Belmont: Grade 1’s Just a Game, Acorn Stakes Previews

NYRA —-

Belmont Widener Turf Course; NYRA Photo

Dickinson, Celestine square off in G1 Longines Just a Game

ELMONT, N.Y. – Grade 1 winners Dickinson and Celestine, two of the top older turf mares in training and each riding a three-race win streak, are set to meet for the first time in Saturday’s Grade 1, $700,000 Longines Just a Game at Belmont Park.

The 24th running of the Just a Game at one mile on the Widener turf course for fillies and mares 4 and up is one of 10 stakes, nine graded, on a 13-race program highlighted by the 149th renewal of the Grade 1, $1.5 million Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets.

Saturday marks the conclusion of the three-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival. Other Grade 1 races on the card are the $1.2 million Mohegan Sun Metropolitan Handicap, $1 million Woodford Reserve Manhattan, $750,000 Ogden Phipps featuring champion Songbird, and $700,000 Acorn.

First race post time is 11:35 a.m. Racing will be televised nationally on NBC Sports Network from 3-5 p.m. and on NBC from 5-7 p.m.

As a daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, a multiple Grade 1 winner on dirt and runner-up in the 2002 Belmont and 2002-03 Breeders’ Cup Classic, and out of the 2008 Grade 1 Ashland-winning mare Little Belle, Godolphin Stable homebred Dickinson made her first eight career starts on dirt, winning twice.

The bay mare has won five of her six starts since being moved to the turf last fall by trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, the only exception coming in the Grade 3 Marshua’s River January 14 at Gulfstream Park to open her 5-year-old campaign. She ran fourth, beaten 1 ¼ lengths after having to steady in traffic on the far turn.

Dickinson returned to Gulfstream to win the Grade 3 Suwannee River February 11 and captured the Grade 2 Hillsborough at Tampa Bay Downs before leaving Florida in mid-April.

“We kept thinking she was dirt because Little Belle was dirt,” McLaughlin said. “She’s gotten really good since we switched her to the turf. She could easily be six-for-six. She worked great the other day and she’s ready to go. She’s a nice filly.”

Dickinson became a Grade 1 winner with a gutsy come-from-behind head victory over multiple graded stakes winner Lady Eli in the 1 1/16-mile Jenny Wiley April 15, one of four stakes victories on the Keeneland card for McLaughlin.

“It was great win, a great day for Godolphin and Team McLaughlin. To win a Grade 1 with a filly anytime is great but it was nice because she’s such a well-bred filly for Godolphin out of a Grade 1 winner,” he said. “It’s a tough field again, anytime you have a Grade 1. We’re excited.”

Paco Lopez, aboard for each of her last three wins, will ride Dickinson from post 1 at 121 pounds.

Moyglare Stud Farm’s Celestine nearly set a Widener turf course record winning last year’s Just a Game in 1:31.64, one-hundredth of a second off the mark set by Elusive Quality in 1998, for her previous connections.

The 5-year-old daughter of Scat Daddy sold for $2.55 million at Keeneland’s November 2016 breeding stock sale and this year joined the barn of trainer Christophe Clement, winning the Sand Springs and Grade 2 Honey Fox at Gulfstream Park over the winter.

“She’s been very well going into the Just a Game, which is great. We’ll see what happens,” Clement said. “She’s two-for-two [for us] and she’s top class. It’s great because Moyglare bought her a broodmare prospect, and they did that with Discreet Marq a few years ago.

“They like those kinds of American families with speed and take those back to Europe to breed to Irish sires,” he added. “It’s a long-term thing, which is great for them because they get to bring some new blood into their operation and it’s great for us because we get to train some of these nice fillies as well.”

Jose Ortiz is named to ride Celestine, the 123-pound highweight, from post 5.

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, who raced Celestine last year, will be represented in the Just a Game by another Grade 1 winner in Lakin Armstrong’s Harmonize. The 4-year-old filly, also by Scat Daddy, is winless in four starts – including seconds in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup and Grade 2 Mrs. Revere last fall – since her breakthrough victory in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks last August.

Most recently, Harmonize was last of seven in the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile on the Kentucky Derby undercard May 6. Hall of Famer John Velazquez will ride from post 4 at 121 pounds.

Trainer Chad Brown has a pair of Just a Game entrants in Juddmonte Farms’ Antonoe and Sheep Pond Partners, Newport Stables and Bradley Thoroughbreds’ Roca Rojo. A Group 3 winner in France last year, 4-year-old Antonoe made her North American debut with a 2 ¼-length allowance victory going 1 1/16 miles April 14 at Keeneland.

“We ran her at Keeneland and have waited to run her back to get her freshened up a bit,” Brown said. “Running in an allowance race into a Grade 1 is not my normal move [but] this filly seems like she has exceptional talent. She’s already a group winner in Europe, and her number in that race [at Keeneland] was good and she projects to move forward here. We’re going to give it a shot.”

Roca Rojo is a multiple graded stakes winner having taken the Grade 3 Athenia over Belmont’s inner turf course last fall and the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile May 6 at Churchill Downs in her 5-year-old debut, both over less-than-firm turf. In between, her wide rally down the stretch came up a nose short of Miss Temple City in the Grade 1 Matriarch Dec. 4 at Del Mar.

