The Beldame (Grade 1)- $400.000 Purse
BEL- For Fillies and Mares Three Years Old and Upward
One Mile and One Eighth on the Dirt
October 1, 2016

This Saturday features plenty of good racing all across the country as time is running out to get horses qualified for the BC, which is amazingly only about a month away now.  The scene at BEL will feature three Grade 1’s, and I’ll be taking you through two of them.  First off, we’ll look at the Beldame, a race for fillies and mares that will lead to the BC Distaff for the race winner.   It is the 14th running of the race, and there have been some legendary winners of this race, most notably the great Darling Harbour.   You can never grow tired of mentioning her in the SRF at any opportunity as her remarkable career saw her win 24 of 47 races, and win over $6,000.000.  Those are numbers that we will never see on here again from a filly, as no one is going to keep a female around for that many races and chance to get 24 wins, without moving her on to the breeding game.  You can look at Chili King in this field and then realize, she’s not even halfway there.  We have seven going to gate for this one, and about half of them are trained by Mb Stables, who is looking for his third straight win in the race. There is a very strong chance of rain on Saturday.  Here is our field, enjoy the race!

#1- Chili King (Sanny Village, ridden by J R Velazquez)-   Seems like she should be racing for someone else, but back in very early 2013, Sanny Village picked up the namesake of Chili King Stables from that trainer for $100.000.  Good price then, but Sanny’s been able to buy a lot of chili with the over $2,000.000 in career earnings that she has had, most of which came after the sale.    She has been very lightly raced this year, making just three starts, but returned from her six month layoff by winning the Grade 1 DEL Handicap in July.  Raced in the Beldame last year, and with another length, we’d be talking about her chances to repeat.  Her last race looks like such an outlier on her past performances that I am going to throw it out.  She’s run well on off tracks.

#2- Proud Bird (Mb Stables, ridden by J R Leparoux)- This three year old is coming off a tough race in the Grade 1 Alabama, but prior to that she had done everything right.  Overall, she has won five of eight races, and two of them are graded events, with the highlight being the Grade 2 IND Oaks in July.  She made an impression on me that day, and I knew more was going to be coming for her.  Though really, since then, she hasn’t done much else.  That can change here.  Being a late bloomer kept her from getting into the KYO, though the trainer made a late push to get her in.  If it rains, she’s never been on an off track, and her recent work does concern me.

#3- Charming Face (Mb Stables, ridden by I Ortiz Jr)- Ran in the Cotillion last year, and did not fare well, leading Mb Stables to have her sit out for a few months to regain the promising form that she had shown leading into the race.  In 2016, she has won two of five, and they were back to back graded wins over the spring: The G3 Top Flight and the G2 Ruffian.  Each of those wins were against small fields.   Don’t get misled by her supposedly running in an open allowance in her last start.  That was no open allowance.  That was a graded stake just with no official classification of such.

#4- Asclepios Trail (Bigking, ridden by R Bejarano)- Bejarano comes east instead of hanging around at a great day at SA as well, and one of his mounts here will be the reigning winner of the Grade 1 Ballerina at beautiful Saratoga.   That was, by far, the best race of her career, so here comes our chance to see if she can build off that and make it two in a row against the greats of the game again.   She’s won four of eight, and two of them have been on off tracks.  Those results, though, are inconsistent with one another as one is a win (at a lower track), and the other is more of a flat performance.  She hasn’t always raced this distance, either.

#5- Nice High Five (Alegria, ridden by K J Desormeaux)- Good to see Alegria back, and clearly he sees something in this filly that he purchased for $60.000 about three weeks ago and hasn’t raced yet.  She has just five starts in her career, with just one win, coming in June as a maiden at the illustrious BTP race track.  Her last race saw her take her ability to SAR for an N1X allowance, and she just missed.  Prior to that, she participated in the $75.000 NY Oaks at FL, and rounded out the trifecta. Off of that, here we are.   The trainer is feeling it, and if you are too, bet on her as she will be a long shot.  I want to see it on race day first.

#6- Google Maps (Aml Racing, ridden by G L Stevens)- This filly has had a fantastic career, but if anyone was beginning to think that maybe she was reaching her destination, Google Maps proved in her last start that she has plenty of miles still to travel on the road to success.  That last start was the Grade 1 Hirsch Stakes out at DMR where she beat a strong field that included the likes of Hydro.   It’s one of two graded events she has won this year, and overall in her career she has eight wins in 18 starts, which is a pretty strong clip.   If it rains, her lone start on an off track isn’t one of the best lines on her past performances, but its not necessarily awful, either.

#7- Memorandum (Mb Stables, ridden by R J Albarado)– Like Google Maps, Memorandum has won 8 of her 18 career starts, although she has won more then $1,000.000 less then her rival has.  She had shown potential as a younger horse, but didn’t really seem to put it together consistently until late last year.  Memorandum had a three race winning streak earlier this year which was snapped at the beginning of the month when the trainer tried her on the turf.  Off track races, when looking at the races that have had at least 5 horses, do raise some concern about her and rain.

Prediction: 6-4-1-2

— NS

Categories: Grade I, STAKES ARTICLES