Belmont Park: Turf route tops strong card

ELMONT, N.Y. – The first full week of Belmont Park’s spring-summer meet gets off to a strong start Wednesday, with the $90,000 Owsley overnight stakes flanked by three allowance races.

First post switches to 1:05 p.m. for the nine-race program. The Owsley, scheduled for 1 1/4 miles on the inner turf, is carded as race 7.

Eight turf-meant fillies and mares entered the Owsley, which serves as a prep for the Grade 2, 1 3/8-mile Sheepshead Bay on May 25. As one might expect, six of the eight are foreign-breds, including trainer Chad Brown’s uncoupled duo of Kya One and La Conquerante. Kya One made her United States debut in last fall’s one-mile Noble Damsel and made up a dozen lengths, an effort that set her up to win the My Charmer at Calder. La Conquerante makes her U.S. and seasonal debut after concluding her 3-year-old season in France with third-place finishes in the Prix Minerva and Prix de Royallieu for owner Martin Schwartz, whose grass mares Stacelita (2011) and Zagora (2012) won Eclipse Awards after being imported and turned over to Brown.

Julie’s Love, fourth at odds-on in the Dahlia at Pimlico on April 6, makes her second start of the year for Graham Motion. She won three of her first five U.S. starts last year, highlighted by a determined score in the De La Rose at Saratoga.

“She’s quite a nervous filly,” said Motion. “We gave her a lot of time, as she was actually quite difficult when she arrived, and it took her a while to get with the program.”

In her first start outside her native Ireland, Tannery, was a rallying third in the Grade 1 Garden City over this course last fall for Alan Goldberg. She makes her first start since a close fourth in the Long Island on a snowy Aqueduct course Nov. 10.

The early lead will likely be contested by Adjacent and Suroof – the two Kentucky-breds in the race – who both exit front-running wins in high-end optional claimers at Gulfstream Park.

Dream Clover and Minakshi complete the field.

In race 8, the New York-bred closer Awesome Vision, who rallied to dead heat with Saginaw in an overnight stakes last out, moves to open company and tries for his fourth straight win in a one-mile, $81,000 optional claimer with third-level allowance conditions.

The Grade 2-placed Smash, declared a non-starter after a gate snafu April 3, puts blinkers on for Bob Baffert.

Colizeo, Jaguar Paw, and Summer Sunset round out the lineup.

In race 3, Honorable Dillon, who earlier this year won the Grade 2 Hutcheson for Eddie Kenneally, drops from a fifth-place finish in the Bay Shore and takes on five older rivals in a six-furlong allowance.

The one to catch in the six-furlong dash is Consortium, who set the pace in the Grade 1 Carter Handicap most recently for Kiaran McLaughlin.