Belmont Park: Alienation will gun it in Prioress

ELMONT, N.Y. – The California-based filly Alienation, who ran second in a pair of graded stakes last summer at Saratoga, returns to New York a bigger, stronger filly, according to trainer Bob Baffert. But one thing remains the same: She wants to run as fast as she can for as long as she can.

On Monday, Alienation will try to outsprint five opponents and become a Grade 1 winner in the $250,000 Prioress Stakes, the feature event on a 10-race Fourth of July program at Belmont Park. First post is 1 p.m.

Alienation earned a spot in the Prioress with an authoritative 7 3/4-length victory in a first-level allowance race at Hollywood Park on June 3. That was her 3-year-old debut, a belated one at that after the filly underwent surgery to take a chip out of an ankle.

Last year, Alienation came to Saratoga following a maiden win at Hollywood on turf, and she finished second to Position Limit in the Grade 2 Adirondack and second to R Heat Lightning in the Grade 1 Spinaway.

“She was going out there and emptying out, she wouldn’t switch leads,” Baffert said. “She’s filled out, bigger, stronger, but she’s real one dimensional, she just goes.”

Alienation will go from post 5 under John Velazquez. The field has plenty of other speed, including Quantum Miss, a 12-length winner of the Wonder Delight Stakes at Penn National last out; and Roman Treasure, winner of an overnight stakes here June 16.

Pomeroys Pistol, who won the Grade 2 Forward Gal at Gulfstream in January and the ungraded Just Smashing Stakes at Monmouth last month, and Her Smile, runner-up in the Comely Stakes at Aqueduct in April, complete the field.

◗ Complete Zen and All Together head a field of 10 entered in Sunday’s $50,000 William Entenmann Steeplechase Stakes at 2 1/4 miles.