SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY — As he watched a set of horses exit his barn on the Saratoga backstretch, Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse got to thinking.“How lucky was I to have Nitrogen be champion 3-year-old filly last year?” Casse said. “Would it be impossible to think we could have it two years in a row?”Not impossible. Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro) could very well be joined by Counting Stars (Honor A.P) as back-to-back 3-year-old Eclipse Award champs.For Counting Stars to get the prize, she still has some work to do. The filly, owned by West Point Thoroughbreds, is part of a solid edition of the $500,000 GI Coaching Club American Oaks on Saturday.Counting Stars is coming off a solid victory in the GI Acorn Stakes at Saratoga on June 5. Finishing second in that race was the Chad Brown-trained 'TDN Rising Star' presented by Hagyard Always a Runner (Gun Runner). Always a Runner won the GI Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs with Counting Stars checking in third.“This is a big weekend,” Casse said. “I would say that, right now, Chad's filly and the Oaks carries big weight. If the (Eclipse) voting was done today, she would probably be champion. This is becoming a little rivalry and Saturday will establish the leader, I think.”Counting Stars will be making her sixth start of the year in the CCA Oaks. She has two wins, a second and a third in her first five starts.Always a Runner has three wins in four starts, all of them this year.Irad Ortiz, Jr., who rode Counting Stars in her first career start and also in the Acorn, will hop back aboard in the CCA Oaks.“That is a good question,” Casse said when asked what makes Counting Stars what she is. “She is a big filly, a great-moving horse and does things so effortlessly. She has a great mind as well.”Travers Probably Not Part of Plan for Chief Wallabee, No Matter Curlin OutcomeWhat we know is this: Chief Wallabee (Constitution) will run in Wednesday's $150,000 Curlin Stakes, a 1 1/8-mile race which is restricted to 3-year-olds that have not won a graded stakes race.This much is also true. Win, lose or draw, the 'TDN Rising Star' presented by Hagyard will likely not be advancing to the $1.25- million GI Travers Stakes on Aug. 29. Bill Mott, the Chief's Hall of Fame trainer, does not think his horse is a 1 1/4-mile horse.“It looks like he gets the nine furlongs pretty well, but the 10 has not been the best for him,” Mott said outside his barn at the Oklahoma Training Track. “It's not my preference to go 1 1/4 miles.”Chief Wallabee | Sarah AndrewAfter the Curlin, Mott will search for another spot for Chief Wallabee. Unless he has a dramatic change of heart, it won't be in the Midsummer Derby.Owned and bred by Michael and Katherine Ball, Chief Wallabee has a win, a second and a third in five career starts. There is no question he has talent.Mott got him started on Jan. 10 and he won, earning 'Rising Star' honors. The 1 1/2-length victory gave Mott enough confidence to try the colt in a pair of big races at Gulfstream Park: the GII Coolmore Fountain of Youth Stakes (second) and GI Curlin Florida Derby (third).He earned a trip to the GI Kentucky Derby and was a respectable fourth and then tried the GI Belmont Stakes and that produced a similar effort. The Derby and Belmont were both, of course, run at 10 furlongs. He did give a brief thrill in the Belmont when he took the lead in the stretch, but the distance got him.“He has done pretty well, considering we threw him to the wolves right away,” Mott said. “Immediately. And he survived. That is unusual. Usually, those horses will fall apart pretty good.”Catalano Hoping Built Remembers His BirthdayIt was happy birthday to Wayne Catalano Friday. The veteran trainer turned 70 and he was planning a little celebration in the Spa City Friday night.He hopes the biggest present for his milestone cake day comes from his 4-year-old colt Built (Hard Spun), the 8-5 morning-line favorite in Saturday's GII, $400,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt.“We came here to celebrate my birthday,” Catalano, who is based in Kentucky, said at the Oklahoma Training Track Friday morning.And, hopefully to celebrate a victory by Built in the six-furlong Vanderbilt. He is the only horse that Catalano, who won 1,792 races as a jockey in a career that ended in 1983, has on the grounds.Catalano and Built are here because, right now, the colt is doing as well as the trainer could have expected, He has won two of five starts this year and has a second and a third.When it became clear that the top two finishers from the GIII True North Stakes at Saratoga last month–Book'em Danno (Bucchero) and Bentornato (Valiant Minister)–were not coming to the Vanderbilt, it made Catalano's decision to come a lot easier.Book'em Danno, who won the Vanderbilt last year, just won the Jersey Shore Stakes at Monmouth and Bentornato is out for the year with a sesamoid injury.“This looks like a good spot,” Catalano said. “We were undecided what we were going to do and when a couple of the horses came out, maybe we should take a chance.”The Vanderbilt field, originally eight, is now at six after it was announced that trainer Greg Sacco said he would scratch Just Beat the Odds (Munnings) and Crazy Mason (Coal Front).In his last start, the GIII Bango Stakes at Churchill Downs over a sloppy track, Built finished second despite an awkward beginning.“He probably should have won,” Catalano said. “He stumbled leaving the gate and just got beat (by a half-length). But the horse that won (Harrodsburg (Constitution)) is a nice horse.”Catalano had Built on the 2025 Kentucky Derby trail and had some confidence early when the colt won the Gun Runner Stakes at Fair Grounds on Dec. 21, 2024. The dream still stood after he missed by just a neck to Disco Time (Not This Time) in Fair Grounds's GIII Lecomte Stakes.Two more failed efforts in New Orleans followed (distant third in GII Risen Star Stakes and fifth in GII Louisiana Derby) ended any hope for the Kentucky Derby.Now the hope is for a Vanderbilt birthday present for the trainer.“When they are doing good, that's when you run them,” Catalano said. “And he's doing good.” The post Saratoga Notebook, Presented By NYRA Bets: Casse Counting His Blessings With Counting Stars appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.