New York-breds get Showcase warm-up
It’s a stakes-less Sunday at Belmont, and in a warm-up of sorts for the Big Apple Showcase card scheduled for Memorial Day, all five non-claiming races are for New York-breds. They are headlined by race 8, a $65,000 optional claimer at 6 1/2 furlongs on the main track that drew seven fillies and mares.
Bella the Bandit and My Won Love step up in class after beating lesser on Aqueduct’s main track and earning their fastest Beyer Speed Figures, 72 and 75.
Bella the Bandit has won both starts since brought back from a layoff by Linda Rice and will once again be ridden by the trainer’s niece, Taylor Rice. She was aboard for both of Bella the Bandit’s victories since the layoff, both against claiming company across town.
My Won Love has won twice since she was claimed last fall by Steve Klesaris, capped by a pace-pressing score over preliminary allowance foes four weeks ago.
Other contenders include Lady Gracenote, who drops in class after chasing stakes winner Miss Da Point in an open allowance route, and Pearls for Girls, whose two wins at Belmont last spring include one exactly a year ago Sunday.
KEY CONTENDERS, Race 8
MY WON LOVE (Last 3 Beyers: 75-54-71)
◗ She has earned $99,750 since being claimed for $20,000 last fall at Aqueduct.
◗ Her only previous start at Belmont resulted in a maiden win last May.
LADY GRACENOTE (Last 3 Beyers: 60-67-77)
◗ The field’s top money earner, she boasts several competitive Beyers going long. She was claimed three races ago by owner and trainer Diane Balsamo, who has a 3-for-7 record and a $3.41 return on investment with horses going route to sprint in 2014-15.
Two for the turf set
Two supporting first-level allowance races are scheduled for turf.
Race 2, at 1 1/16 miles on the Widener course, drew a field of seven 3-year-olds, and handicappers who don’t take short prices on horses who have never done something before might take a stand against the first two morning-line choices, Beyond the Green and Bullheaded Boy. Neither has run on grass.
Race 7 is for older horses at 1 1/8 miles on the inner turf. Several of the main contenders will be making their first start of the year, notably Macagone, a maiden winner over the course and distance last June who runs as a first-time gelding for new trainer Michelle Nevin. Thurgood was a sharp maiden graduate at Saratoga before running rankly in one allowance attempt, and he takes the blinkers off.