Belmont Stakes Racing Festival Notes

NYRA PRESS OFFICE —-

Thursday, June 5, 2025

Belmont Stakes Racing Festival Notes

Good Cheer leads strong contingent for Cox at Belmont Stakes Racing Festival
Team effort has helped ‘brighter’ Heart of Honor ahead of G1 Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets
Kay Cup wins stakes debut in Bouwerie
Bank Frenzy earns 100 BSF for Commentator
Train the Trainer earns 82 BSF in Mike Lee score
Trainer Miguel Clement wins first race with Coach Case

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Dual Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox has enjoyed abundant success at the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival in years past, and once again has come well-armed with a talented quintet topped by the undefeated Good Cheer, who takes on Friday’s Grade 1, $500,000 DK Horse Acorn at Saratoga Race Course.

Godolphin’s Kentucky homebred daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, a perfect 7-for-7 lifetime, gave every indication in her breeding that she could be brilliant on the racetrack. Her sire already produced Hall of Fame fillies Rachel Alexandra and Songbird, among others, and her dam Wedding Toast was a dual Grade 1-winner for Godolphin.

Still, Cox knows that the proof lies in the afternoons.

“We liked her in the beginning,” Cox said. “I’m not going to sit here and say we thought she was going to win the Kentucky Oaks – we kind of had to see it along the way.”

The journey began in August at Horseshoe Indianapolis with a statement-making debut from the bay filly, dominating a one-mile maiden by 8 1/4 lengths with German Terraza aboard. Her next start would more than validate the breakout debut, pairing up with Luis Saez for the first time to dazzle in a 17-length trouncing of a 1 1/16-mile allowance at Churchill Downs.

Good Cheer has never parted with Saez since, and the pair have gone on a dizzying ascent to the top of her division with open-length scores in the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra and Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks at the New Orleans oval this year after juvenile wins in the Listed Rags to Riches and Grade 2 Golden Rod at Churchill.

“She’s been a clear winner in all of her races. She’s been pretty dominant in the afternoons, and hopefully with a good trip, we’ll see more of the same tomorrow,” Cox said.

With Godolphin and Cox’s Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Immersive sidelined early this year, Good Cheer not only carried the torch to the Oaks, but took on the role of leading filly in the barn as she entered the prestigious nine-furlong test as the heavy favorite in a loaded field of 13. Despite some early bumping with rivals and a wide trip in both turns, Good Cheer again made easy work of the task at hand and drew clear to a 2 1/4-length triumph, her class rewarded with the customary blanket of lilies for the winning filly.

And class is just the word Cox uses to explain how a filly like Good Cheer continues to put forth exemplary performances.

“Someone asked me one word to describe her, and it’s real easy – it’s ‘class,’” Cox said. “She’s a great mover and she covers a lot of ground – great mind, easy to train, easy to be around. She’s very classy to deal with. There’s a lot of stamina in the pedigree and the further we go, the better she’s going to get.”

One mark of class is the ability to perform away from home, and Good Cheer has already done just that with wins over three surfaces. She has taken to Saratoga’s main track for the past few mornings, and galloped Thursday shortly after the conclusion of the 8:15 renovation break.

“She’s handling herself really well, schooled yesterday, and I think she’s ready to roll,” Cox said. “Her last two works have been really good, and she’s always been a steady work horse. She always does enough and it looks like she’s actually picked it up a little since the Oaks. I’m expecting her to run big. She’s not working any faster, but it looks like it’s easier for her.”

Saez and Good Cheer will look to give Godolphin and Cox more to celebrate as they exit post 2-of-7 [1-2ML] on Friday.

Godolphin and Cox will also team up in tomorrow’s Grade 1, $500,000 Ogden Phipps presented by Ford with multiple graded stakes-winner Tarifa, who seeks her first top-level score after two previous Grade 1 placings.

The Ogden Phipps offers a “Win and You’re In” berth to the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff in November at Del Mar.

