Eminent Victor holds off Oakhurst in Wild Applause

ELMONT, N.Y. - Eminent Victor’s return to the races was delayed multiple times by weather. She proved more than worth the wait Saturday at Belmont Park as she showed a nice turn of foot under Flavien Prat and outfinished stablemate Oakhurst to win the $100,000 Wild Applause Stakes by a half-length.

The first two finishers were trained by Chad Brown, as was the fourth-place finisher Lakota Spirit. Breeze Easy, the 6-5 favorite who finished third, is trained by Christophe Clement. Al Qahira, the only other entrant, was scratched.

Eminent Victor was making just her third career start and first since she ran third in the Grade 1 Natalma at Woodbine last Sept. 19. Brown said he had tried to run Eminent Victor several times in Kentucky this spring, but was excluded from a race at Keeneland, then was rained out in races at Keeneland and at Churchill Downs.

“She’s been ready for two months,” Brown said.

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Under Prat, Eminent Victor was third early, nine lengths off Breeze Easy, who ran an opening quarter in 22.45 seconds and a half-mile in 46.15 while stalked by Lakota Spirit.

Approaching the top of the lane, Prat had Eminent Victor on the move, but so did Jose Ortiz aboard Oakhurst, who was last of the quartet early. Prat said when his filly felt Oakhurst to her outside, “it kind of helped my filly to get going.”

Eminent Victor did bobble in upper stretch, but Prat said “she recovered well and went on from that point.”

Eminent Victor and Oakhurst passed Breeze Easy in midstretch and Eminent Victor was able to hold off Oakhurst by a half-length. It was 1 1/2 lengths back to Breeze Easy.

Eminent Victor, a daughter of Mr. Z, covered the mile in 1:33.31 and returned $5.40 as the second choice.

“I was very confident … very firm ground would be her preferred surface, we got a very hard turf course and she liked it,” Brown said.

Brown received Eminent Victor following a private purchase of the filly last year by Michael Dubb, Michael Caruso, Louis Lazzinnaro and Stuart Grant’s The Elkstone Group. He raced her in blinkers for the Natalma because Brown said she was not traveling straight in her morning training. He removed the blinkers for this race, saying Eminent Victor had matured and was staying straight.

Brown will have a bevy of stakes from which to choose to run Eminent Victor in at Saratoga including the Lake George (July 23), Saratoga Oaks (Aug. 7) and Lake Placid (Aug. 20).