SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Though she had won four of her last five starts, including two graded stakes, Idiomatic had yet to tangle with the upper echelon of the older female dirt division. Friday, at sloppy Saratoga, Idiomatic showed she belongs with division leaders Nest and Clairiere, recording a front-running, four-length victory in the Grade 1, $500,000 Personal Ensign Stakes. Secret Oath, the 2022 Kentucky Oaks winner, finished second by a neck over Nest, the 3-5 Personal Ensign favorite. It was 12 lengths back to Malloy, who was followed by Clairiere and Sixtythreecaliber. Idiomatic gave her sire Curlin another Grade 1 winning filly. Nest, the 3-year-old filly champion of 2022, and Clairiere, a three-time Grade 1 winner, are also by Curlin. :: DRF's 2023 Saratoga headquarters: Previews, past performances, picks, recaps, news, and more. Idiomatic, trained by Brad Cox for Juddmonte, was coming off a head victory in the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap, overcoming a bad stumble at the break, nearly unseating jockey Florent Geroux. Friday, there was no mishap out of the gate. Geroux, from the rail, coaxed Idiomatic to the front and she made it easily to the front, running a quarter in 24.53 seconds. She maintained a clear advantage over Malloy through a half-mile in 48.84 and six furlongs in 1:12.81. Approaching the top of the lane, Nest, under Irad Ortiz Jr., began to advance three-wide while Secret Oath, who saved all the ground in fourth under Javier Castellano, was rallying up the rail. But at the three-sixteenths pole, Geroux began to urge his filly and she responded by running away from those two rivals. Secret Oath held off Nest for second. “You could see there was not going to be much pace, I took advantage of it, set some very reasonable fractions and when she just started picking up slowly at the half-mile pole, I thought I was going to be extremely hard to catch at that point,” Geroux said. Idiomatic covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.12 and returned $10 as the third choice. Idiomatic earned a 101 Beyer Speed Figure. Trainer Brad Cox he was confident in Idiomatic’s talent, but acknowledged it was a big accomplishment to beat fillies of the caliber of Nest and Clairiere. “They’re champions, right, they accomplished so much and they’re still in good form,” Cox said. “Very proud of her to win by a few lengths.” Javier Castellano, subbing for Luis Saez aboard Secret Oath, said he got the trip he was looking for, but there was just no one to challenge Idiomatic early. “I want to be close to the pace, be patient, sit and make one run, that’s exactly what I did,” Castellano said. “Give credit to the winner, she went wire-to-wire. I thought somebody was going to put pressure on her but they didn’t. Slow fractions for those type of horses … it’s hard to catch up on a track like that.” :: Get Saratoga Clocker Reports from Mike Welsch and the Clocker Team. Available every race day.  Todd Pletcher, the trainer of Nest, said the sloppy surface may have impacted Nest’s ability to quicken like she normally does. “The one thing that she didn’t seem like she had on this gooey going is that acceleration at the top of the stretch,” Pletcher said. “Usually, she has the ability quicken and on this surface she just couldn’t do that.” Clairiere trailed the field and finished ahead of just one horse. She was beaten 17 /-4 lengths. “I’m hoping it was the racetrack, just never picked it up at all,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “Not a very formful race.” It’s likely that Idiomatic, Secret Oath and Nest all meet again in the Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland on Oct. 8. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.