Lewis Bay returns to route vs. elders in Turnback the Alarm

ELMONT, N.Y. – Lewis Bay, third in the Kentucky Oaks this year, didn’t find the most difficult spot to face older fillies and mares for the first time in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Turnback the Alarm Handicap at Belmont Park.

Lewis Bay, a graded stakes winner going two turns at ages 2 and 3, stretches out to 1 1/16 miles, albeit around one turn, from the seven-furlong Grade 1 Test, where she moved into a hot pace and faded to fourth.

Off since then, Lewis Bay finds a field lacking depth and one that includes the well-traveled Innovative Idea and Rachel’s Temper, who drops out of the Grade 1 Beldame.

“She’s proven at that distance,” trainer Chad Brown said. “We cut her back in the Test, and she got caught up in that wicked pace and didn’t fire, which is uncharacteristic for her. She’s been a consistent horse for us all year. She’s been training well, and that looks like a field in which she fits.”

Lewis Bay likely will have to stalk Innovative Idea, a front-running filly who exits a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Locust Grove at Churchill Downs. Prior to that, Innovative Idea won the Grade 3 Groupie Doll at Ellis Park and the Iowa Distaff at Prairie Meadows.

Trainer Eoin Harty said Innovative Idea didn’t care for the wet Churchill surface in the Locust Grove, but the filly has come back with a solid work tab since that race.

“I think this is the best condition she’s ever been in,” Harty said. “She’s happier and healthier than she’s ever been. If she doesn’t run well, I’d be bitterly disappointed.”

Turnback the Alarm, Race 4

KEY CONTENDERS

Lewis Bay, by Bernardini

Last 3 Beyers: 80-91-90

◗ Moved into the teeth of a hot early pace in Test before fading to fourth behind upset winner Paola Queen and Lightstream, who last weekend won the Grade 2 Raven Run at Keeneland. Finished second in the Grade 1 Mother Goose at this distance in July.

Innovative Idea, by Bernardini

Last 3 Beyers: 77-82-90

Well-traveled filly will be making her seventh consecutive start at a different track.

“She’s one of those unique horses that just loves it, the competition, the training; it doesn’t faze her to put her on a plane or a van and send her somewhere,” Harty said.

Rachel’s Temper, by Flatter

Last 3 Beyers: 83-90-87

Successfully stretched out to win the Summer Colony going 1 1/8 miles at Saratoga in her first start off the claim for Charlton Baker. May not have cared for the mud or the competition when sixth in the Beldame.