New Money Honey's training pays off in Miss Grillo

ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Chad Brown wasn’t originally pointing the maiden New Money Honey to Sunday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Miss Grillo Stakes at Belmont Park. But the way she had trained since losing her debut last month forced him to put her in the race.

New Money Honey obviously ran to her training, rallying from fourth position under Javier Castellano to win the Miss Grillo by 2 3/4 lengths over Rymska. It was 1 1/2 lengths back to favored Coasted in third

The win was the fifth in the Miss Grillo for Brown, whose previous winners included Lady Eli (2014) and Maram (2007), both of whom went on to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita. New Money Honey will likely make her next start in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita.

New Money Honey finished second as the favorite in her debut at Saratoga on Sept. 5. Brown said her two breezes since that race convinced him to look at this race, where he also ran European maiden winners Create a Dream and Dancing Waves.

‘She dragged me here with her last two workouts,” Brown said.

New Money Honey had rallied from well off the pace in her debut. On Sunday, in a race without much pace, New Money Honey settled into fourth, within three lengths behind Joust, who set fractions of 25.99 seconds for the quarter, 51.57 for the half-mile and 1:15.93 for six furlongs while prompted by Rymska. New Money Honey raced outside of Coasted.

Turning for home, Rymska seized the lead from Joust, but New Money Honey was rallying four-wide while favored Coasted was trying to come up the rail under Jose Lezcano.

Coasted, who appeared to struggle with the soft turf, wouldn’t go through while New Money Honey took the lead inside the eighth pole and drew off for the win.

New Money Honey, a daughter of Medaglia d’Oro owned by e Five Racing Thoroughbreds, covered 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.58 and returned $10.60 to win.

“It was also nice to see her in her second start lay close,” Brown said. “It was a slow pace, but she broke better, much more professional. I think this filly trains with some positional speed. The more I run her I think she’ll get more tactical.”

New Money Honey handled the soft turf for Brown and Castellano much better than did Flintshire in Saturday’s Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, where he finished second, beaten five lengths.

“If you have the right horse that can deal with an off track, either main or the turf courses here, you’re doing fine, like today,” Brown said. “Yesterday, we had a group of horses that didn’t. It’s an outdoor sport and everyone has to run under the same conditions; you have to have the right types of horses on days like this.”

According to Lezcano, Coasted did not handle the soft turf. Lezcano tried to shoot Coasted through a hole along the rail in upper stretch, but said she was struggling too much with the ground to go through.

“It got a little tight, but she stayed there, but really no response when I asked her,” Lezcano said.