Belmont Park: Pletcher and Albertrani have the numbers

ELMONT, N.Y. – Three-year-old fillies trained by Todd Pletcher and Tom Albertrani make up 80 percent of the five-horse field for Thursday’s Real Prize overnight stakes. Pletcher entered Love and Pride and R Gypsy Gold, while Albertrani sends out Draw It and My Assets.

The only other entrant is the Christophe Clement-trained Miss Valentine, who beat Draw It by a nose in the Mom’s Command overnight stakes last time out.

Love and Pride and R Gypsy Gold are already used to each other’s company, having worked a half-mile in tandem last week on the training track. “They worked together and worked well,” said assistant trainer Whit Beckman. “They’ll both run Thursday.”

Love and Pride was a debut winner in the slop at Delaware Park in May, but then was boxed in on the far turn and raced erratically in the stretch of a first-level allowance on July 4. An A. P. Indy filly, she then added blinkers for a pair of wire-to-wire victories by a combined 15 lengths, including the Proud Spell Stakes at Saratoga with a 90 Beyer Speed Figure.

“She’s a kind filly when she focuses and gets into a nice rhythm, and the blinkers helped with that,” said Beckman. “In her first couple races she just got kind of wayward on the lead, not quite knowing what to do.”

Love and Pride’s summer form was strong enough to make her third choice in the Cotillion Stakes, in which she pressed the pace set by Plum Pretty, who drew off in stakes-record time.

Although this will be the first one-turn start for Love and Pride, R Gypsy Gold has run three times out of the chute at Belmont, including a third in the Mother Goose and a convincing score over first-level allowance rivals when brought back from a freshening in September.

“We’ve been very happy with her lately,” said Beckman. “She looks well, as good as she’s ever looked.”

Draw It and My Assets, second and third behind Love and Pride in the Proud Spell, are back for another try. In the Proud Spell, Draw It was making her first start in three months. Albertrani then put blinkers on for the Mom’s Command, and she responded with a sharp performance to miss in a head-bob to Miss Valentine, a New York-bred filly who has won or placed in eight of nine starts.