Alabama 2025
Fillies take center stage this Saturday at Saratoga with the 2025 version of the Alabama Stakes. While this weekend’s top stakes races are in Canada at Woodbine, including the E.P. Taylor Stakes as a Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf qualifier, the biggest prize purse in the States is at the Spa where a six-horse field will run a mile and a quarter over the dirt track.
A lot of notable names have won this G1 race over the years, including Nest (2022), Malathaat (2021), Swiss Skydiver (2020), Songbird (2016), and Stopchargingmaria (2014). One of the following six will take down the $330,000 top prize in Race 10 with a 5:44 p.m. ET post time.
Alabama Stakes 2025 Entries, Horses, Jockeys, and Trainers:
| Post | Horse | Jockey | Trainer | Odds |
| 1 | Margie’s Intention | I. Ortiz Jr. | B. Cox | 8-1 |
| 2 | Good Cheer | L. Saez | B. Cox | 8/5 |
| 3 | Kinzie Queen | J. Alvarado | G. Compton | 15-1 |
| 4 | Nitrogen | J. Ortiz | M. Casse | 9/5 |
| 5 | Queen Azteca | J. Rosario | N. Petersen | 12-1 |
| 6 | La Cara | D. Davis | M. Casse | 5/2 |
Getting a price to the window could be very tough here, as Good Cheer and La Cara square off for the third time and Nitrogen looks to spoil the party. If Nitrogen is something of an unfamiliar name, especially stacking up against Good Cheer and La Cara for the first time, it’s because most of her races have come on turf.
There isn’t a whole lot of variance with the trainers in the field, as Brad Cox and Mark Casse have two entries apiece and Greg Compton and Niels Petersen will have the other two.
Here are some thoughts on each horse at the odds at time of publish:
1. Margie’s Intention (8-1; Ortiz Jr./Cox): The longer of the two shots from the Cox barn is Margie’s Intention, who has three wins and three seconds to show for seven starts. It feels like an eternity ago, but she snagged a huge cash back in May at the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, besting Paris Lily and fellow Alabama Stakes runner Kinzie Queen. The well-bred daughter of Honor A. P. and Playful Dancer is running a mile and a quarter for the first time in what is also her first time against a G1 field.
2. Good Cheer (8/5; Saez/Cox): One of Godolphin’s many prized possessions, Good Cheer has won seven of her eight career starts. The one time she was bested was on a muddy track in the Acorn Stakes on this very course when she finished fifth, well behind winner La Cara. It was Good Cheer’s second straight two-turn run at 1 ⅛ miles coming off of an impressive win in the Kentucky Oaks. Now she’s going to be asked to go an extra quarter, though the turnaround is much longer here.
Good Cheer ran the Acorn five weeks after the Kentucky Oaks and that was her last race. The distance shouldn’t be an issue as the daughter of Medaglia d’Oro and Wedding Toast. Also, the forecast calls for sunshine and what should be a good, fast track.
3. Kinzie Queen (15-1; Alvarado/Compton): One of two non-Cox/Casse entries, Compton is hoping that everything comes together for the biggest score of Kinzie Queen’s career. She has only won twice in 13 career starts, which is the most in the field. Unfortunately, she’s one of several closers in the field and not one of the best ones. She is extremely well-bred and has the potential to take off as a 4-year-old. She filled out the trifecta in the Black-Eyed Susan and Delaware Oaks, but that is her absolute ceiling here.
4. Nitrogen (9/5; J. Ortiz/Casse): The other entry sired by Medaglia d’Oro could end up going head-to-head with some distant family here. Casse’s top entry in the field is priced as the one to duel with Good Cheer, as she comes back to the Spa dirt. Nitrogen dummied the other two runners in the G2 Wonder Again in her dirt debut on June 7 and went back to turf to finish second by mere inches in the Belmont Oaks.
Rider Jose Ortiz won this race three times from 2017-19. His brother, Irad, won in 2022 and 2012, so this one likely gets a mention at the dinner table on holidays. By speed figures and raw talent, he has the best horse in the field here in search of Alabama Stakes win No. 4, but this is the best class Nitrogen has run against and far better than the field in her only dirt data point.
5. Queen Azteca (12-1; Rosario/Petersen): Two-time Alabama Stakes winner Joel Rosario has a mount here on long shot Queen Azteca, who has come stateside to transfer to Rodolphe Brissett’s barn following this race. She actually ran in the U.A.E. Derby against the boys back in April and ran an extremely respectable fifth. Like the rest of the field, she’s untested at this distance. She last raced about a month ago and is coming off of the long trip from Sweden. Maybe she surprises, but the odds are against her.
6. La Cara (5/2; Davis/Casse): It looks as though the handicap here is to ascertain whether or not La Cara, who is pretty much the only speed horse looking to run up front, can sustain her pace over 10 furlongs. Dylan Davis has the most complex ride in the field because he’s sitting on a rocket ship, but can’t see the fuel gauge. The daughter of Street Sense and Cara Caterina has the bloodline for distance. But, she’s also been wildly inconsistent.
In 11 starts, she has five wins, including G1 triumphs in the Acorn and Ashland, while also finishing ninth in the Kentucky Oaks and fifth in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. She’s on a long layoff because she was forced out of the Coaching Club American Oaks last month due to a barn quarantine. She’s going to run out front. But, will she hold off Good Cheer, Nitrogen, or a surprise contender?
Alabama Stakes Predictions
Good Cheer vs. La Cara for the third time and I think Good Cheer gets it here. And she’ll finish ahead of the rest of the field. The sloppy track in the Acorn was not good at all for a closer like her and La Cara never got stuck in the mud like she did. The additional distance for La Cara is scary and Casse has voiced concerns about her getting out of rhythm.
I don’t think Saez lets La Cara run too far away at the outset and her closing style seems more promising than hoping La Cara goes wire-to-wire.
Prediction: 2-6-1-4
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