Cox said the Ogden Phipps’ Grade 1 status is what led them to race in New York versus the Grade 3 Shawnee at Churchill last weekend.

“She’s a three-time Grade 2-winner and she’s had some luck in New York with winning the Mother Goose,” Cox said, referencing a head victory in the Grade 2 Mother Goose in October at Belmont at the Big A. “We are trying to win a Grade 1 with her.

“She’s knocked on the door in the Cotillion and Beholder Mile,” Cox added of her previous Grade 1 placings. “She’s going to have to get a good trip – she didn’t get away well last time and got shuffled back early in the race. Hopefully with a good, clean trip, she’ll be right there. You don’t win these Grade 1 races with rough trips.”

Tarifa will emerge from post 6 in rein to Saez [9-2ML].

On Saturday, a compact but competitive field of five will assemble for the Grade 1, $1 million Hill ‘n’ Dale Metropolitan Handicap, including the Cox-trained Just a Touch as he takes on multiple Grade 1-winners Fierceness and White Abarrio.

Just a Touch, owned by Qatar Racing, Resolute Racing and Marc Detampel, has won his last two starts by a combined 17 1/2-lengths, taking a last-out nine-furlong optional claimer at Keeneland by seven lengths in a dazzling performance that garnered a 104 Beyer Speed Figure. The win more than backed up a 10 1/2-length allowance score going 1 1/16 miles in March at Fair Grounds that yielded a 102 Beyer.

Cox said an eight-month freshening after a close second in the Listed Iowa Derby in July has allowed the son of Justify to flourish as a 4-year-old.

“He’s a very talented horse and he’s a horse that we always thought could compete at the Grade 1 level,” Cox said. “He ran great in the Blue Grass last year [second] and we probably asked a lot of him in a short period of time from January to May. The Iowa Derby didn’t go as well as we were hoping, but he came back this year and was like, ‘wow.’”

Florent Geroux will ride from post 4 in a race that Cox said could very well go his way.

“I felt like we put a plan together to have two nice races off the layoff and then take a shot at a Grade 1, and here we are,” Cox said. “There’s a reason it’s a short field with two world-class horses in there. We’re here to win it, and I think we can. I don’t know if I’d call it an upset, but he’d have to move forward. If he does, he’ll be right there.”

Cox’s weekend runners are completed by the duo of Patch Adams and Gunmetal for owners CHC Inc. and WinStar Farm in Saturday’s seven-furlong Grade 1, $500,000 Woody Stephens presented by Mohegan Sun. [Both Thoroughbred Daily News and Daily Racing Form reported this morning that the George Weaver-trained Colloquial would scratch from the Woody Stephens.]

“They’re good colts, and I think they need to get good trips and have jocks that are judging the pace well,” Cox said. “I think based off the history of the race and the form, it’s going to be a good pace. We’ll see how the jocks can navigate it.”

Patch Adams, who has gone off favored in each of his five starts, was an eye-catching 10 1/2-length winner at second asking sprinting seven furlongs in November at Churchill, but faltered when stretched out to two turns with fourth-place finishes in a pair of Kentucky Derby prep routes this winter. He returned to sprinting with aplomb last out, earning a 96 Beyer for a 2 1/4-length allowance coup going seven furlongs on May 3 at Churchill.

“He gave us a lot of reason to be pumped up about him since he started his career, and I do think he’s shown that’s what he wants to do [one turn],” Cox said of the Into Mischief chestnut.

Gunmetal also enters off an impressive allowance score, stalking and pouncing to a 3 3/4-length win on April 8 sprinting six furlongs at Keeneland. The son of Gun Runner won his six-furlong debut in December at Fair Grounds ahead of a third-place finish in the Listed Swale in February at Gulfstream.

“He’s very good as well. We’ve marked this spot since the Keeneland allowance, where he was very impressive,” Cox said.

