Belmont: Wedding Toast tries to use Belle Cherie as springboard toward bigger goal

ELMONT, N.Y. – The names of the stakes are changed but virtually everything else is the same as Wedding Toast tries to following the same blueprint to graded stakes glory as her older stablemate Dance Card did a year ago.

Wedding Toast, owned by Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum’s Godolphin Racing and trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, in her fourth career start seeks her third consecutive victory and makes her stakes debut in Friday’s $100,000 Belle Cherie Stakes at Belmont Park. The Belle Cherie was the same overnight stakes Dance Card won here last fall in her fourth career start before capturing the Grade 1 Gazelle at Aqueduct in November.

Wedding Toast is using the Belle Cherie as a stepping-stone to the Grade 3, $400,000 Comely at Aqueduct on Nov. 30. The Comely, historically run in April, was switched with the Gazelle on the New York Racing Association stakes calendar.

Wedding Toast, like Dance Card, finished second in her debut in a sprint at Belmont in June. She made her second start in a 1 1/8-mile maiden race at Saratoga, winning by 2 1/2 lengths. In her first start against winners, Wedding Toast romped to a 14 1/2-length victory going a one-turn mile here on Sept. 11. The Belle Cherie will be run as a one-turn, 1 1/16-mile race.

“In her first start, she broke terrible,” McLaughlin said. “We ran her a mile and an eighth second start and she was really game and ran really well.”

Still, it was her last effort that was a breakthrough performance for Wedding Toast, a daughter of Street Sense out of the unraced mare Golden Sheba, who is a half-sister to the multiple Grade 1 winner Congaree.

“She won easy, came out of it very good,” McLaughlin said. “Hopefully she can repeat.”

Wedding Toast will break from post 5 under Javier Castellano.

Wedding Toast looks to have the best early speed in the race. Sheer Drama, however, comes off a first-level allowance win at Laurel that was accomplished on the front end. She was entered as a main-track only runner in a second-level allowance race on Thursday.

Ol Donyo and Flash Forward, the 1-2 finishers of the $100,000 Zaftig Stakes here on Sept. 20, are contenders in this stakes. Two starts back, Flash Forward won an overnight stakes at Saratoga over Toasting, who came back to win an overnight stakes last weekend at Belmont.

Diva Spirit and Let Me Entertain U complete the field.

Baffle Me tops Finney

Baffle Me, 2 1/2-length winner of the Jazzy Stakes going seven furlongs here on Sept. 25, tops a field of seven entered for Friday’s $100,000 Finney Stakes, also scheduled for seven furlongs on the turf.

Baffle Me, trained by Mark Hennig, showed a new dimension in her victory in the Jazzy, stalking another horse before taking over in midstretch.

Assateague, who drops out of two graded stakes tries, Corsage, and Anna Sophia loom the main threats.

My Jopia, Unhedged, and Shush Up complete the field if on turf. Munnings Sister, Royal Lahaina, Roman Invader, and Welcome Guest are entered for main track only.