Scalable Seeks Back-to-Back Stakes Glory in Aqueduct Top Flight

Repole Stable's Scalable has unfinished business at the Big A. The 5-year-old Speightstown mare returns to Aqueduct Racetrack on Sunday, March 29, for the Listed $175,000 Top Flight Stakes, the nine-furlong feature that closes the Aqueduct winter meet, off the back of a commanding Ladies Stakes victory on Feb. 6 at the same track and distance.

That Ladies Stakes win was as clean as it was convincing. Scalable, trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, tracked from fifth early in the field, improved position down the backstretch, and edged clear through the lane under jockey Kendrick Carmouche to win by 2 1/4 lengths. She overtook the stubborn front-running Bernietakescharge late in the stretch, doing so while upending 2-5 mutuel favorite Weigh the Risks, a rival who had beaten her in each of her previous two starts. Scalable paid $12.50 for a $2 win ticket and banked $74,250 from the $135,000 purse.

The turnaround against Weigh the Risks deserves context. Scalable had finished a 1 3/4-length third behind that rival in the seven-furlong Listed Pumpkin Pie in November, then a 9 3/4-length second in the Listed Go for Wand over a one-turn mile on Dec. 13. Carmouche's read on race day was deliberate: he wanted a close stalking position to turn the tables on the favorite, who had beaten Scalable twice around one turn. Stretching back out to nine furlongs made the difference, according to Pletcher's Belmont Park assistant Stu Hampson, who noted the added distance worked in Scalable's favor. Hampson has also expressed satisfaction with how she has trained into the Top Flight.

The Ladies Stakes victory was Scalable's third career stakes score, adding to the Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks she captured as a sophomore and last year's seven-furlong Interborough at Aqueduct. It was that Interborough effort that produced her career-best 93 Beyer Speed Figure. Her record now stands at 16-5-2-2.

The win on Feb. 6 also capped a dominant afternoon for the Repole-Pletcher-Carmouche axis. Be You had already taken the Listed $150,000 Toboggan earlier on the card, making the Ladies Stakes the second stakes score of the day for that partnership. Through six races, both Pletcher and Carmouche had notched three wins apiece.

Scalable's pedigree supports the ambition. Bred in Kentucky by Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings, she was a $200,000 purchase at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. She is out of Passion Flower, a Tapit mare whose half-sister is multiple Grade 1 winner Stopchargingmaria, a horse that earned over $3 million for Pletcher and was campaigned by Mike Repole at ages two and three. The bloodlines and the ownership circle form a tight loop.

Sunday's Top Flight, contested at the same nine furlongs over which Scalable has now thrived twice in recent form, marks Closing Day of the Aqueduct winter meet. Whether Weigh the Risks or other rivals show up to settle the score remains to be seen, but on current form and with connections this deep in the conditions, Scalable arrives as the horse to beat.