Newspaperofrecord tries going longer in Belmont Oaks

ELMONT, N.Y. – The aura of invincibility that Newspaperofrecord had as a 2-year-old has vanished. She has been beaten twice in as many starts as a 3-year-old, and questions surround the filly’s distance capabilities.

Trainer Chad Brown still holds out hope that Newspaperofrecord is without distance limitations. He feels that she just needs to be ridden differently to prove it. Brown hopes he can get a different trip – and a different outcome – Saturday when Newspaperofrecord tries 1 1/4 miles for the first time in the Grade 1, $750,000 Belmont Oaks Invitational on the turf.

In the Oaks, Newspaperofrecord will face the only two fillies to have defeated her – stablemate Cambier Parc in the Grade 3 Wonder Again here June 6 and Concrete Rose in the Grade 3 Edgewood at Churchill Downs on May 3. In both races, Newspaperofrecord appeared to be cruising on the lead. Until she wasn’t.

“There’s some reasonable doubt around her, how far she wants to go,” Brown said Thursday at steamy Belmont Park. “It’s my personal belief that she just doesn’t want to be running the way she has been – out on the lead with no target, no cover, fighting the rider a little bit. That’s what I think. We’ll see. I’m going to give her the opportunity to prove that out.”

The problem for her in the Oaks is there does not appear to be any legitimate speed. Getting Newspaperofrecord behind another horse could be a chore for Irad Ortiz Jr.

“I would prefer her not [on the lead], but I can’t say with certainty the way the field’s shaping up,” Brown said. “It’s going to be a game-time decision that will ultimately be left up to the jockey.”

Brown has won this race – called the Belmont Oaks since 2014 but known as the Garden City before then – in five of the last seven years. He has two others in this field capable of getting the job done in Cambier Parc, who beat Newspaperofrecord by 3 3/4 lengths in the Wonder Again, and Cafe Americano, who is 2 for 2 but has yet to run in a stakes race.

Cambier Parc is 3 for 4 on turf, with her only loss coming in the Edgewood, run over soft turf. It certainly seems like 1 1/4 miles is within her scope. Brown said Cambier Parc should find herself forwardly placed after breaking from the outside post in this nine-horse field.

“She’s a big, powerful horse with a good kick, but she doesn’t have an amazing turn of foot,” Brown said.

Cafe Americano, who won a 1 1/8-mile allowance race here June 1, “wants a mile and a quarter for sure, and she’s improving rapidly, by the week,” Brown said.

“She’s a contender,” he added.

Concrete Rose, trained by Rusty Arnold, is 4 for 5, with her only loss coming to Newspaperofrecord in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, run over a boggy Churchill course. In two starts this year, Concrete Rose won the Grade 3 Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs and the Edgewood, both at 1 1/16 miles. Arnold by design has waited two months to run the filly again.

Arnold said Concrete Rose has trained superbly, and he got her to New York in time to school in the paddock, which he feels is important because she can be finicky. Arnold isn’t sure about the distance. Concrete Rose is by Twirling Candy – whose son One Bad Boy just won the 1 1/4-mile Queen’s Plate – and her dam’s sire is Powerscourt, who won the Arlington Million at 1 1/4 miles.

“She looks wonderful,” Arnold said. “She’s trained great. She’s not a big, robust horse – that was one of the reasons we decided not to squeeze another race in. This filly has done really well and has a great mind.”

Julien Leparoux will ride Concrete Rose from post 3.

The only other U.S.-based runner in the Oaks is Dyna Passer, coming off a maiden win at 1 3/8 miles.

Aidan O’Brien, who won this race last year with Athena, has shipped in Coral Beach and Just Wonderful. Coral Beach, assistant trainer T.J. Comferford said, should appreciate the 1 1/4 miles.

Olendon was beaten a length in a Group 1 stakes in France going 1 1/4 miles last out. Trained by Pascal Bary, Olendon will remain in the U.S. with Brown after this race.

Jodie is here from Japan with spotty form. Two back, she finished third in a Grade 2, and most recently she was beaten 18 1/2 lengths in a Group 1.

The Belmont Oaks is the first leg of a turf tiara that will continue with the Saratoga Oaks on Aug. 2 and conclude with the Jockey Club Oaks back at Belmont on Sept. 7.