Roja redlines to victory in Saratoga’s Intercontinental (G2)
Roja officially announced herself as one of the nation’s premier female turf sprinters Thursday at Saratoga, delivering a dazzling front-running performance to capture the $250,000 Intercontinental Stakes (G2) during the prestigious Belmont Stakes Racing Festival.
Breaking like a rocket from the far outside post, Roja and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. immediately hit the front with her trademark gate speed. From there, the striking dark bay filly simply ran her rivals off their feet.
The 4-year-old daughter of Karakontie (Jpn) carved out blistering fractions of :21.35 for the opening quarter-mile and :43.13 for the half while cruising with complete authority throughout the 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint. Roja was never headed and remained clear to the wire, stopped the timer in a blitzing 1:00.44 over the firm Saratoga turf course — just .64 seconds shy of Cogburn’s course record.
Trained by Graham Motion, the breakthrough effort earned Roja a career-best 101 Beyer Speed Figure while giving #EclipseFillies their sixth graded stakes victory already in 2026.
“I’ll tell you, I had quite a bit of confidence in this filly,” Motion said. “I felt they probably wouldn’t get to her. I was feeling pretty good when they turned for home. Irad just loves this filly. He was so high on her after she won at Churchill. She’s so quick.”
Ortiz confirmed his affinity for the filly. “She broke like a shot… After that, I just tried to get her to relax, to have something at the end. She still quickened. She’s like a quarter horse she’s so quick.”
The performance also firmly establishes Roja as a major player moving forward in the female turf sprint division in North America.
Campaigned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners in partnership with Madaket Stables, Roja has now won four of seven career starts while pushing her earnings to $326,027.
Unbeaten in two starts this season, the Intercontinental marked Roja’s first graded stakes victory and second stakes triumph overall following her front-running allowance score at Churchill Downs last month during Kentucky Derby week.
Purchased for a savvy $70,000 at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton July Yearling Sale, Roja’s emergence now looks like one of the baby blue and black’s latest major success stories and ascending stars.