Neige Blanche may be ready for deeper water, trainer says

ARCADIA, Calif. - Neige Blanche has won six graded or group stakes in France and in California at Del Mar and Santa Anita. Her next stakes win could be at the highest level.

After Neige Blanche’s latest win in Saturday’s Grade 3 Santa Barbara Stakes at 1 1/2 miles at Santa Anita, trainer Leonard Powell said the 5-year-old mare’s next goal may be the Grade 1 New York Stakes, a $750,000 race for fillies and mares at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Belmont Park on June 10.

Neige Blanche may need a little luck to record stakes win No. 7. Powell admits Neige Blanche must give a career-best performance to win the New York Stakes.

“The water is much deeper there,” Powell said Sunday.

Neige Blanche would likely face a field that includes Rougir, the easy winner of the Grade 3 Beaugay Stakes at Belmont Park on Saturday in her 2022 debut. Rougir was a Group 1 winner last October in the Prix de l’Opera at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris, and was seventh in her American debut in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar last November.

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“I saw Rougir win and she was impressive,” Powell said.

A trip to Belmont for the New York Stakes would give Powell and his clients that own Neige Blanche – Madaket Stable, Laura de Seroux, Marsha Naify and Mathilde Powell – a chance to test the French-bred mare in her first Grade 1 since a fourth-place finish in the Rodeo Drive Stakes at Santa Anita last October.

Neige Blanche has started in four Grade 1 races in her 18-race career, with her best finish a third in the Belmont Oaks in 2020 in her second American start. Neige Blanche has won eight times and earned $480,280.

Leonard Powell said the Rodeo Drive Stakes early this fall and the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Keeneland on Nov. 5 are long-range goals. An appearance in the Breeders’ Cup is contingent on a successful race in the Rodeo Drive.

“We would have to be first or second in the Rodeo Drive to go to the Breeders’ Cup,” he said. “The Breeders’ Cup is even deeper water.”

Neige Blanche won the Grade 3 Astra Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on turf at Santa Anita in January before finishing third behind Queen Goddess in the Grade 3 Santa Ana Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf on March 26. In the $125,000 Santa Barbara Stakes, Neige Blanche stalked pacesetter Queen Goddess and caught that filly in the stretch to win by 1 1/2 lengths.

“She’s a joy to be around,” Powell said. “It was satisfying to watch her win.”

Powell’s next stakes runner will be Bye Bye Bertie in Saturday’s $75,000 Mizdirection Stakes for fillies and mares at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course. Bye Bye Bertie, claimed for $40,000 last August, had a four-race winning streak in starter allowance races from January to March end with a fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Santa Margarita Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/8 miles on dirt on April 30.

The Mizdirection Stakes is the lone stakes at Santa Anita next weekend.

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