Opulent Restraint takes Chelsey Flower, caps solid weekend for Brown, Prat

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Favored Opulent Restraint held off Rare Art by a nose to win Sunday’s $145,500 Chelsey Flower Stakes at Aqueduct as the trainer-jockey tandem of Chad Brown and Flavien Prat keeps on rolling.

Sent off the odds-on favorite coming off a maiden win at Saratoga on Sept. 1, Opulent Restraint was reserved in fourth early on under Prat while Grace and Grit set fractions of 23.43 seconds for the quarter and 47.64 for the half-mile. Prat made his move going into the far turn, made the front at the three-sixteenths pole then, under a busy ride, fended off the late run from Rare Art, who, under Dylan Davis, had followed Opulent Restraint’s move.

“She was traveling well, I was very pleased that she relaxed, there was a bit of a faster pace today and she relaxed well,” Prat said. “She reacted really well when I asked her to make a run, she quickened very fast, once she got to the front she didn’t know what to do. It felt like the other filly just pushed me.”

Dylan Davis, the rider of Rare Art, said at the quarter pole Opulent Restraint got away from his filly and it was just enough to make the difference at the end.

“She’s more of a steady type and continued to grind on that leader, just not enough to get there,” Davis said.

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Rare Art finished second by a 1 1/4 lengths over She’s Our Tiz. Mangetsu and Grace and Grit completed the order of finish. Duboff scratched.

Opulent Restraint, a daughter of Dubawi out of the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Significant Form owned by Stephanie Seymour Brant, covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:41.83 and returned $3.50 to win.

The win gave Brown a sweep of the three stakes run over the weekend at Aqueduct. He has won seven stakes this month at Aqueduct.

The Chelsey Flower was the 60th stakes victory of the year for Brown, who leads all trainers this year in that category. It was the 68th stakes victory of the year for Prat, which also leads all jockeys and is 11 off the single-year record of 79 set by Irad Ortiz in 2022. While the Chelsey Flower was a listed race, Prat does have 47 graded stakes wins this year, eight off the record of 55 established by Jerry Bailey in 2003.

As a team, Brown and Prat have teamed to win 43 races from 154 starts in 2024. They have won 19 stakes together, 15 graded.

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