Feel Glorious adding a bit of ground in Sands Point

ELMONT, N.Y. – Though Christophe Clement always thought about stretching Feel Glorious out in distance, he elected not to try her at the marathon distances offered by the New York Racing Association in its Turf Tiara series earlier this year.

Instead, Clement will try Feel Glorious at 1 1/8-miles for the first time in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Sands Point Stakes at Belmont Park, a race that drew seven 3-year-old fillies, with nary a throwout.

Feel Glorious began her 3-year-old campaign with an allowance win at Gulfstream going a mile and a victory in the Memories of Silver Stakes at Aqueduct going 1 1/16 miles. After a difficult trip when second in the Grade 2 Soaring Softly, she went off a form a bit in the summer. Most recently, Feel Glorious finished a late-running third behind the Chad Brown-trained duo of Blowout and Seek and Destroy in the Pebbles Stakes going a mile.

“I thought her last race was a very good race,” Clement said. “She came from off the pace and finished all the way. We always thought we should try her once going longer.”

Very little has separated Dyna Passer and Romantic Pursuit going long, and they meet again in the Sands Point. Romantic Pursuit beat Dyna Passer by a neck in an allowance race at Saratoga,, while Dyna Passer finished a head in front of Romantic Pursuit when the two were third and fourth in the $750,000 Jockey Club Oaks here on Sept. 7. Both races were 1 3/8 miles.

It remains to be seen how effective the two will be going 1 1/8 miles on Saturday. Dyna Passer, a half-sister to the Grade 1 winner Sadler’s Joy, is trained by Tom Albertrani, who has won this race three times.

“I think she should be able to handle it – she’s pretty versatile,” said Dan Stupp, assistant to Albertrani. “She’s kind of like her brother. We know she’ll handle the extra distance but I don’t think the mile and an eighth will be a problem, either.”

Dyna Passer will break from the rail under Jose Lezcano.

Romantic Pursuit set the pace in the Jockey Club Oaks but just couldn’t finish the job, getting beat two lengths. She has been successful stalking the pace and is reunited with Dylan Davis, who has two wins and two seconds from four rides on the daughter of Medaglia d’Oro.

When in doubt, there’s always the Chad Brown factor. Brown, who has won 37 graded turf stakes in 2019, sends out the uncoupled entry of New and Improved and Olendon. New and Improved is 1 for 2, with both races at one mile, while Olendon is turning back from poor efforts in the Belmont Oaks and Saratoga Oaks. Brown is removing the blinkers from Olendon’s equipment.

Souper Escape, trained by Michael Trombetta, is coming off a victory in a stakes over synthetic at Woodbine, while Ledecka exits a Pennsylvania-bred stakes victory over the synthetic surface at Presque Isle Downs.

The Sands Point goes as race 9 on a 10-race card that begins at 12:45 p.m.