Miss Marissa the heavy favorite in Turnback the Alarm Handicap
Miss Marissa will spot her rivals between three and eight pounds Saturday when she starts as a strong favorite in the Grade 3, $150,000 Turnback the Alarm Handicap at Belmont Park.
Miss Marissa is the 122-pound highweight in the 1 1/8-mile race for fillies and mares. The Turnback the Alarm is the first of four stakes on the card.
Miss Marissa leads a field of five as a multiple Grade 2 winner of nearly $700,000. She is coming off a third-place finish in the Grade 2 Beldame on Oct. 10 at Belmont. Miss Marissa was prominent over a track rated good and earned one of her best Beyer Speed Figures, a 94.
“I thought she battled well to try and be second in the Beldame and ran really well that day,” trainer Jim Ryerson told the press office at Belmont.
The two horses finishing in front of Miss Marissa, winner Royal Flag and runner-up Horologist, are both set to start Saturday at Del Mar in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
Miss Marissa, who races for Alfonso Cammarota, established herself as a notable runner last October when she won the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan on a fast track at Pimlico. She’s since added the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap to her collection of six wins, with the victory coming in July at Delaware Park.
“Going from 3 to 4, you like to see them get a little stronger, faster and have some more maturity in them,” Ryerson said. “I think she’s done that. They don’t always do that. We’ll see how we finish the year and see what Mr. Cammarota wants to do with her next year. Hopefully, we can finish the year well. She’s sound and if she races well finishing up this year, I think he’ll plan to race her.”
Ryerson said the right kind of performance from Miss Marissa on Saturday could set her up for a start in the Grade 3, $250,000 Go for Wand on Dec. 4 at Aqueduct.
“Hopefully, we can do well and then go to the Go for Wand from there, going a flat mile,” Ryerson said. “We made our mark going a little further than that, but it’s in our backyard.”
Kendrick Carmouche has the mount Saturday from post 2.
Gibberish, who was second to Miss Marissa in the Delaware Handicap, is the second highweight at 119 pounds. She has raced once since the July start, finishing fourth to Horologist in the Summer Colony in August at Saratoga. Gibberish shows some strong works for her first start in just more than two months. Dylan Davis has the mount on the stakes winner from post 5.
Jilted Bride, weighted at 117, exits a runner-up finish in a three-other-than allowance sprint Oct. 2 at Churchill Downs. The start was her first since June.
“She ran a very solid race in her comeback at Churchill,” co-owner Peter Bradley told the press office at Belmont. “She certainly needed the race. She’s a filly that has definitely matured and gotten better physically.”
◗ Gal in a Rush and Mystic Eyes, who finished a respective second and third in last month’s Grade 3 Matron at Belmont, figure to start as the top two choices in the $100,000 Stewart Manor.
◗ The other turf race for 2-year-old fillies on the card is the $100,000 Chelsey Flower. The diverse field includes Philly Eagles, who in her North American debut last out was fourth in the Grade 2 Miss Grillo at Belmont.