Beaugay, License Fee lure all-star team of Kentucky Derby riders
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A day after the Kentucky Derby, a number of the nation’s top riders will be at Belmont Park for mounts on the card’s two Sunday stakes, the Grade 3, $175,000 Beaugay and the $150,000 License Fee.
The group includes Junior Alvarado, Manny Franco, Irad Ortiz Jr., Jose Ortiz, Flavien Prat, Joel Rosario, and John Velazquez. The riders – who all had mounts in the Kentucky Derby – usually travel to town by private plane the next day, said longtime agent Ron Anderson.
“They leave at 7:30 a.m. every year and are there for the races on Sunday,” said Anderson, who represents Rosario and Velazquez. “It’s an easy way to New York.”
The aforementioned riders all have mounts in the eight-horse Beaugay, with Alvarado aboard possible favorite Surprisingly and Irad Ortiz Jr. on chief rival Marketsegmentation. The strong field of fillies and mares for the 1 1/16-mile turf race also includes Consumer Spending, to be ridden by Franco; Contemporary Art, with Jose Ortiz; Kalifornia Queen, with Prat; Veronica Greene with Rosario; and Finest Work with Velazquez.
Surprisingly is shortening up a tad to the distance over which she won the Grade 3 Endeavour in February at Tampa Bay Downs, a race in which Marketsegmentation finished third. One start prior, Surprisingly was third in the Grade 2 Hillsborough, a 1 1/8-mile race in March at Tampa.
“I thought her win at Tampa was a good race,” trainer Shug McGaughey told the publicity department at the New York Racing Association. “Even her race back the next time was a good race. She just got stuck in on the inside and couldn’t get out until too late. She finished well.”
Surprisingly, a Phipps Stable homebred from the female family of Point of Entry, will break from post 7.
Marketsegmentation, who is one of four runners in the field trained by Chad Brown, is a specialist at the distance of the Beaugay. She has made all five of her starts at 1 1/16 miles on turf and won three of those races. Marketsegmentation became a stakes winner in her most recent start, the $150,000 Sand Springs on April 1 at Gulfstream Park. She will break from post 3.
Brown trainee Consumer Spending is a Grade 2 winner making her first start since August. She was fourth in the Grade 2 Lake Placid at Saratoga in her most recent start. She captured the $100,000 Memories of Silver in April 2022 at Aqueduct off a layoff.
Evvie Jets looks like the one to catch from the rail under Eric Cancel. She wired her rivals in the $97,000 Plenty of Grace at a mile on turf last month at Aqueduct.
License Fee Stakes
Prat will team with leading contender Yuugiri in the License Fee, which is for fillies and mares at six furlongs on turf. The field of 10 includes Bubble Rock, winner of the Grade 3 Matron at Belmont to be ridden by Rosario, and Minaun, a Group 3 winner to be ridden by Velazquez.
Yuugiri, the winner of the Grade 3 Fantasy at two turns at Oaklawn, is making her turf debut, and the grass is something trainer Rodolphe Brisset has long considered an option for the daughter of Shackleford and the turf stakes winner Yuzuru.
“Based on the fact that the dam won on the grass and [Yuugiri] won two races on sealed tracks kind of gives me the impression she’s telling us the grass could be something she wants to try,” Brisset said.
Yuugiri won a pair of six-furlong races on wet, sealed tracks this past winter at Oaklawn. She captured an allowance in December and the $150,000 Carousel in February. She’s made one start since, dueling for the lead and finishing fifth to champion Goodnight Olive in the Grade 1 Madison over seven furlongs April 7 at Keeneland.
Yuugiri has since worked on the grass at Keeneland, going five-eighths around the dogs in 1:07.20 on a course listed as good. Brisset rode her in the work.
“I let her cruise for the five-eighths,” he said. “The time was not fast, but I love the way she came home and she galloped out pretty strong. She worked by herself. I wanted her to have a feeling of” the turf.
“It was more maintenance. She’s fit. And we know she’s fast enough.”
Yuugiri, a homebred for Tsunebumi and Sekie Yoshihara, will break from post 9.
Bubble Rock, who drew post 8, is cutting back from a mile turf allowance at Keeneland. She set the pace over ground rated good and finished second by a neck in the April 16 race.
The field also includes stakes winners Poppy Flower, to be ridden by Jose Ortiz, and Star Devine, to be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr.
The License Fee is slotted as the final race on a nine-race card. The Beaugay goes as race 3.
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