Belmont: Contessa, Rice take two shots apiece in Island Sun

Along with My Miss Aurelia’s return in the Punkin Pie, Thursday’s card at Belmont Park includes a pair of $100,000 overnight turf stakes – the Island Sun for 2-year-old New York-breds and the Basket Weave for 3-year-olds.

Gary Contessa and Linda Rice have four of the seven turf-meant runners in the one-mile Island Sun (race 4).

A P Johnson and May Shares are Rice-trained fillies who stretch out and take on the boys after posting maiden sprint wins with identical Beyer Speed Figures of 64. A P Johnson has been idle since rallying wide to win her debut Aug. 30, which is of little concern given that Rice’s stakes winners on Empire Showcase Day, Miss Narcissist and Palace, were making their first starts since Saratoga.

Contessa counters with Sidearm and the speedy Carolinian, who break from the two outermost stalls, provided the race remains on grass.
Prior to an off-the-board finish in the New York Breeders’ Futurity, Sidearm was one of two debut winners on the same day at Saratoga for Contessa, whose first-time starters typically need a race or two.

“I want to run a 2-year-old 75 to 80 percent ready. If it’s a sensational 2-year-old, it will win first time being about 75 to 80 percent ready,” Contessa said.

After showing promise in his first three starts, Carolinian put it all together to win back-to-back races earlier at the fall meet, wiring maidens on turf Sept. 12 and returning two weeks later for a front-running score against allowance sprinters on the main track.

A competitive group of nine turf-meant 3-year-olds goes in the 1 1/16-mile Basket Weave (race 9).

Four in the lineup are stakes winners, topped by Joha, who took Keeneland’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity on Polytrack last fall. He drops from a fifth in the Grade 1 Jamaica, a race he led at the stretch call.

West Hills Giant, a multiple stakes winner on turf and dirt, makes his first start since being placed first in a New York Stallion race at Saratoga on Aug. 7, a race in which he was bumped and hit the rail in the stretch.

It was pretty tight for him down there,” trainer John Terranova said. “He’s a big horse, and he can get a little intimidated down there.”

Chamois and Dysprosium, last-out stakes winners at Delaware Park and Calder, add depth to a field that also includes Hall of Fame Stakes runner-up North Slope, the 2-for-2 Calm Pacific, and the improving Vinny Goodtimes, a two-time winner at the meet.