Surreal Feeling & Alek Chartrand

It isn’t often that a horse who wins a featured race in back-to-back weeks at Saratoga Casino Hotel winds up going off at 5-1 odds in his or her next try against a similar group. That was the case on Wednesday afternoon when Surreal Feeling (So Surreal) was somewhat ignored by the bettors in the $14,000 Fillies and Mares Open as she pursued a hat trick. Alek Chartrand picked up the catch-drive behind the Dale Lawton-trained mare whose early speed is so strong that she had no trouble making it to the top even from post position seven. Surreal Feeling paced the first half in 57.4 and was relatively untested through three quarters of 1:26.1. The six year old mare, who loves to win, did it again as she kicked away from her rivals in the stretch before stopping the timer in 1:55 for an open-length score. The victory was the fourth in a row for Surreal Feeling including three straight in the Spa feature for distaffers. Miss Irish Rose A (Larry Stalbaum) sat the pocket to the winner before finishing second while Thats Incredible (Brett Crawford) earned the show spot. Surreal Feeling paid $13.80 to win and led an exacta and triple that returned $147 and $880, respectively. Trainer Dale Lawton, of Verona, NY, co-owns Surreal Feeling with Chris Lawton, of Vernon, NY. The win in the feature was the first in an Open this season for reinsman Alek Chartrand who is in the midst of a terrific start to the 2021 campaign.

Live racing resumes on Monday afternoon at Saratoga with a first post set for Noon.

 

Mike Sardella

Photo: Melissa Simser-Iovino

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