French fillies Edisa and Wonderment figure prominently in Jockey Club Oaks

ELMONT, N.Y. – Concrete Rose is sidelined by injury. Chad Brown and Aidan O’Brien are absent by choice. Yet, they will still run the inaugural $750,000 Jockey Club Oaks Invitational Saturday at Belmont Park.

The Jockey Club Oaks is the third leg of NYRA’s Turf Tiara for 3-year-old fillies. Concrete Rose won the Belmont Oaks and Saratoga Oaks, but has since been sidelined by a hairline fracture that will force her to miss the remainder of the year.

The deep benches of Brown and O’Brien don’t have runners for this race.

French-based fillies Edisa and Wonderment look to be the two top choices in an Oaks field of eight set to contest 1 3/8 miles over Belmont’s inner turf.

Edisa, trained by Alain de Royer-Dupre for the Aga Khan, is coming off runner-up finishes in a pair of group stakes in France. In June, Edisa finished second behind English Oaks favorite Mehdaayih in the Prix de Malleret at Saint-Cloud. Last month, Edisa was beaten 1 3/4 lengths by Villa Marina in the Group 3 Prix de Psyche over soft ground at Deauville.

“That was not a very good track for her. It had tight turns,” Royer-Dupre said of the race at Deauville. “This is a race that could suit her very well because she takes off quickly.”

Flavien Prat rides Edisa from the rail.

Wonderment was a Group 1 winner at 2 but is winless in three starts at age 3. Her trainer, Nicolas Clement, brother of New York-based conditioner Christophe, said a virus delayed Wonderment’s 3-year-old campaign. She was beaten by Channel in both an allowance and the Group 1 French Oaks before finishing sixth in a Group 3 stakes at Deauville.

“We rode her from behind and she got outsprinted,” Clement said. “We hope to make the running [Saturday].”

Stephane Pasquier, aboard for five of Wonderment’s six starts, has the call again on Saturday.

The Japanese-bred Love So Deep comes off a narrow loss in the Group 2 Darley Prix de Pomone at Deauville on Aug. 18.

Romantic Pursuit steps into stakes company off a maiden win at Belmont and an allowance win at Saratoga, which came at the Oaks distance of 1 3/8 miles.

“We think she’s going in the right direction and she won against olders at a mile-and-three-eighths,” trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said.

Desert Ride, trained by Neil Howard, is 4 for 5 against females with the lone bad race on her form against males in the Queen’s Plate. Howard said he probably ran Desert Ride back too quick off a career-best effort winning the Woodbine Oaks.

Lady Prancealot won the Grade 3 Honeymoon and was a late-running third to Cambier Parc in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks. She was supplemented to this race by owners Michael and Jules Iavarone and trainer Richard Baltas.

Art of Almost, third to Cafe Americano in the Grade 3 Pucker Up, and Dyna Passer, beaten a neck by Romantic Pursuit in that July 28 Saratoga allowance, complete the field.