Turf specialists will be in focus at Belmont Park Saturday in a pair of Grade
3 events at 1 1/16 miles, the Beaugay for distaffers and the Fort Marcy.
The Beaugay, won in 2012 by Winter Memories, is likely to attract Peace
Preserver, third in her 2013 debut at Gulfstream Park; Naples Bay, who closed
out her four-year-old campaign with a second-place finish in the My Charmer at
Calder; multiple stakes winner Hessonite, 4-2-0 from eight starts in
2012; Dinner’s Out, seeking her first North American victory after five starts;
the Irish-bred Dream Peace, who had a pair of thirds and a second in three Grade
1 starts in North America last year, and Dealbata, who won the Mohegan Sky
overnight stakes at Belmont last year in her North American debut. Ruthenia and Suroof are
possible.
Contenders for the Beaugay took to the track on Sunday to turn in their final
breezes for next Saturday’s race.
Alto Racing’s Peace Preserver covered a half-mile in :48 3/5 on the fast main
track. The Todd Pletcher trainee has won two of her three starts on the Belmont turf, including
the 2012 Pebbles.
“She breezed well, and finished up full of run,” assistant trainer
Michael McCarthy said.
Trainer David Donk sent out Hessonite to a breeze on the fast training track, with
Chad Brown representatives Dealbata and Dream Peace working on the
firm inner turf
course.
The Beaugay will serve as the five-year-old debut for Hessonite, who breezed four
furlongs in :48 4/5. The seven-time stakes winner is unraced since
October, when she captured Belmont’s Ticonderoga a second straight year. She is
seeking her first graded stakes score.
“I tried to run her a couple of weeks ago in the overnight stakes (on April 13)
that didn’t fill,” said Donk, who trains the New York-bred daughter of Freud for
William J. Punk Jr. and Philip diLeo.
“She’s been ready to go. We need to run
somewhere. She’s had a lot of three-quarter works. I’m just trying to back her
up today and keep her fresh, happy, and ready to go. She’s doing really well,
and I’m looking forward to getting her started and seeing how aggressive we can
be during the summer.”
Hessonite has already won nine of 18 starts and earned $713,310, but Donk hopes
the best is yet to come.
“I think we saw it (when she finished fifth) in the Flower Bowl, and she
didn’t get the cleanest trip,” Donk said. “I’m using this, maybe, as a springboard to
the Sheepshead Bay (at 1 3/8 miles on May 25). I’m looking forward
to stretching her out. I can always fall back into the (Mount Vernon
for New York-bred fillies and mares on June 1).
“I don’t need to win on Saturday — I just need to get her started and have her run a good race and do it the
right way.
“From here on, whether it’s the races in New York or the Beverly D. or the races
in the fall, she hasn’t won a graded stakes yet, so that’s the first goal. Can
we expand upon that? I think it’s possible. It’s still my job to get her perform
at her best, so I’m still going to have butterflies, but at the same time you
don’t get many like these, especially in an operation like mine. She was a
$27,000 yearling, and I don’t want to say she’s a diamond in the rough, but they
don’t come around every day.”
Junior Alvarado will replace injured jockey Ramon Dominguez aboard Hessonite in
the Beaugay.
Dream Peace and Dealbata went in company, covering five furlongs in an
identical 1:00 2/5.
A Group 2 winner in France, Etreham Farm’s Dream Peace hasn’t competed since
finishing third in the E.P. Taylor in October at Woodbine. Dealbata, who
has won stakes in France and the United States, was ninth in the Endeavour on February 2 at Tampa Bay Downs for owner Martin Schwartz in her most
recent start.
“As of right now, I’m not sure which one Chad is going to run (in the Beaugay),”
assistant trainer Cherie DeVaux said. “It will depend on how they come out of
their works.”
Also on the worktab for Brown were Grade 1 winner Dayatthespa and Street
Secret, who won a Gulfstream Park optional claimer on March 23 in her North
American debut. The two breezed five furlongs on the turf in 1:00.
Real Solution, who was sent to Brown earlier this year after beginning his
career in Italy, is set to make his first stateside start in the Fort Marcy. Last year, Brown sent out
Desert Blanc to a second-place finish in the Fort Marcy in the colt’s U.S. bow,
with the import later winning the Manhattan Handicap.
On Sunday, Real Solution, a Ken and Sarah Ramsey homebred, breezed four furlongs
on the training track in: 49.
“He’s been working up a storm,” DeVaux said. “He’s really been doing well. We
did the same thing with Desert Blanc, and it worked out very well for us.”
Another Fort Marcy candidate, Abilio, will be making his graded debut, and it promises to be a thoroughly New York affair. Bred in New York by owner Michael Marceda, the
six-year-old gelding is trained by Tom Albertrani, a classmate of
Marceda’s at Valley Stream Central High School.
A son of Pioneering, Abilio joined Albertrani’s barn last fall after beginning
his career with Linda Rice. The gelding has made four starts for Albertrani,
with his best finish a second in the If Winter Comes overnight stakes on
November 17 at Aqueduct. His two most recent starts — a fourth in the Dave
overnight stakes at the Big A on April 14 and a sixth in third level optional
claimer at Gulfstream in February — have come over good or yielding turf.
“I think the turf was good to yielding (at Gulfstream), but it was probably a
little softer than they listed it as and I don’t think his best races have been
on soft or yielding ground,” said Albertrani.
“I think he really runs better
over a firm turf course. He looks like he could be competitive in this race.
He’d have to run his ‘A’ game to win it, but we don’t have a whole lot of
alternatives, so we’re going to give him a chance in here and see how he runs
over maybe a firmer course. He looks like he kind of fits in here, but he
definitely has to step up a little bit.”
More than a half-dozen turf specialists are pointing toward Fort Marcy, won
last year by the Phipps Stable’s Boisterous.
Probable, according to NYRA Stakes Coordinator Andrew Byrnes, are Irish Group
3-winning highweight Speaking of Which, a badly-hampered 14th in the Hollywood
Derby when last seen; Beau Choix and King Kreesa,
second and third, respectively, in the recent Appleton at Gulfstream Park; and
Monument Hill and Bombaguia, the top two in an optional claimer on March 30 at
Gulfstream.
Air Support and Quick Casablanca are listed as being under consideration.
Air Support, who breezed a half-mile in :50 1/5 on the fast main track Sunday
at Churchill Downs, is entered in the 9TH race there on Thursday.
Quick Casablanca, the Chilean Horse of the Year for the 2011-12 season,
reeled off four grassy furlongs in :48 3/5 on the inner turf at Belmont ahead of
his U.S. premiere.
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