicap and Grade 3 Next Move this past winter at Aqueduct for trainer Karl Grusmark; Color Me Up for trainer D. Wayne Lukas, and Luna Vega for Steve Asmussen.