Brown going for fifth straight Plenty of Grace

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown will have two chances to continue his mastery of the $100,000 Plenty of Grace Stakes on Sunday when he sends out Regal Glory and Counterparty Risk in the one-mile turf race for fillies and mares at Aqueduct.

After not having a starter in the first running of the Plenty of Grace in 2015, Brown has won the last four runnings of this race, from 2016-19, with Fifty Five, Uni, Light in Paris, and Mrs McDougal. The race was not run last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Regal Glory and Counterparty Risk are likely to be the two top betting choices Sunday. Regal Glory is a five-time stakes winner with her most recent victory coming in last September’s Grade 3 Ladies Turf at Kentucky Downs. Regal Glory was owned by and bred by Paul Pompa Jr., who died unexpectedly in October.

All of Pompa’s horses went through a dispersal sale and Peter Brant, another of Brown’s top clients, purchased Regal Glory for $925,000 – the co-sales topper at the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale.

Brown said that before Pompa’s death he was pointing Regal Glory to the Grade 1 Matriarch at Del Mar in November. Brown finished one-two in the Matriarch with Viadera and Blowout, a horse Regal Glory defeated in the Lake Placid Stakes in 2019.

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“I’m not saying she would have won [the Matriarch], but she fit with those horses,” Brown said. “She wintered well in Florida.”

There is rain in the forecast for Sunday which, at least in part, was why the Plenty of Grace was carded as race 4. Regal Glory, a 5-year-old daughter of Animal Kingdom, has recorded five of her six career victories over turf labeled less than firm.

Jose Ortiz rides Regal Glory.

Counterparty Risk, a 4-year-old daughter of the Great Britain-bred stallion Australia, has won two of five career starts. In February, she won the Grade 3 Endeavour going 1 1/16 miles at Tampa Bay Downs. Brown ran her back in the Grade 2 Hillsborough going 1 1/8 miles, where Counterparty Risk finished sixth, beaten 1 1/2 lengths.

“She ran flat so we’ll cut her back in distance,” said Brown, who has Eric Cancel named to ride.

Brown’s former assistant Jorge Abreu sends out the New York-bred Myhartblongstodady in the Plenty of Grace. Myhartblongstodady won her maiden going a mile here in April 2018 and won a pair of New York-bred stakes last summer at Saratoga. She is coming out of a 10th-place finish in the Hillsborough.

“I don’t think she wants to go that far,” Abreu said. “She’s been training really well. She needed that race. She’s back to herself now.”

Myhartblongstodady, who will be ridden by Trevor McCarthy, has also shown the ability to handle less-than-firm turf.

Call Me Love was a group winner over off turf in Italy. She is winless in five starts in the U.S. but was good enough to run second to Rushing Fall in last June’s Grade 3 Beaugay. Call Me Love is trained by Christophe Clement, who won the inaugural running of the Plenty of Grace.

Kilkea, Sweet Turn, Platinum Paynter, and Xanthique complete the field on turf. Daria’s Angel and Flashndynamite were entered to run if the race is transferred to the main track.