Brown loaded for deep renewal of Athenia

ELMONT, N.Y. – Included among trainer Chad Brown’s meet-best 39 wins heading into the final four days of the Belmont Park fall meet are eight stakes victories on turf. Naturally, Brown is well armed to add to those totals when he sends out a trio of contenders in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Athenia Stakes for fillies and mares.

The Athenia, scheduled for 1 1/16 miles over the Widener turf course, drew 13 entries. Twelve are permitted to run.

Brown, who won last year’s Athenia with Roca Rojo, will be represented this year by by Off Limits, authoritative winner of the Grade 3 Noble Damsel; Elysea’s World, an unlucky loser of all six of her starts this year; and Penjade, a winner of three consecutive allowance races.

Off Limits, the 123-pound highweight, is 3 for 4 this year, with her lone loss being a neck defeat to On Leave in the Perfect Sting Stakes here in July. Last out, Off Limits ran a powerful race, rallying from last of five to win the Noble Damsel on Sept. 23 by 4 3/4 lengths. She ran a mile in 1:32.51 and earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 105.

“That’s about as good as a mare can really run on turf, the way she stormed down the center lane,” Brown said. “I think she’s had adequate time in between starts. She seems to have bounced out of it okay, come back and breezed well.”

Elysea’s World, who gets in light at 116 pounds, has three seconds and a third in five graded stakes tries this year. In her most recent start, she was beaten a half-length by Quidura in the Grade 2 Canadian at Woodbine.

“She’s been unlucky in some trips, always seems to fire,” Brown said. “This is a chance to work out a trip and see if she can get that elusive graded stakes win.”

Penjade, who went winless in 2016, is 3 for 3 this year, with two wins coming at Belmont. Irad Ortiz Jr. has been aboard for all three races and is back on again Saturday.

“It took a little to find her rhythm,” Brown said. “We needed a little time to figure her out. I think a mile to a mile and a sixteenth is her distance with some pace in front of her, and Irad has really gotten along with her very well.”

The competition is deep and includes My Impression, Grade 1 winners Time and Motion and Decked Out, and Thundering Sky.

My Impression, a daughter of Sky Mesa trained by Shug McGaughey, is coming off a solid victory under Tyler Gaffalione in the One Dreamer Stakes at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 6 and has come back with several good works over the Belmont turf.

“She was stuck down on the inside, they weren’t going anywhere, and he swung her to the outside in the better going and she finished good,” McGaughey said of the One Dreamer race. “Came out of it good and came back here good, and has trained really well.”