High class runs through New York Stakes, top to bottom
ELMONT, N.Y. – The Breeders’ Cup may be five months away but for those wanting to get a line on this year’s Filly and Mare Turf, just watch Friday’s Grade 2, $750,000 New York Stakes at Belmont Park.
The New York, scheduled to be run at 1 1/4 miles on the inner turf course, drew a field of 12, 11 of whom are graded or group winners, including Grade 1 winners Magic Attitude, Harvey’s Lil Goil, and Civil Union. Always Shopping, a Grade 3 winner, has been cross-entered in Saturday’s Grade 1 Just a Game and her connections are leaning toward running there.
“It’s a very good field,” said Arnaud Delacour, trainer of 2019 Belmont Oaks winner Magic Attitude, who is 6-1 on the New York morning line. “It’s exciting to be in a race like that.”
Magic Attitude, a 4-year-old daughter of Galileo, is 2 for 2 at Belmont. In addition to winning last year’s Belmont Oaks, she was a three-length winner of the Grade 2 Sheepshead Bay here on May 1. That victory followed a disappointing seventh-place finish in the Grade 2 Hillsborough at Tampa Bay Downs, her first start off a five-month layoff.
“She was really nervous before the race in the post parade, being away from the competition for that long, mentally she wasn’t right and that worried me a little bit,” Delacour said of the Hillsborough. “I was very happy to see her very relaxed in the paddock at Belmont. That usually is how she is.”
Delacour’s a little worried about weather, which calls for rain Thursday potentially lingering into Friday morning.
“She can be efficient on good to firm ground,” Delacour said. “I’m not sure about her turn of foot on soft ground.”
Trevor McCarthy, who has relocated to Southern California, is back to ride Magic Attitude.
Harvey’s Lil Goil beat Magic Attitude – and Micheline, who is also in this field – in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Keeneland last October. She followed that with a terrific third behind Audarya and Rushing Fall in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Keeneland. Harvey’s Lil Goil made a triumphant 4-year-old debut winning the Grade 3 Beaugay at 1 1/16 miles. Harvey’s Lil Goil will be trying 1 1/4 miles on turf for the first time.
“We think she should be okay. She finished strongly in the Breeders’ Cup going a mile and three-sixteenths,” Mott said. “Her first race back was good.”
Mott also sends out Antoinette, who won the Saratoga Oaks last year and the Grade 3 The Very One in February, both at 1 3/16 miles. She finished fifth of six in the Sheepshead Bay after setting the pace.
Mean Mary was a dominant front-running winner of the New York last year. That race had a six-horse field. She enters this year’s New York off a pretty easy victory in the Grade 3 Gallorette three weeks ago at Pimlico in her first start since a seventh in the BC Filly and Mare Turf.
“She had things pretty much her way, it was her race to lose,” trainer Graham Motion said. “It was great to get her back in a spot that didn’t seem to overexert her. You’d think that race would move her forward.”
Last year, Civil Union strung together four consecutive wins – three at Belmont – capped by the Grade 1 Flower Bowl. She had a bit of trouble when fifth in the BC Filly and Mare Turf.
In her lone start this year, Civil Union was fifth behind Harvey’s Lil Goil in the Beaugay, at a distance that was probably too short.
Trainer Chad Brown has won three of the last five runnings of the New York. Friday, he’ll send out Virginia Joy and My Sister Nat. Virginia Joy, a Group 3 winner in Germany, made a successful U.S. debut winning an allowance race here on April 23.
Making the race more impressive than it looks on paper is the fact Brown said Virginia Joy had a temperature the next day.
My Sister Nat, second in last year’s New York, was a dull fourth in the Sheepshead Bay.
“I will say despite being disappointed in that race, her last two works have been very good,” Brown said. “I think she got what needed out of that race and I expect her to move forward.”
Joseph O’Brien ships in the Irish-bred Thundering Night. Her lone start this year was a second behind Broome in a Group 3 stakes at The Curragh. Broome came back to win a Group 2 in her next start.
Trainer Christophe Clement, a four-time winner of this race, sends out the uncoupled pair of Mutamakina and Traipsing, the latter the lone non-stakes winner in this field.
The New York tops an 11-race card that includes four other stakes and begins at 12:50 p.m.
The New York is the first leg of a two-day daily double wager linking to Saturday’s Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap.