Brown sends Whitebeam, Aspray to continue Beaugay dominance

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown’s recent dominance of the Beaugay Stakes should continue Saturday at Aqueduct when he sends out Whitebeam and Aspray in the Grade 3, $175,000 turf stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles.

The Beaugay was originally scheduled for last weekend, but failed to draw enough entries to be carded. As it is, only five were entered this time, including Quarrel who was entered in a Friday allowance race. The Beaugay is scheduled as race 2 on an 11-race card that begins at 12:35 p.m.

Brown has won five of the last six runnings of the Beaugay and six overall since 2014. In Whitebeam, he brings back to the races the winner of last year’s Grade 1 Diana at Saratoga. In Aspray, Brown brings back a filly who has won of four of five starts but has not run since winning last year’s Grade 2 Lake Placid also at Saratoga.

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Whitebeam, a 5-year-old daughter of Caravaggio, won the Grade 1 Diana as the longest price of four Brown-trained horses in a five-horse field. She ran down the 1-5 favorite, In Italian, by a nose to get the victory. After a break, and with no ideal spot to run her, Whitebeam ran fourth to stablemate Gina Romantica in the Grade 1 First Lady going a mile at Keeneland in October.

Whitebeam then finished fourth as the 9-5 favorite behind a trio of stablemates – Surge Capacity, Fluffy Socks, and Beaute Cachee – in the Grade 1 Matriarch at Del Mar in December.

“From what was available to us, running in some mile races seemed like the right thing to do,” Brown said. “She just couldn’t find her form that she had had earlier in the season. She tailed off. She also became a little bit aggressive in her races. We gave her time. The filly really came around nicely; her works have been smooth, relaxed, impressive.”

Irad Ortiz Jr. rides Whitebeam from post 5.

Aspray, a daughter of Quality Road, won the Hilltop at Pimlico and the Lake Placid, at a mile and 1 1/16 miles, respectively. The lone defeat of her career came in the Belmont Oaks at 1 1/4 miles where she was defeated 2 1/4 lengths by Aspen Grove.

“It was a touch out of her range,” Brown said of the distance.

Brown said that Aspray got sick after the Lake Placid and he backed off the filly.

Flavien Prat rides Aspray from post 4.

Neecie Marie finished a narrowly beaten second behind the Godolphin-owned Eternal Hope in both the Jockey Club Oaks and Sands Point Stakes run at Aqueduct last fall. She completed her campaign with a fifth-place finish in the Mrs. Revere Stakes at Churchill, a race that came off the grass and was run over a fast main track.

Trainer Butch Reid believes the filly has really developed physically from her 3-year-old season.

“She’s even a bigger, stronger horse this year,” Reid said. “Just from the freshening, she’s put on weight, gotten bigger, she looks fantastic. I’m excited about the possibilities for her this summer.”

Joel Rosaro rides Neecie Marie from post 2.

Spirit And Glory, trained by Robert Falcone Jr., has already won two stakes this year: the Albert Stall Memorial at Fair Grounds, where she came from off the pace, and the Plenty of Grace at Aqueduct, where she went gate to wire under Jose Lezcano.

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