Beau Recall will be coming late in Just a Game

ELMONT, New York – Often it’s jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. winning Grade 1 turf races on horses trained by Chad Brown, but in the Grade 1, $700,000 Just a Game Stakes on Saturday, Ortiz will try to beat his major patron.

Javier Castellano rides 4-5 morning-line favorite Rushing Fall for Brown and Ortiz has the mount on Beau Recall, listed at 4-1 on the line and with a good chance to win if she can duplicate her powerhouse kick in the Distaff Turf Mile last month at Churchill Downs.

The Just a Game, a one-turn mile (race 4, post time 1:33), drew only seven entrants but none is an easy toss.

Bellavais appears to be the least probable winner, though an absolute peak could make her marginally competitive.

Capla Temptress is 20-1 on the line compared to 12-1 for Bellavais but rates a better chance. Capla Temptress saw daylight and shot through an inside hole on the backstretch of the Distaff Turf Mile, taking the lead before the far turn and compromising her. Trainer Bill Mott firmly believes she needs cover to show her best.

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Environs holds some appeal at something like her 8-1 morning-line odds. Brown trains Environs for her breeder, Juddmonte Farms, and Environs, trained at age 2 and 3 in France by Andre Fabre, was highly regarded overseas. Environs delivered a crackling finish to beat second-level allowance foes on April 3 at Keeneland, and Brown was somewhat dismayed with her fourth-place finish in the Distaff Turf Mile, run over a rain-softened course. Environs bobbled at the start and raced from the back of the field, coming home a decent final quarter-mile but finishing a well-beaten fourth.

“She disappointed at Churchill, but I think it had to be the [softer] turf,” said Brown. “I think too highly of the horse not to try her.”

Under the race’s allowance conditions Environs carries just 113 pounds, eight fewer than Beau Recall, 10 fewer than Rushing Fall. Jose Ortiz has the mount.

Got Stormy and Daddy Is a Legend finished two-three in the Distaff Turf Mile, peak performances from both fillies, neither of whom proved any match late for Beau Recall. Daddy Is a Legend has the stronger long-term form profile, but Got Stormy appears to be an improved horse at age 4. She ran poorly over soft ground in her last Belmont start but trainer Mark Casse thinks the one-turn configuration of this mile suits his horse.

The Just a Game, though, revolves around one’s opinion of Rushing Fall. It’s foolish not to be impressed with her level of accomplishment: seven wins from eight starts, her lone loss a close second-place finish, and three Grade 1 victories. The most recent of those came in her 4-year-old debut and first start in a race not age-restricted, the Jenny Wiley Stakes, where Rushing Fall controlled a moderate pace and never was headed, beating stablemate Rymska by one length.

Rymska never has won a Grade 1 and seems a cut below the very best in the division, and Rushing Fall beat her with a very favorable setup, but credit to Rushing Fall, who gradually has evolved into a horse who can make her own race, and who could easily be the lone speed again Saturday.

Beau Recall still could run her down – something strange to say about a 5-year-old who never has won a Grade 1. She comes off easily the best performance of her career in her 22nd start, and would’ve been sold as a racing and breeding prospect over the winter had she not failed to meet an auction reserve. But only four of her starts have come for trainer Brad Cox, who has seen the mare take massive strides through the winter and spring.

“She was in good form this winter in New Orleans but when we shipped her north from Fair Grounds she really started to blossom,” Cox said.

Beau Recall raced together with Environs at the back of the Distaff Turf Mile field, came wide for the stretch run, and blew past the field with a 23.19-second final quarter mile, a very strong finish on a fairly laboring course and easily the best come-home time in that race. From what Cox has seen in the morning, she might be even better this weekend.

“Her last three works at Churchill have been phenomenal,” he said.

Phenomenal is how Beau Recall will have to race, rushing to the line to catch Rushing Fall.