The BEL Oaks – Grade I
1 1/8 Mile Turf Stake Purse $500.000 Filly 3 Year Olds.

1st Mean Girl D J C Racing Stables Pennington F

A decent early pace set this race up for a closer, but it took a long time for this filly to get past the leader for a head win. This is her third narrow win in a row and is testament to the nature of HRP at the moment. Why? Well, the first of her hat trick of wins came in May when taking an optional claimer for a few dollars at lowly TUP. Then she took the State-Bred stakes race, The Lyphard by a nose beating four rivals, now here she is winning a grade one and in all that time her works have stayed pretty much the same. It just goes to show how persevering can pay off and there is none better than DJC Racing at that. The never say never attitude has put them firmly into the top echelon of trainers here at HRP and this filly is exactly the reason why because plenty of trainers would have been looking for a much lesser race at lower level to keep her winning run going.

2nd Ruths House TwinTowersRacing Hernandez R M

She ran her heart out today running off the front and hitting some decent sectionals before just faltering close home. Her last three defeats on off tracks and now today’s strong effort on a dry track just show how this year’s weather has been skewing all the form lines.

3rd Blakeney Royalty Stables Velazquez J R

Stalked the lead but it is rare for a stalker to find a turn of foot and this filly just couldn’t quicken after not wresting her favored lead off of Ruths House. She led up in the Regret last time and with similar sectionals won and in a faster time but being held out by Ruths House was enough to dampen her spirit down the stretch and she missed out in the battle to the line.

4th= Ava Royalty Stables Geroux F

The juvenile Turf champ went back to being a closer today, but it wasn’t her that got the timing right and she could only run home for a share of fourth. This was a better effort back on a dry track and you get the feeling she is an AI decision away from winning a big race again.

4th= Spanish Empire Arindel Zayas E J

Won the Honeymoon off the front in a faster time but like the runner up couldn’t get into the lead and ended up running home from a loose stalk into a share for fourth. Less than a length covered the first five home so suffice to say this result will almost certainly be different next time these all meet and there is no reason why this improving filly won’t come out on top down the line.

Categories: Grade I, STAKES ARTICLES