Newspaperofrecord a big favorite to rebound in Wonder Again

ELMONT, N.Y. – There will be 18 stakes races offered from Thursday to Saturday at Belmont Park in what has become known as the three-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival. The heaviest favorite in any of the 18 figures to be Newspaperofrecord in Thursday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Wonder Again Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on the turf.

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Despite Newspaperofrecord having lost her only start this year, only four horses were entered against her for the Wonder Again, run at 1 1/8 miles and designed to be a prep for the $750,000 Belmont Oaks here July 6. Due to the short field and the presumption of Newspaperofrecord being odds-on, the Wonder Again is carded as the third race on a nine-race card that begins at 3:05 p.m. Eastern. Thursday’s card also includes the Grade 3, $200,000 Intercontinental Stakes for older female turf sprinters and the $150,000 Astoria Stakes for juvenile fillies on dirt.

Newspaperofrecord won all three of her starts at 2, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Churchill Downs. She was sent off the 1-5 favorite in a field of seven in the Grade 3 Edgewood on May 3 at Churchill, and after opening up a 3 1/2-length lead approaching the quarter pole, she was run down in the stretch by Concrete Rose. Newspaperofrecord was beaten by 3 3/4 lengths while finishing 2 1/2 lengths ahead of the field.

“Definitely had her short that along with fairly punishing fractions on the front end she proved second best,” said Chad Brown, the trainer of Newspaperofrecord. “Winner ran terrific.”

Since the Edgewood, Newspaperofrecord has breezed three times at Belmont Park, and Brown doesn’t anticipate running a short horse Thursday.

“Now, I see a much fitter, sharper horse,” Brown said. “We’re looking forward to getting her back to the winner’s circle, hopefully, and testing her at a mile and an eighth.”

Brown said he doesn’t believe the 1 1/8 miles should be an issue for Newspaperofrecord, an Irish-bred daughter of Lope de Vega out of the Holy Roman Emperor mare Sunday Times. She is owned by the Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables.

“I think she’ll stretch out effectively, I really do,” Brown said. “It’s just a matter of her settling and finishing her races like we know she can.”

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Irad Ortiz Jr. will ride Newspaperofrecord from post 2.

If there is a threat to Newspaperofrecord, it would seem to come from her own barn in the form of Cambier Parc. A daughter of Medaglia d’Oro who cost $1.25 million as a yearling, Cambier Parc won a maiden race and the Grade 3 Herecomesthebride at Gulfstream Park. She, too, ran in the Edgewood, finishing fourth. That race was run on less-than-firm ground.

“I think on firm ground she’s much better than her previous effort,” Brown said.

Chocolate Kisses will return to turf for the first time since she won a first-level allowance race at Fair Grounds in January. Trainer Mark Casse put her on the dirt thereafter, and after winning the Grade 3 Honeybee at Oaklawn, she finished sixth in the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland and eighth in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs.

“Her race at Keeneland I’m throwing out, the Keeneland track was so biased,” Casse said. “I asked Tyler [Gaffalione] to put her close. No real excuse in the Kentucky Oaks, maybe just a little too tough.”

Of running in the Wonder Again, Casse said, “It looked like a small field, I like the distance. I’m going to give her another try on” turf.

Kelsey’s Cross, a maiden winner on May 19 at Gulfstream Park, and Blonde Moment, a maiden winner at odds of 22-1 on May 11 at Monmouth, complete the compact field.

Nonsensical was entered to run only if the race is transferred to the main track.