Elate taking it one turn at a time in Beldame

ELMONT N.Y. – Though she is taking on older females for the first time, Elate, the Grade 1 Alabama winner, will loom a short price in a field of seven entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Beldame for fillies and mares.

Though the 3-year-old Elate is probably more effective around two turns, trainer Bill Mott opted to use the one-turn, 1 1/8-mile Beldame as a stepping-stone to a potential start in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 3 at Del Mar. In 2012, Mott won the Beldame with Royal Delta, who then won the Distaff, known then as the Ladies’ Classic.

Elate will break from the rail under Jose Ortiz.

Verve’s Tale, who drew post 2, is another who would appear to prefer two turns. She won the Summer Colony Stakes at Saratoga last time out, and last November upset the Grade 3 Comely at 20-1. At Belmont Park, she is winless in five starts around one turn.

Barry Irwin, the head of owner Team Valor International, supplemented Bombshell to the Beldame. Bombshell is coming off a fourth-place finish in the Shine Again Stakes at Laurel, where, according to Irwin, she “had the worst trip ever.”

Also entered were Eskenformoney, Money’soncharlotte, and Bishop’s Pond, who also has been cross-entered in a stakes race at at Delaware Park on Saturday.