***

Team effort has helped ‘brighter’ Heart of Honor ahead of G1 Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets

Jim And Claire Limited’s UK-based hope for the Grade 1, $2 million Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets, Heart of Honor, continued his preparation for Saturday with a steady 1 1/4-mile canter around the Saratoga Race Course dirt oval Thursday at 8:55 a.m. The son of Santa Anita Derby winner Honor A. P. and Chilean Group 1-winning Scat Daddy mare Ruby Love then went to the starting gate to school.

Trainer Jamie Osborne, who arrived on Wednesday afternoon with wife Katie and daughter Saffie, was pleased with the horse’s progress since a third in the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes less than three weeks prior, a race in which the dark bay colt acted up badly in the gate and broke last.

“Nothing serious today, just a slightly faster canter than he’s been doing—in English terms, ‘no, not a lot,’ and similar to what he did in Dubai,” Osborne reported. “He was very good and as calm as I’ve seen him in the gates. It was sort of in line with what I saw with him before the UAE Derby, where we were quite intensive with him going into the race. Just standing him in the gate and getting him to relax. The key to him jumping quicker is for him to be relaxed in there. He knows how to jump, but with him, he just needs a better state of mind, so that has obviously been the focus. We haven’t bounced him out, it’s just about trying to keep him relaxed.”

Principal owners Jim and Claire Bryce were on hand. The aforementioned Saffie Osborne, who will ride him once again in the race, was aboard for the morning canter. Saffie Osborne is fresh off a solid week back home riding in the UK, topped by a win on Scenic in the Group 3 Bronte Cup on May 31 over York Racecourse’s relatively flat, left-handed layout.

“He felt good this morning,” Saffie confirmed. “The track felt deeper than Pimlico, but he was fine over it. He’s his normal cheeky self today in the box.”

Jamie, himself a former multiple Group 1-winning jockey, praised the horse’s progress since the Preakness, with noted credit to his traveling assistant Jimmy McCarthy, who has looked after him daily and ridden him out on remaining mornings. McCarthy also looked after the horse during his UAE tenure in which he won a mile allowance race and finished a narrow second in all three legs of the UAE Triple Crown: the Group 3 UAE 2000 Guineas, Listed Al Bastakiya and Group 2 UAE Derby.

“I’m only able to do this, just like in Dubai, because I have Jimmy,” Jamie Osborne said. “We’ve worked together since we were in our early twenties, when we were both riding out for the same stable and obviously since I’ve been training. He would be a magnificent trainer himself, as long as he didn’t have to speak to anyone. Just leave him with the horses. I’ve got the utmost confidence in his ability to make the right decisions and having not seen the horse since Baltimore, I could not have been happier with what I saw this morning. Obviously, I’ve seen footage of him over the last few weeks, but to see him in the flesh is always different. I think he looks great. I think he looks brighter than he did going into the Preakness. But that’s not a massive surprise, considering the amount of travel he had to do before then.”

***

Kay Cup wins stakes debut in Bouwerie

NY Final Furlong Racing Stable, Electric City Racing and Sportsmen Stable’s Kay Cup made her stakes debut a winning one, stalking and pouncing to a three-length victory in Wednesday’s Bouwerie, a seven-furlong sprint for New York-bred sophomore fillies, during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course.

Trained by Jorge Abreu, the Instagrand dark bay improved her record to 2-for-3 in her victory over Charlotte’s Heart, piloted by Irad Ortiz, Jr. in all three starts. The final time of 1:23.79 over the fast dirt returned a career-best 84 Beyer Speed Figure, one tick higher than her second-out graduation sprinting 6 1/2 furlongs on April 27 at Aqueduct Racetrack.

“So far, so good. She came out of it in great shape. It’s very rewarding,” said Abreu. “I told Dan [Zanatta, Managing Partner of NY Final Furlong] when Venti Valentine retired that she’ll take Venti’s spot. We’ve liked her since Day One.”

Bred by Caperlane Farm, Kay Cup, a $100,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Preferred New York-bred Yearling Sale purchase out of the winning Lemon Drop Kid mare Gypsy Jo, finished a troubled third on debut here last summer.

