3 Best Bets for the Coaching Club American Oaks

Key Takeaways:

• Sweet Seraphine offers upside at a price, pairing a red-hot Ortiz/DeVaux combo with a versatile running style, a stamina-leaning pedigree, and plenty of room to improve in her two-turn debut.
• Immersive looks ready to take a step forward second off the layoff, with a favorable pace setup and proven Saratoga form, though she'll need to answer the distance question in her first try at 1 ⅛ miles.
• Take Charge Milady brings consistency and pace versatility, coming off a breakthrough win over Immersive and drawing a tactical trip once again, making her a live contender if her form continues to hold.

Sophomore fillies shine Saturday, July 19, in the 2025 Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. The race covers a distance of 1 ⅛ miles on the dirt track and offers a $500,000 purse. Six competitors will vie for those spoils, and though the field is short on size, it is long on class—an exciting mix of well-proven 3-year-olds and later bloomers who are setting up to become a force during the second half of the season.

Immersive, last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and champion juvenile filly, makes her second start of the year in the Coaching Club American Oaks. She will cross paths again with Take Charge Milady, the filly who finally spoiled her undefeated record last out in the Monomoy Girl at Churchill Downs. Multiple Grade 1 winner La Cara and Grade 1 winner Scottish Lassie also line up. Rounding out the field is a pair of lightly-raced up-and-comers, Sweet Seraphine and Dry Powder, both of whom make their graded-stakes debuts in the Coaching Club American Oaks.

The Coaching Club American Oaks is one of the longest-standing traditions of the Saratoga horse racing meet, with a history dating back over a century. Superstars like Top Flight (1932), Shuvee (1969), Regret (1975), Ashado (2004), Songbird (2016), Monomoy Girl (2018), and Thorpedo Anna (2024) are among the winners. One of six horses can join that illustrious list this year—and with none of the runners having an open-and-shut case to win, the race will be an excellent betting race.

Post time for the Coaching Club American Oaks is 5:38 p.m., and it is the 10th of 12 races on Saratoga’s big Saturday card. The card also features two other graded-stakes races, the Caress (G3) for filly and mare turf sprinters and the Alfred G. Vanderbilt (G2) for older dirt sprinters. Racing gets underway at 12:35 p.m. EDT.

These are the best bets for the 2025 Coaching Club American Oaks:

1. Sweet Seraphine (2025 Coaching Club American Oaks odds: 8-1)

Sweet Seraphine has to run the best race of her career to contend in the Coaching Club American Oaks. However, in such a competitive race without one or two horses who loom far ahead of the rest, there are reasons she can. This daughter of Quality Road has only raced three times before and only twice this year, meaning she is lightly enough raced to move forward. She also tries two turns for the first time, though it’s never an easy thing, especially against Grade 1 company; there’s enough in her pedigree to think she could stretch out. Though the female family is more middle distance, sire Quality Road and damsire Bernardini are strong stamina influences.

The longer distance could also get her a bit closer to the early pace. With La Cara and Dry Powder both in the field, the pace could be lively, but with just six in the field, being too far away from the pace may not be the best place. Over the one-turn mile, Sweet Seraphine has been a midpack type, or a little further back after stumbling last out. Still, she has been able to win with either a more reasonable pace in front of her (as she did two back in a maiden versus older) or with a blistering one (last out in the Wilton), meaning she is adaptable.

The connections also appeal strongly. Trainer Cherie DeVaux and jockey Jose Ortiz have both started the Saratoga meet hot, and have been in good form together in recent months. Ortiz rode Sweet Seraphine to her maiden win at Churchill Downs as well, meaning there is some rapport. All in all, she is the most appealing of the new faces.

2. Immersive (2025 Coaching Club American Oaks odds: 8-5)

Though Immersive comes off of the only loss of her career, there are reasons she can move forward. It was her first start since November, and her first since some bone bruising took her off of the Kentucky Oaks trail. Though she didn’t win, it was a good enough start to show the Brad Cox trainee is still interested in racing, and good enough to show that her generation didn’t completely pass her by as they aged from two to three. Trainer Brad Cox’s charges tend to move forward second off the layoff, and Immersive did that herself during her juvenile campaign.

In terms of pace, she has a good chance for the right setup. Though she drew the rail, it’s a small field, and she handled it well in a much bigger field in the Spinaway last year. Most interesting is that, even though she can run right near the lead, she tracked a couple of lengths back and rallied the day she had the rail draw—something she’ll be well suited to do this time as well, with both La Cara and Dry Powder set to show a lot of speed outside.

Though she still has to prove herself at 1 ⅛ miles, she is by Nyquist out of a Bernardini mare who liked a route of ground, meaning she has every reason to take to the trip. And, with two wins at the Spa last summer, she has already shown that she likes the footing in Saratoga Springs.

3. Take Charge Milady (2025 Coaching Club American Oaks odds: 9-2)

Kenny McPeek won this race last year with Thorpedo Anna, and though he doesn’t have a horse this year quite as well proven, he still has a logical contender. Though she has been running in stakes company all year long, even winning the Martha Washington at Oaklawn in January, her real coming-out party happened last out in the Monomoy Girl, when she became the first horse to topple Immersive. Now Immersive comes second off the lay while Take Charge Milady makes the eighth start of the year, meaning Immersive has a bit more upside to move forward.

However, Take Charge Milady still has some reasons why she fits well here. Her pace versatility is a plus—she stalked the pace when she won the Monomoy Girl last out, has also won from as far back as midpack, and even closed to win. With a lot of pace outside, her ability to be tactical is a point in her favor. Her back form suggests she can find even more than she did last out, and McPeek is a trainer who tends to keep running her horses when they’re in good form. And, though Brian Hernandez, Jr. won’t be in the saddle (he’s at Monmouth Park riding Burnham Square in the Haskell Stakes, a valid reason), his new rider, Kendrick Carmouche, has gotten a sharp start at Saratoga this summer and does ride intermittently for McPeek.

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