Bellafina will shorten up

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Bellafina, fifth as the 9-5 favorite in Friday’s Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, will be rested this spring and is likely to start in races around one-turn in the second half of the year, trainer Simon Callaghan said on Sunday.

The Grade 1 Test Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs at Saratoga on Aug. 3 is a long-range goal.

“Most likely, we’ll give her a little bit of a break and concentrate on one-turn races,” Callaghan said. “We’ll look at the Test.”

Callaghan won the 2017 Test Stakes with American Gal, his first starter at the historic track.

The winner of six graded stakes, Bellafina was beaten eight lengths by Serengeti Empress in the $1.25 million Kentucky Oaks at 1 1/8 miles. Ridden by Flavien Prat, Bellafina was ninth early and fifth in the stretch, but was never a threat to the winner.

Owned by Kaleem Shah, Bellafina has won 6 of 9 starts and earned $1,102,125. Her six stakes wins have ranged in distance from six furlongs to 1 1/16 miles. Bellafina has won three stakes around two turns, including two Grade 1 races at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita – the Chandelier Stakes for 2-year-old fillies last September and the Santa Anita Oaks last month.

“I think she was able to do that on talent,” Callaghan said.

Bellafina was fourth as the 9-5 favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at 1 1/16 miles at Churchill Downs last November.

Callaghan’s stable had a better result at Santa Anita on Saturday when Maxim Rate won her first stakes in her third career start in the Grade 3 Senorita Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at a mile on turf. Ridden by Kent Desormeaux, Maxim Rate, the 3-2 favorite, repelled a threat from 5-2 Lady Prancealot to win by a half-length.

Owned by Slam Dunk Racing, Maxim Rate has won 2 of 3 starts. Callaghan said races such as the Grade 3 Honeymoon Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf here on June 1 and the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks at Belmont Park on July 6 are under consideration.

The $750,000 Belmont Oaks is run at 1 1/4 miles on turf.

“You don’t get many opportunities to run for that kind of money,” Callaghan said.