Aqueduct: Beautiful But Blue tops Chase the Dream

Tom Keyser

Since last November, the filly Beautiful But Blue has won over the main track and inner track at Aqueduct, plus the dirt at Belmont Park, and Saratoga.

The feature race comes early on Friday at Aqueduct, when five New York-bred fillies and mares clash going a mile in the $80,000 Chase the Dream overnight stakes, carded as race 2.

Over the past 51 weeks, morning-line favorite Beautiful But Blue has won over all four dirt tracks on the New York Racing Association circuit. After a maiden win on a sloppy main track at Aqueduct last Nov. 23, she won twice on the inner dirt, including the Windswept Wings overnight stakes, and this summer won the Bouwerie for 3-year-olds at Belmont and the Fleet Indian at Saratoga against older multiple stakes winner Risky Rachel.

“She had some aches and pains early that she had to get over, but she’s always been a really mature filly physically,” said trainer Tom Bush. “I wasn’t sure we could handle older fillies [in the Fleet Indian], but this filly has really come on.”

After running third in the Grade 1 Test and the $400,000 Charles Town Oaks, Beautiful But Blue returned to New York-bred competition with a fourth in the Iroquois over a muddy track.

Miss Valentine and Opus A, third and fourth in the Fleet Indian, may be helped by the return to Aqueduct. Trained by Christophe Clement, Miss Valentine has won both of her one-mile starts on the main track. Opus A, based at the Big A with Rick Violette Jr., makes her first start since the 1 1/8-mile Saratoga Dew, when she set the pace and held for second.

Color Blind, who won the Jack Betta Be Rite Stakes for Anthony Ferraro when last on dirt, ships in from Finger Lakes after off-the-board finishes on the Tapeta surface at Presque Isle Downs and on yielding turf in the Ticonderoga.

Fiftyfour Forever, in the money 10 straight including a second in the Bouwerie, completes the field.

Willy Beamin tops Discovery

Willy Beamin, who won the Albany Stakes and Grade 1 King’s Bishop in the span of four days at Saratoga, drew the outside post against five rival 3-year-olds in Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Discovery Handicap.

Willy Beamin shoulders 121 pounds and gives four to six pounds to (from the rail out) Guilt Trip, Adirondack King, Stephanoatsee, Called to Serve, and Our Entourage.

The Discovery is the eighth of nine races, and the third leg of a $250,000-guaranteed late pick four.

Earlier on the card, Soldat, last year’s Fountain of Youth winner, makes his second start as a 4-year-old in the $80,000 If Winter Comes overnight stakes, scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on turf.

Chalk sweeps stakes

Heavy favorites swept Wednesday’s divisions of the $100,000 New York Stallion Series at seven furlongs, as Sunny Desert ($2.70) overcame a rough start to win the Staten Island for fillies and mares, and Sportswriter ($2.40) posted a workmanlike victory in the Thunder Rumble for males.

Sunny Desert was sandwiched at the start, but recovered under Ramon Dominguez to draw off by nearly three lengths over second choice Lady On the Run. She ran seven-eighths in 1:24.00, and posted her fifth consecutive victory, all for John Parisella.

Sportswriter pressed the pace, built a clear lead in the stretch, and was all out beneath Javier Castellano to turn back 29-1 Anaphylaxis by three-quarters of a length. His final time over a fast main track was 1:24.22.