Brown going for easier spot with Opulent Restraint in Chelsey Flower

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Chad Brown has been and remains bullish on Opulent Restraint. While he sees her having a big future, Brown doesn’t believe he has her far enough along to win a race like the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf to be run in two weeks at Del Mar.

“She has loads of talent, I didn’t think she was a candidate to win the Juvenile Fillies Turf,” Brown said. “She was good enough to get into the field, but I try to point to races that I think they can win.”

Thus, Opulent Restraint has landed in Sunday’s $150,000 Chelsey Flower Stakes for 2-year-old fillies scheduled for 1 1/16 miles over Aqueduct’s outer turf course. Opulent Restraint, coming off a maiden win on Sept. 1 at Saratoga in her second start, figures to be favored in a race that drew just six horses.

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“I have high hopes for her to have a really good career for us,” Brown said. “I think the Chelsey Flower makes more sense for her.”

Opulent Restraint didn’t have a great trip in her July 28 debut when sent off the 3-5 favorite and finished fourth. Reining Flowers, who won that race, finished third in the P.G. Johnson Stakes before winning an allowance race on Oct. 11.

Opulent Restraint came back to win her maiden on Sept. 1 at Saratoga and Brown thought about running her in the Miss Grillo or Jessamine Stakes before opting for an easier spot.

Two of Opulent Restraint’s rivals on Sunday – Grace and Grit and Rare Art – come out of the Grade 2 Miss Grillo run two weeks ago. Grace and Grit, a debut winner at Aqueduct on Sept. 12, was one of two horses severely compromised when Marvelous Madison bolted at the top of the stretch of the Miss Grillo, ultimately finishing 10th.

“I was really upset after the race,” John Kimmel, trainer of Grace and Grit, said. “She was sitting locked and loaded, Kendrick [Carmouche] was just waiting, he knew that [Manny] Franco was having trouble with his horse, but it happened so fast that he really had no other option but to grab her.”

Kimmel said Grace and Grit “didn’t even have a scratch on her” after the race. “Kendrick said you should run her right back.”

Rare Art finished fifth in the Miss Grillo. Racing near the back of the pack early, she was not impeded by the incident at the top of the stretch. Tony Dutrow, trainer of Rare Art, said he thought it was worth wheeling back in two weeks as the turf season here winds down.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen at the eighth pole, if she’s going to show up,” Dutrow said. “I’ve been down this road more than once, sometimes they run, sometimes they’re flat, but she seems very, very good.”

Mangetsu won a maiden race for New York-breds here on Sept. 13. She’s Our Tiz, a turf sprint winner in July, goes back to turf after running last in the Joseph A. Gimma Stakes on dirt. Duboff is coming off a maiden turf sprint victory against New Jersey-breds.

The Chelsey Flower goes as race 3 on a 10-race card that begins at 12:40 p.m.

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