Celestine needs absolute best to repeat in Just a Game

ELMONT, N.Y. – Frosted’s Metropolitan Handicap tour de force on the 2016 Belmont Stakes card obscured another standout performance, Celestine’s whistling victory in the Just a Game Stakes. Celestine beat a good field that day by more than three lengths while running the best race of her life, and she will need a similar performance if she’s to win the Grade 1, $700,000 Just a Game again Saturday.

Celestine is one of seven fillies and mares in the Just a Game, a small but select field that also includes Dickinson, Roca Rojo, Prize Exhibit, Harmonize, Sassy Little Lila, and Antonoe. The Just a Game, a one-turn mile with an early dogleg, goes as race 8 at 3:58 p.m. Eastern.

Prize Exhibit is 20-1 on the morning line and would be a shock. Harmonize has on occasion approached the performance level that will be required to win this race but does not appear to be in top form and probably is better suited to longer distances.

Sassy Little Lila would need the race of her life to win but is lightly raced and still improving. Still, she’s a less likely winner than Celestine, Dickinson, Roca Rojo, and even Antonoe.

Celestine was trained by Bill Mott when she won the 2016 Just a Game but was purchased at auction last fall by Moyglare Stud and turned over to trainer Christophe Clement. Celestine races this year before becoming a broodmare in Ireland in 2018.

“She’s doing great. She breezed yesterday and came out of the work in great shape,” Clement said Monday. “It’s an amazingly tough race, but a Grade 1 at Belmont, they’re not very easy usually.”

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Just a Game, Race 8

KEY CONTENDERS

Dickinson, by Medaglia d’Oro

Last 3 Beyers: 100-99-99

◗ Switched to grass last year after “a couple really disappointing dirt races,” Kiaran McLaughlin said, and has since won five of six starts. “She could easily be undefeated on grass,” said McLaughlin.

◗ Ran well at Gulfstream this year and even better at Keeneland last out, where she beat Lady Eli in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley.

“She’s a star in the barn this year,” McLaughlin said.

◗ Has experience going one mile at Belmont, winning a second-level allowance race Oct. 20 with a last quarter-mile in 22.95 seconds.

“She’s coming into this race in great shape,” said McLaughlin.

Roca Rojo, by Strategic Prince

Last 3 Beyers: 103-100-104

◗ She was very impressive in winning the Grade 3 Athenia last fall on this course, then stepped up and missed by a nose to the elite Miss Temple City in the Grade 1 Matriarch at Santa Anita.

◗ Struggled to put away Believe in Bertie while racing over soft ground at Churchill and making her 2017 debut last month in the Distaff Turf Mile.

“She’s supposed to like soft ground, and on that turf, her action didn’t look very good,” said trainer Chad Brown. “Visually, I would have said it was an ugly race and that she ran slow and won, but the speed figures from the race came back very fast.”

◗ Brown said Roca Rojo worked strongly on firm turf here last week.

“I end up saying she’s a versatile horse that can run on anything,” he said.

Antonoe, by First Defence

Last Beyer: 93

◗ French import beat much lesser at Keeneland in her U.S. debut but flew home under Javier Castellano, who sees fit to ride the filly back Saturday.

◗ Started her career as a hot horse, beating a couple of high-class horses first out in a maiden race by six lengths, then winning a stakes race, but her form fell completely apart in France, and Juddmonte Farms eventually sent her to Brown.

“When she broke her maiden over there for Pascal Bary, she was all the rage,” Brown said. “It sounds like she had physical problems somewhere in her hind end, and they gave her plenty of time. They sent her to me nice and sound. I’m the lucky recipient of this one. Man, she’s trained good from the first day she stepped on the track for me.”

Celestine, by Scat Daddy

Last 3 Beyers: 96-95-85

◗ Two solid Gulfstream stakes wins over lesser competition to start her year. To win, Celestine will have to step back up to the level she hit a year ago.

“The one-turn mile is good,” Clement said. “She’s built like a sprinter – very fast.”