Beren dominates off-the-turf Paradise Creek Stakes

ELMONT, N.Y. - Though Beren had made all eight of his previous starts on dirt, trainer Butch Reid entered the 3-year-old son of Weigelia in Sunday’s $100,000 Paradise Creek Stakes at Belmont Park with the intention of trying him on the turf, the surface for which the race was scheduled.

What Reid didn’t want to do, however, was run Beren on soft ground. Naturally, Reid was quite happy when, for the second straight card, all scheduled turf races at Belmont were run on the main track due to rain.

“What I was really worried about was they were really hesitant to take it off, I didn’t want soft turf,” Reid said. “I was really glad when I heard this morning they finally took it off.”

With the race scratched down to a field of four, Beren broke running from the gate under Eric Cancel and was never challenged, winning the Paradise Creek by 10 3/4 lengths. Three Two Zone edged Thin White Duke by a nose for second. Fauci, who bobbled at the break, was last.

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Due to the surface switch, Outadore, Chasing Artie, and Second of July all scratched.

The win was the fourth from nine starts for Beren, who on May 9 won the Gold Fever Stakes here at six furlongs.

This was Beren’s first start over a sloppy track, but Reid, having worked with plenty of progeny of Weigelia, had no concerns about that.

“I’ve had a bunch of them and every single one of them runs in the slop,” Reid said.

Also, Weigelia had made two starts on turf at Belmont. In 2006, he set a six-furlong record (1:07.04) for the inner course that stood for five years.

Beren had some gate issues in each of his last two starts, including the win in the Gold Fever. He had no such issues Sunday, as he broke running and quickly opened up a 1 1/2-length lead after a quarter in 22.80 seconds. The lead was a length after a half-mile in 45.64 before Cancel asked Beren to go and he quickly opened up.

Beren, owned and bred by Susan Quick and Christophe Feifarek, covered seven furlongs in 1:23.12 and returned $4.

“I only saw one other speed and that was [Three Two Zone],” Cancel said. “My horse is very quick and he loves the mud; I just took advantage of it. He broke very sharp and I said let’s go. This was just a workout for him.”

Though Fauci bobbled at the break, jockey Javier Castellano said that didn’t make a difference.

“He never picked up his feet,” Castellano said. “He hated the track.”

Reid said he would look to run Beren on the turf for his next start. There are a few options for Pennsylvania-breds at Parx this summer.