La Verdad seeks cash for Breeders’ Cup run

ELMONT, N.Y. – The truth is that La Verdad is good anywhere, but nowhere has she been better than at Belmont Park, where on Saturday she will seek her seventh win in eight tries while trying to literally earn herself a trip to the Breeders’ Cup next month at Keeneland.

La Verdad heads a salty group of seven older fillies and mares entered to run in Saturday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Gallant Bloom at 6 1/2 furlongs. The Gallant Bloom is not a Win and You’re In race for the $1 million Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland on Oct. 31. But the winner’s share of the Gallant Bloom purse is $180,000, more than enough to cover the $100,000 nomination fee that owner Sheila Rosenblum will have to put up – not to mention the $20,000 in entry fees – to run in the Filly and Mare Sprint.

“If she were to run big, I think we’d supplement her,” trainer Linda Rice said.

La Verdad is 4 for 4 this year, though she tested positive for clenbuterol after the Grade 2 Honorable Miss, a situation that is still being investigated. She scratched out of the Grade 1 Ballerina on Aug. 29 at Saratoga due to inflammation in a hind leg, but Rice said that issue is behind her.

“I feel good about running here,” Rice said. “It’s not an easy race, she’s carrying a lot of weight, which concerns me, but she runs well at Belmont. Hopefully, she can get through another hurdle.”

La Verdad carries the top weight of 123 pounds. She looks like the primary speed of the field, though Room for Me pressed La Verdad when running second to her in the Grade 3 Vagrancy here in May.

Dame Dorothy looks to bounce back off a sixth-place finish as the favorite in the Ballerina. Street Story, the runner-up to Dame Dorothy in the Bed o’ Roses here in June; Classic Point, who returns from a sixth-month layoff; and Willet, third in last year’s Gallant Bloom, add to the depth of this field.

KEY CONTENDERS

La Verdad (Last 3 Beyers: 102-101-101)

◗ Has won five straight races against females, her last loss coming by a head in last year’s Gallant Bloom after two poor races that summer in Saratoga.

“I think she’s better this year than she was last year, and so hopefully she can get there at Belmont again,” Rice said.

Dame Dorothy (Last 3 Beyers: 73-95-93)

◗ Won the Grade 1 Humana Distaff and Grade 3 Bed o’ Roses before her poor performance in the Ballerina, which trainer Todd Pletcher called “a head-scratcher.”

◗ Is 2 for 2 at Belmont, including a win in the Grade 3 Turnback the Alarm going 1 1/8 miles here last October.

Classic Point (Last 3 Beyers: 83-96-93)

◗ Has won her last three starts, though she has raced just once in 2015, that being a neck victory in the Grade 2 Inside Information Stakes at Gulfstream on March 21.