Belvoir Bay heads Miller contingent for Belmont Day stakes

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Peter Miller plans to make a run at three of the eight Grade 1 stakes offered on the June 8 Belmont Stakes card at Belmont Park.

Miller plans to send out Belvoir Bay and Om against World of Trouble in the $400,000 Jaipur Invitational; Proud Emma in the $700,000 Acorn; and Spiced Perfection in the $700,000 Ogden Phipps. Spiced Perfection, winner of the Grade 1 Madison at Keeneland in April, is also being considered for Friday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Bed o’ Roses Invitational.

Belvoir Bay, a 6-year-old mare, will be taking on the boys for the second time in her last three starts in the Jaipur. In March, she finished second, 1 1/4 lengths behind Blue Point in the Al Quoz Sprint in Dubai. In that race, Belvoir Bay finished three-quarters of a length in front of her champion stablemate Stormy Liberal.

“She ran awesome,” Miller said. “She scared me. I thought she was going to win for a minute. She’s unbelievable.”

Belvoir Bay, a nine-time stakes winner, returned to the U.S. and ran second in the Grade 3 Monrovia at Santa Anita on May 26, race that was transferred to the dirt from the turf.

Miller said taking that race off the turf “cost us a win.”

“Obviously disappointing and nonsensical,” he said.

Miller said he is leaning toward running Spiced Perfection in the Phipps rather than the Bed o’ Roses.

Spiced Perfection has made 16 of her 17 starts at seven furlongs or shorter. In her lone start going long, she finished second in a California-bred stakes going 1 1/16 miles around two turns. The Phipps is a one-turn 1 1/16-mile race.

“The one-turn should be good for her,” Miller said, adding the distance “is a trial and error situation.”

Proud Emma will be making her second trip to New York. In April, she finished fourth in the Grade 2 Gazelle Stakes at Aqueduct. She cut back in distance in the Grade 2 Eight Belles going seven furlongs at Churchill on May 3 and finished fourth, beaten seven lengths, over a sloppy track.

“She’s run well on pretty much everything. She doesn’t need to take her track with her. It’s just a matter of whether she’s good enough,” Miller said.