Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Pizza Bianca faces familiar foes in Memories of Silver Stakes

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The form from last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf won by Pizza Bianca has held up quite strongly, with five horses who finished behind her winning stakes this year.

Sunday, Pizza Bianca and two others who finished behind her in the Juvenile Fillies Turf make their 3-year-old debuts in the $100,000 Memories of Silver Stakes on closing day of the Aqueduct spring meet.

Pizza Bianca, who won the Juvenile Fillies Turf with an unbelievable ride from Jose Ortiz, will meet Consumer Spending (sixth in the Juvenile Fillies Turf), Sail By (13th in the Juvenile Fillies Turf), and three others in this 1 1/16-mile turf race.

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Pizza Bianca, a daughter of Fastnet Rock owned by Bobby Flay, won at Saratoga in her debut and finished second, with trouble, in the Grade 1 Natalma at Woodbine. In the Juvenile Fillies Turf, Pizza Bianca knifed her way through the field from 13th to get up and win by a half-length, giving trainer Christophe Clement his first win in a Breeders’ Cup race.

“She showed a great turn of foot and everything worked out perfectly with the ride,” Clement said.

While Pizza Bianca was given 60 days off in Kentucky before rejoining Clement in South Florida, others from that race have run very well. Malavath, the Juvenile Fillies Turf runner-up, won a Group 3 in Deauville earlier this month, and Cachet, fourth in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, won the Group 3 Nell Gwyn Stakes on April 12 at Newmarket. Cairo Memories (ninth) won the Grade 3 Providencia and Turnerloose (14th) won the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra on dirt. Bubble Rock (12th) won a listed stakes at Turfway.

Clement said he’s seen positive changes in Pizza Bianca from 2 to 3.

“I think she’s stronger, she’s better mentally, she’s more mature,” he said.

Consumer Spending finished 1 3/4 lengths behind Pizza Bianca in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. She had an inside trip and had a little bit of trouble around the far turn.

“I’m not saying she was going to win, but she had a bit of a rough trip,” trainer Chad Brown said. “We just freshened her. She’s done really well this winter. I’m really pleased with how she’s filled out and matured 2 to 3.”

Brown also will send out Miss You Ella, who won a maiden race over Gulfstream’s Tapeta surface in January and was third after rallying from 10 lengths back in the Grade 3 Sweetest Chant on Feb. 5 at Gulfstream.

“She was a little farther back than I had hoped,” Brown said. “That can happen at Gulfstream. I was happy for her to get a piece of a graded race. I think there’s more there. I think she’s a work in progress. I could see her running well this weekend and I can also see her month to month continuing to improve.”

Sail By, trained by Leah Gyarmati, won the Grade 2 Miss Grillo at Belmont with a stalking trip. She was wide on both turns in the Breeders’ Cup, where she was a 49-1 longshot. Sunday, she may hold a tactical edge over her field in that she figures to be laying first or just off of Alittleloveandluck early.

On Alert, trained by Shug McGaughey, closed off slow fractions to be third in the Grade 3 Florida Oaks at Tampa in March and has already made three starts in 2022.