Angara gets campaign started in Beaugay

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - In 2004, the Sangster family purchased Sand Springs out of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale, turned her over to Bill Mott, and watched as the 5-year-old mare won the Grade 1 Diana.

The Sangsters are hoping to follow a similar pattern with Angara, whom they purchased privately after last November's Keeneland sale. Angara, who won the Grade 1 Beverly D. for Patrick Biancone last year, has been turned over to Mott and will make her 5-year-old debut in Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 Beaugay Handicap at Aqueduct.

heads a 10-horse field entered for the Beaugay, which is run on turf at 1 1/16 miles, perhaps a little shorter than her best distance.

"She's probably best-suited going a little further, but it is her first out, and hopefully it will propel us on to something else," Mott said.

Angara, a closer who prefers soft ground, is the 122-pound highweight and will break from post 2 under Edgar Prado.

Mott also entered Pommes Frites in the Beaugay, and though she has yet to win a stakes race, she has won three allowances in her last four starts and looms the main speed.

"She was in some good spots," Mott said. "She's been running a little better. She seems to have come around."

breaks from post 5 under Cornelio Velasquez and carries 115 pounds.

Trainer Christophe Clement has won three of the last 11 runnings of the Beaugay, including last year's running with Dedication. Saturday, Clement will send out the versatile Naissance Royale, winner of the Grade 2 Lake Placid Handicap last summer at Saratoga. After finishing a close fourth in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup last fall at Keeneland, Naissance Royale was given a break. She returned in a second-level allowance race on March 27 at Gulfstream and won by a neck.

"She will improve off that race," Clement said.

An Irish-bred daughter of Giant's Causeway, has run well on the lead, from a stalking position or from well off the pace. She may need to be closer than she was last time to keep Pommes Frites from wiring the field.

Laurafina beat Pommes Frites in the Frances A. Genter Handicap in December at Calder and has run well in two starts this year. Trainer Allen Jerkens will seek his fifth Beaugay winner with Asti, who cuts back from a fifth-place finish in the 1 1/2-mile Orchid. Brunilda, second in the Grade 3 Honey Fox, and Omeya, second in three consecutive allowance races, are also in with a chance.