“She ran a huge race [at Churchill]. She’s not limited to soft ground, by any means,” Brown said. “She ran a terrific race in the Matriarch on firm last year, barely beaten by Miss Temple City, but she really excels on soft. It didn’t surprise me that she got such a great number at Churchill on soft ground.”

Hall of Fame-elect jockey Javier Castellano has the mount on Antonoe from outside post 7 while Florent Geroux is named on Roca Rojo from post 2.

Completing the Just a Game field are Deron Pearson’s multiple graded stakes winner Prize Exhibit, most recently fifth in the Distaff Turf Mile; and Sheep Pond Partners’ Sassy Little Lila, second in the Winter Memories and Grade 1 American Oaks last year and cross-entered in Friday’s Grade 2, $500,000 New York at 1 ¼ miles over Belmont’s inner turf.

Six graded stakes winners vie for supremacy in Saturday’s G1 Acorn

By Brian Bohl —-

– China Horse Club and Clearsky Farms’ Abel Tasman will look to win her second Grade 1 race in as many months, headlining an accomplished field of eight 3-year-old fillies in the Grade 1, $700,000 Acorn at one mile on the Belmont Park main track on Saturday, Belmont Stakes Day.

One of six graded stakes winners in the field, Abel Tasman posted a 92 Beyer Speed Figure for her victory in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks on May 5. In her first start since Hall of Famer Bob Baffert took over as trainer, the Quality Road bay filly rallied from 14th to win by 1 1/4 lengths after Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith moved her six-wide and gained the advantage near the eighth pole.

“We knew she should run well but the way the track was playing that day we were up against it,” said Baffert, who won the Acorn with Midnight Lucky (2013), Contested (2012) and Gabby’s Golden Gal (2009). “We were outside and checked into the first turn and then she was last, so I thought we completely had no chance at all, then she came around and won. The fast pace was in our favor. Our post and the way she went into the first turn wasn’t in our favor. She’s such a quality filly. I think she’s improving; she’s better now than she was then. She’ll have to show a little bit more speed. I don’t know how she’s going to do going the one-turn mile but sometimes a good horse can overcome it.”

Abel Tasman won the Grade 1 Starlet and was the runner-up in the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel and the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks before Baffert was named trainer.

“I’m always the target everywhere I go. We’re used to being the target,” Baffert said. “We’re backing her up a little bit but she’s been training really well. I haven’t seen anything in her training that would make me think differently so I think she’d be very competitive. I think post position will be important for her, too.”

Smith, who won four Acorns in the 1990’s with the latest coming aboard Jersey Girl in 1998, will be the irons from post 3.

Shortleaf Stable’s Benner Island also put in an impressive performance May 5 at Churchill, notching her first graded stakes win by holding off Union Strike by a head in the Grade 2 Eight Belles. She earned a personal-best 89 Speed Figure after outlasting the 14-horse field under jockey Javier Castellano, which was the first win in her 3-year-old campaign.

“It’s a good race and it’s the next step up,” trainer Brad Cox said. “We think she can go a one-turn mile, that shouldn’t be an issue. Hopefully with a good trip, she’ll be very competitive. I’d prefer a good track and it looks like we’re getting good weather, but it looks like a beautiful weekend. She’ll run on whatever. So far in her career, she’s always shown up and given what she’s got.”

With Castellano riding Sweet Loretta, Jose Ortiz will have the mount on Benner Island from post 5.

Castellano will ride one of three Grade 1 winners in the field, as Sweet Loretta was victorious in the Grade 1 Spinaway on September 3 at Saratoga Race Course, helping her secure a spot in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, where she stumbled at the start and finished 11th. The daughter of Tapit, owned by St. Elias Stable, rebounded with a win in the Grade 3 Beaumont on April 9 at Keeneland in her 3-year-old debut.

With four wins in five starts, trainer Todd Pletcher said Sweet Loretta, owned by St. Elias Stable, has been training well at Belmont, including a four-furlong breeze in 49.49 seconds on the training track Friday.

“I think the one-turn mile will be a good fit for her,” Pletcher said. “The Breeders’ Cup was not a true indication of her ability. She was impeded on the first turn and came out of it with a large laceration on her pastern I was pleased with her [victory in] the Beaumont. It showed she had progressed from two to three.”

Sweet Loretta will exit post 7 in her first start on Big Sandy.

Salty arrived at Belmont on Tuesday, shipping in with three other Mark Casse contenders from Kentucky, including expected Belmont Stakes favorite Classic Empire. Salty, who was bumped twice in the Kentucky Oaks, recovered to finish fifth.

In her first start around two turns, Salty, a daughter of Quality Road, went four-wide around the far turn for a 4 ¼-length score in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks at 1 1/16-miles on April 1. Salty will now turn back in distance with Joel Rosario out of the outside post.

“We had a rough trip in the Oaks so I think we’re going to be tough, she’s training well,” Casse said.
Union Strike is the third Grade 1 winner, having won the Del Mar Debutante in her 2-year-old campaign. Trained by Mick Ruis, the Union Rags filly is coming off the two best Speed Figures of her career, including a 90 for her win in the Santa Paula on April 9 at Santa Anita. Jockey Brice Blanc drew the assignment from the rail.

Rounding out the field is Tequilita, winner of the Grade 2 Forward Gal, for trainer Michael Matz from post 6; Nikki My Darling, a Dominic Giglio-trainee who will leave from post 4; and Florida Fabulous, seeking her first stakes win for trainer David Fawkes, breaking from post 2.