“She ran third with Irad without the best of trips and came out of it with a little chip. We cleaned her up and gave her the time, and now she’s back 2-for-2,” Abreu said. “She trains like a horse that wants to do it, which is a plus.”

Abreu said he looks to keep Kay Cup in the New York-bred stakes program.

“We’ll try for any New York-bred stake that we can either here or at Finger Lakes,” said Abreu. “This filly has a good future I think. I’m going to try to keep her with New York-breds for now, and maybe try open company in the winter.”

Abreu updated on Grade 1-placed Jody’s Pride before her start in Friday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Bed o’ Roses, a seven-furlong sprint for older fillies and mares, in Race 6. The 4-year-old American Pharoah dark bay captured the one-mile Grade 2 Ruffian last out on May 10 at Belmont at the Big A.

Jody’s Pride breezed five furlongs in company with Scottish Lassie in 58.16 seconds on May 25 over the Spa main track. Irad Ortiz, Jr. hops aboard for the Bed o’ Roses, where Jody’s Pride exits post 4, tabbed at 9/2 morning line odds in the field of seven.

“It’s a short field, and she’s training very well,” Abreu said. “It’s been three and a half weeks from her last race, which was a hard race, but she’s training great and we have a great rider. She had a pretty fast breeze in 58, and she did it easy.”

Later on Friday’s 14-race program, Abreu sends Grade 1-winner Scottish Lassie for the Grade 1, $500,000 DK Horse Acorn, a nine-furlong route for sophomore fillies, in Race 11.

The McKinzie dark bay, whose one win in four career starts came by nine lengths in the Grade 1 Frizette in October at Belmont at the Big A, looks to get back in the win column following a one-mile optional claiming third over that same oval on May 1 when making her seasonal debut.

Scottish Lassie’s aforementioned breeze with Jody’s Pride was her second work since her last effort, covering the same distance in 1:04 flat over the Oklahoma one week earlier.

“She breezed well,” said Abreu, who co-owns with Sportsmen Stable, Parkland Thoroughbreds, Photos Finish and Corms Racing Stable. “It’s just more that her gallop out is very good. Jody was pretty demanding in the breeze. I feel comfortable with the two breezes and the race that she had.”

Ortiz, Jr. rides from the inside post, tabbed at morning line odds of 12-1.

***

Bank Frenzy earns 100 BSF for Commentator

On Wednesday’s card jam-packed with talented New York-breds, LSU Stables’ Bank Frenzy earned the highest Beyer Speed Figure with a career-best 100 for his 1 1/4-length victory in the Commentator, a nine-furlong route for state-bred 3-year-olds and up, during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course.

Trained by Rudy Rodriguez, the 5-year-old Central Banker gelding stalked the speedy Mama’s Gold through splits of 23.79 seconds, 47.84 and 1:11.53 on the fast dirt, before pouncing nearing the quarter-pole and repelling the pacesetter who battled back to his inside, earning his fifth stakes score in a final time of 1:50 flat.

“Seems like he came out pretty good,” said Rodriguez. “We put him in the round pen for thirty minutes and he was very happy and laid down and ran back and forth. He came back very good.”

Mama’s Gold earned a 98 Beyer for his runner-up effort. Other New York Showcase Day Beyers earned in Wednesday stakes include Bernietakescharge [97, Critical Eye], Clear Conscience [91, Kingston], Spinning Colors [85, Mount Vernon], Kay Cup [84, Bouwerie], and Train the Trainer [82, Mike Lee].

Rodriguez was pleased with Bank Frenzy’s gritty effort under regular pilot Manny Franco, who has engineered scores in the Alex M. Robb, Haynesfield and open-company Listed Stymie this winter and spring at Aqueduct Racetrack. The chestnut also captured the Evan Shipman Handicap last summer under Flavien Prat at the Spa.

