When superfilly Rags to Riches, the first in 102 years to beat the males in the Belmont Stakes, was declared out of today’s 90th running of the Grade 1, $300,000 Coaching Club American Oaks on Monday after spiking a fever, it offered a golden opportunity for lesser 3-year-old fillies to cash in on a big payday.
Who stands poised to take advantage of Rags to Riches’ absence? None more than her stablemate, Octave, the heavy favorite in a field of seven going a mile-and-a-quarter at Belmont Park.
If it were not for Rags to Riches, Octave would be the top filly in trainer Todd Pletcher’s barn. Octave, a gray daughter of Unbridled’s Song, has won three of nine races, including the Adirondack Stakes last summer and the Grade 1 Mother Goose at Belmont in her last start. In her other six starts, Octave has not been worse than second.