Discreet Marq may enjoy home-field advantage in Just a Game Stakes

ELMONT, N.Y. – Saturday’s card at Belmont Park has drawn top runners from all over the country, and the Grade 1, $750,000 Just a Game Stakes is no exception, with recent graded stakes winners at Churchill Downs and Pimlico coming in to challenge. However, the home team, led by the Grade 1-winning New York-bred Discreet Marq, appears ready for the onslaught.

Discreet Marq has never been worse than third on the Belmont turf and has won three stakes here, including the Grade 2 Sands Point last year. She also has found success taking her show on the road, winning the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks and finishing second by a nose in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes. She was second by a half-length in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland to start 2014.

“Discreet Marq is doing very well,” trainer Christophe Clement said. “She had a very good work a few days ago. She’s never run a bad race at Belmont. We’re very excited about her.”

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The draw was unkind to Discreet Marq, the 5-2 favorite, and multiple Grade 1 winner Better Lucky, the second choice on the morning line at 3-1. Discreet Marq and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. drew post 9, with only Better Lucky outside. The favorite will need to use her natural speed early to secure position.

Better Lucky, trained by Tom Albertrani, also is a Grade 2 winner on the Belmont turf. She was a close third behind Egg Drop and Discreet Marq in the Matriarch, then ran second in the Grade 1 Madison Stakes at Keeneland, competing on Polytrack rather than turf and at a distance shorter than her best.

Coffee Clique and Dame Marie were separated by a half-length in the Grade 2 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile last month, with Coffee Clique prevailing under a confident, rail-skimming ride from Javier Castellano, back aboard Saturday for the rematch.

Also shipping to New York with some momentum is Somali Lemonade, who has won two straight, including the Grade 3 Gallorette Handicap at Pimlico three weeks ago.

Questions surround two other New York-based runners, defending race winner Stephanie’s Kitten and turf first-timer Unlimited Budget. Stephanie’s Kitten returned from a layoff of almost nine months to finish eighth in the Jenny Wiley. That was her first start for Chad Brown, who also will saddle Waterway Run, the winner of the Grade 3 Beaugay Stakes at Belmont last month.

Unlimited Budget, a multiple graded stakes winner on dirt, is looking to revitalize her career after not having seen the winner’s circle in more than a year. A strong work on the Belmont turf last Sunday in company with Grade 1 winner Boisterous prompted a shot here.

“She handled it well,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “She went 47 and four-fifths [seconds] and seemed to be excited about being [on turf]. She went with a Grade 1 winner and handled her own.”