Brown dominating presence in Miss Liberty

A total of 24 fillies and mares were nominated to the $100,000 Miss Liberty Stakes at Monmouth Park. Chad Brown trains eight of them, and you can bet Brown closely considered who among that octet best fit the spot. Tax Implications and Notinamillionyears were the two that passed the entry box, both key players in Sunday’s 1 1/16-mile grass race.

Notinamillionyears makes her stakes debut in her fifth start, and the fact that the filly remains eligible for a first-level allowance race tells you Brown holds her in some esteem. Tax Implications three times finished second in stakes races, including the Grade 2 Lake Placid, and while more accomplished than Notinamillionyears, she looks like a filly reluctant to close the deal in races she could have won.

“I can see that,” Brown conceded. “She’s a little tricky. These two fillies both have trained better than their records indicate. So, we’re hoping to improve their form here.”

The fillies, both 4-year-olds, have started once this year, each taking a narrow defeat in first-level turf allowance races – Tax Implications at Aqueduct, Notinamillionyears at Keeneland. Tax Implications, as has happened before, appeared to be on the way to victory at the eighth pole of her race, but a horse named Rhombique ranged up outside her and snatched the win in the final strides.

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Notinamillionyears’s neck defeat April 14 at Keeneland was not on her. Breaking from the outside gate in a field of 11, Notinamillionyears was forced to drop back to 10th around the first turn before coming with a long, sustained run that fell just short of catching a perfect-trip winner. Notinamillionyears went slightly flat in the late stages of a first-level allowance last November, a race in which she raced closer to the pace than in her previous start, a maiden win where she looped the field with a wide run into a slow pace.

“I do like her. She’s got a good turn of foot,” Brown said.

Vincent Cheminaud rides Notinamillionyears, while Joe Bravo is on Tax Implications.

Non-Brown avenues exist in this eight-runner field, though two horses fast enough to win, Personal Best and Alpha Bella, prefer longer distances. Alpha Bella holds more interest as her last-start score in the 1 1/2-mile Orchid about four months ago came with blinkers removed.

Four-year-old Elounda Queen was overmatched in three races last year after being privately purchased and exported from France. Her seventh in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup wasn’t bad, but she played no part in the Grade 1 Matriarch and the Grade 1 American Oaks after being sent to California.

Elounda Queen makes her first start since December and first for trainer Rudy Brisset, who believes if the filly runs back to a Group 3 win in August at Deauville, she’ll contend.

“Her last two works were good,” Brisset said. “She’s a little tricky to ride. You’ve got to get her to switch off. We’re not at 120 percent first race back.”

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Girl Named Charlie could get an ideal trip tracking overmatched speed and is the most likely winner if she runs back to a third-level allowance win at the Keeneland meet. That race came over 1 1/8 miles, and trainer Lindsay Schultz believes the filly better suits this slightly shorter trip. Jockey Fernando Jara worked Girl Named Charlie twice since she shipped to Monmouth.

“She always trains like she runs – stakes quality,” Schultz said.

But, as often is the case, there are Browns to beat.

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