Belmont Park: Brown well stocked for female turf stakes

Tom Keyser

Dream Peace, runner-up to Winter Memories in the Grade 1 Diana, is being pointed to the Grade 1 Flower Bowl.

ELMONT, N.Y. – There are a trio of graded stakes for fillies and mares on the turf over the next three weekends at Belmont Park, and it appears trainer Chad Brown will be well represented in all of them.

Though Brown was at the yearling sales in Kentucky on Monday, four of his stakes fillies took to Belmont’s yielding inner turf course and put in solid workouts for upcoming stakes. First, Samitar and Kya One went four furlongs together in 50.99 seconds, around a triple set of orange cones, referred to as dogs, which kept the works on the outside part of the course.

Samitar, who was third, beaten a neck, in the Grade 2 Lake George Stakes in her U.S. debut July 25, is slated to run in Saturday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Garden City Stakes. Kya One, a French-bred filly who has raced exclusively in Europe, is possible for Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Noble Damsel. Brown is already pointing Whipsaw City to that race.

Right after Samitar and Kya One breezed, the duo of Dream Peace and Dealbata put in a visually impressive five-furlong move in 1:02.80 over the turf. The pair came home in a sizzling 22.73 seconds for the final quarter, which over the yielding turf was sensational.

Dream Peace, runner-up to Winter Memories in the Grade 1 Diana on July 28, is being pointed to the Grade 1 Flower Bowl here Sept. 29. Plans are not finalized for Dealbata, who is nominated to the Noble Damsel, but who could run in the Athenia here Oct. 13.

Brown took over the training of Dream Peace following the Diana, and the filly was training sensationally at Saratoga.

“All of her works have been solid,” Brown said. “She’s blended into our program really nicely. She was handed to me in great shape.”

Zagora also likely for Flower Bowl

In addition to Dream Peace, Brown said Zagora will most likely make her next start in the Flower Bowl. Following Zagora’s victory in the Ballston Spa at Saratoga, in which she set a course record for 1 1/16 miles, Brown indicated that he would run Zagora in the Spinster, a 1 1/8-mile race at Keeneland, expressing some concern about the 1 1/4 miles of the Flower Bowl. However, Zagora has won at 1 1/4 miles in Europe and was beaten a head in the 2011 New York Handicap at 1 1/4 miles.

“My initial thought after she broke the track record was she’s better at shorter distances,” Brown said. “She’s definitely a top-class filly. Who am I to say she can’t do anything? A lot depends on the pace of the race and the trip. After really thinking about everything, it makes more sense to do that.”