Favorites have a problem in Turnback the Alarm
A stakes doubleheader is on tap for Belmont Park on Friday, with 2-year-olds scheduled to go a mile on the Widener turf in the $100,000 Awad and fillies and mares clashing in the Grade 3, $200,000 Turnback the Alarm Handicap.
First post Friday is 10 minutes earlier than usual at 12:45 p.m. Eastern, with the Awad carded as race 7 and the Turnback the Alarm as race 8.
Those who subscribe to the theory that pace makes the race might be stumped by the Turnback the Alarm because none of the nine entrants has shown much early initiative. As a result, it’s not entirely clear who will set the pace in the 1 1/16-mile dirt race. A slow pace could pose tactical problems for Call Pat and Delightful Joy, who each posted a recent Grade 3 stakes victory by rallying from far behind.
Call Pat has been with trainer Brad Cox since last fall, and the 5-year-old mare earned black type this summer by winning the Groupie Doll Stakes at Ellis Park. She was last of 12 through the opening half-mile and finished strongly to edge Fioretti, who will run in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Saturday. Fioretti came back from the Groupie Doll to win the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes at Keeneland.
Call Pat, who recorded a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 94 in the Groupie Doll, was subsequently off for seven weeks and returned to finish fourth in the Grade 1 Beldame Invitational at Belmont behind Wedding Toast, the morning-line favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
“She tries for you every time you lead her over there,” said Cox, who is winning at a 27 percent clip this year. “She always gives 100 percent.”
Delightful Joy, one of two 3-year-olds in the field along with Pangburn, won a first-level allowance at Belmont in July and then stepped up to win the Monmouth Oaks several weeks later in just her fifth start.
Delightful Joy benefited from fast early fractions as she rallied from ninth in the Monmouth Oaks but isn’t likely to get the same kind of setup while meeting older stakes foes for the first time. Trained by Chad Brown, Delightful Joy is the 5-2 morning-line favorite for the Turnback the Alarm.
America, owned by celebrity chef Bobby Flay, carries the top weight of 118 pounds, giving a single pound to Call Pat, Joint Return, and Stiffed and two to Delightful Joy.
America won the Affectionately at Aqueduct to kick off her 4-year-old campaign this year and has since run in five Grade 1 or Grade 2 stakes, the latest an eighth-place finish after stumbling at the start in the grassy Flower Bowl.
Holiday’s Jewel, Imposing Grace, and La Madrina complete the field.
Brown has two in Awad
Thirteen, including the Chad Brown-trained pair of Converge and Eidmilaad, were entered in the Awad, and just about everyone looks to have some kind of a chance on paper. If the race stays on turf, only 11 will run.
Converge comes off a sharp debut victory over New York-breds and is one of two in the field to have won at the one-mile distance over the course. The other is the Leah Gyarmati-trained Strike Midnight.
Eidmilaad was the beaten favorite in the Pilgrim Stakes and will look to rebound beneath Aaron Gryder, a onetime New York mainstay who is named to ride.
Don’t Be Salty and Monster Bea, who each won a maiden race at Saratoga for trainer Adam Rice and was subsequently sold, bookend the field for turf in posts 1 and 11.
Entered for dirt only are Awesome Speed, a last-out maiden winner at Laurel, and Magna Light, the Hopeful Stakes runner-up and seventh most recently in the Champagne Stakes.