Gift Box a juvenile worth following

ELMONT, N.Y. – The six graded stakes races contested last Saturday at Belmont Park were about the near term. A maiden race run after the stakes late Saturday could have significant long-term implications.

In a race rained off the turf and onto the sloppy main track, a 2-year-old colt named Gift Box ran down Matt King Coal by a nose to win a 1 1/16-mile event. It was 18 lengths back to the third-place finisher.

Yes, the juvenile star of the day was Greenpointcrusader, who won the Grade 1 Champagne by an emphatic 4 3/4 lengths. But Gift Box is most certainly a 2-year-old with a future for owner Will S. Farish and trainer Chad Brown.

Gift Box is a half-brother to the Grade 2 stakes-winning filly sprinter Stonetastic. But Gift Box is by Twirling Candy and gives Brown every indication he wants to run a distance of ground around two turns.

“I thought he showed a lot to come and get that horse,” Brown said of Gift Box’s race on Saturday. “I think he’d prefer a little bit more time before he’s given his cue. He’ll get that at longer distances. When given his cue, he went ahead and did it anyway. I think we’ll see the best of him around two turns.”

Gift Box likely will get that chance to run around two turns in the Grade 2, $300,000 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct on Nov. 28. Brown won last year’s Remsen with Leave the Light On. In 2012, Brown finished second in the race with Normandy Invasion.

Brown said he started thinking about the Remsen for Gift Box after he finished third in his debut sprinting at Saratoga.

“If he comes out of the race well, the Remsen is a race we’re targeting with him,” Brown said. “Whether he’ll run between now and then, we’ll see if I feel he needs a race or not, but I’m not afraid to train him up to the race.”

In his debut, Gift Box finished behind his stablemate Portfolio Manager, who finished second. Portfolio Manager finished third in the Champagne. Brown said there were no immediate plans for Portfolio Manager.

If Gift Box runs before the Remsen, it likely would be in the Grade 2, $200,000 Nashua Stakes at Aqueduct on Nov. 4. Sunny Ridge, the runner-up to Greenpointcrusader in the Champagne, is pointing to the Nashua and the Remsen, according to trainer Jason Servis. Sunny Ridge is not Breeders’ Cup nominated.