Intercontinental a big test for undefeated Take These Chains
ELMONT, N.Y. – In her three starts, no horse has come close to matching strides with Take These Chains. Maybe she will find some competition while making her stakes debut Thursday at Belmont Park in the Grade 3, $250,000 Intercontinental.
Then again, maybe she won’t.
The Intercontinental, a seven-furlong grass race for older fillies and mares, is the last of three stakes on the first day of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival. First post for Thursday’s nine-race card is 2 p.m. Eastern, and after a gray, sodden start to the week on Long Island, there’s no rain forecast for that afternoon.
The stakes action starts in race 3 with the Grade 3, $200,000 Wonder Again for 3-year-old turf fillies at 1 1/8 miles, an apparently paceless race in which trainer Chad Brown has entered three horses (New Money Honey, Fifty Five, and Enchanting Kitten) and trainer Mark Casse two (Dream Dancing and Corporate Queen). Race 5 is the $150,000 Astoria, a 5 1/2-furlong dirt race for 2-year-old fillies, and race 6 starts the late pick four, which has a $250,000 guarantee and the Intercontinental as its penultimate leg.
Eleven were entered in the Intercontinental, but 10 at most will start, with the connections of Nobody’s Fault opting to keep the filly home to start at Churchill Downs.
KEY CONTENDERS
Take These Chains, by Fastnet Rock
Last 3 Beyers: 93-85-78
◗ She’s almost certain to be favored for trainer Brown and jockey Javier Castellano, and betting short-priced horses stepping up in class generally is the wrong road to travel, but this filly could be special.
“She’s nice – really nice,” Brown said.
◗ She won her career debut 14 months ago, going from last to first in a two-turn, 7 1/2-furlong Gulfstream route, and was equally impressive making her second start about a year ago at Belmont. She won that first-level allowance race June 24 and ran her last 4 1/2 furlongs in 51.79 seconds, an average of about 5.6 seconds per sixteenth of a mile. That is what’s called “flying home.”
◗ She returned in a second-level allowance two months ago at this same seven-furlong Belmont trip and basically jogged across the finish, with Castellano having stopped riding her at about the sixteenth pole after Take These Chains had overwhelmed her rivals. She’s ready to step up.
Mississippi Delta, by Giant’s Causeway
Last 3 Beyers: 96-93-86
◗ Finished sixth in this race a year ago but might be better now.
◗ Trainer Casse turns her back from three two-turn races to start her season, and Mississippi Delta has the speed to sprint.
◗ Comes out of a solid fourth-place finish in the Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill, a race dominated by two very good horses, Roca Rojo and Believe in Bertie.
Portmagee, by Hard Spun
Last 3 Beyers: 90-86-78
◗ She’s won three of her four grass starts and led all the way over the Belmont course April 30, winning the $150,000 License Fee, her stakes debut, by 1 1/2 lengths.
◗ Portmagee stayed on well at six furlongs last out but has yet to try a distance longer than that.
“Seven-eighths is like the end of the world for her,” said trainer Christophe Clement. “If we get too much rain before the race, it will be against her. Soft turf and added distance is a bad combination.”
Conquest Babayaga, by Uncle Mo
Last 3 Beyers: 88-85-79
◗ Brown’s second runner is 2 for 2 under his care. She got through along the inside and made up a lot of ground in winning a second-level Keeneland allowance race around two turns last out.
“She’s a progressive horse that keeps improving, and I like the cutback for her,” Brown said.