“He ran one of his best races. The horse on the lead was very solid too. When you’re chasing a speed horse it makes it very difficult for a horse that is closing, but he is a very nice horse, and he loves to win. He loves to take pictures,” Rodriguez said. “When they got down to the end, he gave whatever he had to give to get it done. Yesterday, he looked like he was getting tired, but he found a way to prevail.”

Rodriguez said Bank Frenzy’s next race is undecided at this stage, but a future return to graded company is not out of the question. He finished fourth in the Grade 3 Westchester at Belmont at the Big A before his Commentator victory.

“I am going to let the owners decide, and then we will take it from there. It is tough, I would like to keep him in the same level because the older horses in the division are very salty right now. Very, very tough,” Rodriguez explained. “He is a gelding, he has to prove nothing. We just have to keep him sound and maybe in the winter we can try a graded stake? Maybe a Grade 3 but right now the division for the older horses is as tough as you’re going to see for the last 10 years.”

Bred by Chester and Mary Broman, Bank Frenzy, out of the Tiznow mare Storm Now, holds a career record of 18-9-5-0 with $695,920 in earnings.

***

Train the Trainer earns 82 BSF in Mike Lee score

Alipony Racing and Saints or Sinners’ Train the Trainer made his stakes debut a winning one, drawing away to a pacesetting 2 3/4-length score in Wednesday’s $200,000 Mike Lee on Opening Day of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, at Saratoga Race Course.

The seven-furlong sprint for sophomores was one of six stakes for state-breds on a lucrative New York Showcase Day card.

The Dialed In gelding made his first start for trainer Mark Glatt in April at Santa Anita Park, finishing a prominent second to next-out optional-claiming winner Goal Oriented, who was recently fourth in the Grade 1 Preakness.

Train the Trainer subsequently shipped to New York and transferred to trainer Rob Atras, romping on the front end by five-lengths in a 6 1/2-furlong optional-claiming sprint against elders over a muddy and sealed strip at Belmont at the Big A.

With returning rider Irad Ortiz, Jr. up on Wednesday, Train the Trainer exited post 5 in a field of six following the key scratch of graded stakes-winner Mo Plex and set splits of 23.09 seconds, 46.30 and 1:10.78 over the fast main track en route to a comfortable score in a final time of 1:23.92. The winning try registered an 82 Beyer Speed Figure after matching up 84s in his first two efforts.

“We liked the horse, but obviously coming to a maiden race to a stakes against seasoned horses with ability, you never know until you try,” Atras said. “We were considering going in a ‘1X’ but after we drew well and he came up here and settled in well, we decided to take shot. I’m glad we did.

“Hopefully, he’s going to keep getting better,” Atras added. “We got a little bit lucky that Mo Plex had to scratch, but he fit with that group for sure and I think he enjoyed that yesterday.”

Atras indicated Train the Trainer, bred in the Empire State by Hibiscus Stables, exited the effort in good order.

“He was tired. He ran hard yesterday, but he came out of the race good. He’ll go back to Belmont today,” Atras said.

And as for the gelding’s unique moniker?

“I’ve learned you just have to stay out of his way and let him do his thing. He’s very appropriately named,” said Atras, with a laugh.

Red White and Blue Racing and CMNWLTH’s multiple graded stakes-winner Neat is in good order after being taken up by Hall of Fame jockey Joel Rosario last out in the Grade 3 Dinner Party on May 17 at Pimlico Race Course.

“He got bounced around a little bit and Rosario said he felt he made a little bit of noise, so he pulled him up,” Atras said. “Physically, he came out of the race good. He’s just had a lot of bad luck this year. Last year, he was able to overcome a lot of troubled trips and this year he’s had a little trouble, and things went sideways for him.”

The 4-year-old Constitution colt has banked $920,630 via a 14-6-0-1 record led by wins last year in the Grade 3 Transylvania at Keeneland, the Grade 3 Manila at Belmont at the Big A and a rallying neck score here in the Grade 2 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

Atras indicated that Neat is in training at Belmont and they are considering options in Kentucky for the chestnut colt’s next start.

Twin Creeks Racing Stables and CMNWLTH’s multiple stakes-winner Chasing Liberty finished a game second as the mutuel favorite last out in the off-the-turf $150,000 Caesars Handicap at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

The Constitution sophomore was elevated to victory in the Listed Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint in September and added additional stakes wins in the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance in November at Del Mar and the Bob Bork Texas Turf Mile in January at Sam Houston.

Atras said he wasn’t disappointed with the runner-up effort last out which was a main-track debut for the chestnut colt.

“We knew it was going to come off the grass but for $150,000, we thought we’d take a shot. He ran a good race,” Atras said. “I know numbers are just numbers, but he always breezed well on the dirt, and we had talked about if a race come off, we wouldn’t be scared to try him on the dirt.”

Atras said Chasing Liberty could come under consideration for the Grade 3 Penn Mile, which was rescheduled from May 30 to June 20 due to wet weather.

“We might look at the Penn Mile now that it’s been rescheduled. We’re monitoring races and trying to find the best spot for him,” Atras said.

***

Trainer Miguel Clement wins first race with Coach Case

Trainer Miguel Clement celebrated a bittersweet milestone Wednesday at Saratoga Race Course as Coach Case graduated and provided the stable with its first victory since the passing of the well-respected veteran conditioner Christophe Clement in late May.

Miguel, who has spent most of his life working alongside his father and preparing to one day start a stable of his own, was forced into that role much sooner than he or his family anticipated. Clement recently took over as the head of one of the East Coast’s largest racing operations following Christophe’s untimely passing from metastatic uveal melanoma.

Mirroring his father’s stoic approach to all of life’s challenges – personally or professionally – Miguel never missed one morning at their Saratoga barn in the immediate days following his father’s passing, tending to large strings of promising young horses that Christophe had begun mapping out a path for months earlier.

One of those burgeoning talents was Head of Plains Partners’ sophomore Coach Case, who made one start for Christophe when second in an April 25 maiden at Aqueduct Racetrack. The colt showed great tenacity in the stretch run of Race 10 on Wednesday to repel the challenge from Sir Oscar by a neck, resilient as the family that trains and cares for him.

“It’s been a long week. He would have been very proud,” Miguel said after the race. “I’m very thankful to all the owners and the whole team. We just want to keep going forward one day at a time, personally, and the stable has my back. They’re doing a brilliant job. It’s great to get the monkey right off the back on opening day here.”

Miguel was quick to credit his dozens of team members in what he and his father often referred to as the “Clement Tribe,” who provide support far beyond the typical work of a racing stable.

“The stable has been terrific and stepped up. It’s been a very tough week for the family, entire stable and the CC tribe,” Miguel said. “Dad would have wanted it no other way. It’s very rewarding, to be honest. Your team means the world. Professionally and personally, they’re your backbone. Now I’m just the face of it. We are fortunate to have a great team and the horses have been running well.”

The win was made even more meaningful as it was engineered by jockey Dylan Davis, who celebrated many of his own personal career milestones with Clement-trained horses.

Davis, who rode for Christophe in the earliest days of his riding career, said the trainer’s impact on his life cannot be overstated.

“You couldn’t write it up better than that,” an emotional Davis said. “Christophe was a big supporter of mine, gave me my first two Grade 1s. He really believed in me at the beginning of my career. I learned a lot from him. He put a lot of time into me and gave me a lot of opportunities. We grew together and he made me a better rider. I’m just really, really happy to be able to continue the tradition and give Miguel his first win.”

With their first win placing smiles on faces in the barn once again, the Clement stable now hopes to continue moving forward with Miguel at the forefront and Christophe forever their patriarch.

“Miguel is great. He’s from a great family. It’s hard to see them go through that but we’re going to keep it going,” Davis said. “The CC tribe is alive and strong and in great hands.”

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