Limari set for stakes debut in Mint Julep
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – While Beau Recall is still cooling out at Belmont Park from her run in the Grade 1 Just a Game, her trainer, Brad Cox, can turn his attention to the rest of a busy Saturday. Cox will be watching from New York as his stable is represented in five races at his home track, Churchill Downs, most notably Limari in the featured Mint Julep Stakes.
“We’re hoping for a big day all around,” said Cox, whose flight from Louisville landed early Wednesday evening at LaGuardia Airport.
Limari, with Florent Geroux to ride, will carry a four-race win streak into the Grade 3, $125,000 Mint Julep, a 1 1/16-mile turf race that anchors an 11-race card that starts at 12:45 p.m. Eastern. Bred and owned by the Don Alberto Stable, the 4-year-old Medaglia d’Oro filly has spent the last six months sailing through conditions and now will be making her stakes debut.
“She’s done everything we’ve asked of her,” Cox said. “She’s got all that natural speed, but she’s really learned how to rate kindly and then gets pretty brave out front. I’d like to see her keep on developing and improving the way she has.”
Limari will break from post 7 when facing nine others in the Mint Julep. Her latest wire-to-wire victory came in a third-level Keeneland allowance April 19, a race that gave her a career-high 93 Beyer Speed Figure.
Whereas Limari has seen steady action since early November, that’s the last time her main rival, Mom’s On Strike, was seen by the racing public, finishing eighth at 33-1 in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill. A three-time stakes winner, most notably in the Grade 3 Bewitch in April 2018, the late-running mare has been working steadily since late March by recording nine timed breezes for trainer Joe Sharp.
Mom’s On Strike, a 6-year-old Florida-bred owned by Carl Moore and Brad Grady, will have Adam Beschizza aboard when breaking from post 3.
Fringe contenders in an interesting lineup include three winners of allowance races over the local course at the current spring meet – Smart Emma (post 2, Declan Cannon), She’s Pretty Lucky (post 4, Miguel Mena), and Smart Shot (post 6, Edgar Morales).
Rounding out the lineup are Coco Channel, Vagabond Princess, Stave, Promise of Spring, and Phantom Opening.
The conditions of the Mint Julep, which was first run in 1977, were changed in recent years from handicap to allowance. All starters carry 120 pounds, except Smart Shot (122).
The Mint Julep anchors a solid Saturday card that also includes three allowances (races 3, 8, 9). Post time is 5:26, with the 11th race going at 5:58. The simulcast of the Belmont Stakes (6:37) will be shown on the Big Board and throughout the facility.
