Pink Sands should benefit from Phipps pace scenario

ELMONT, N.Y. – Pink Sands came with furious late runs to win a pair of graded stakes this past winter at Gulfstream Park. Her connections will hope that same fleet late foot will be there Saturday when Pink Sands stretches out to 1 1/16 miles in the Grade 1, $300,000 Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park.

Pink Sands will meet Grade 1 winners Ollie’s Candy and She’s a Julie, as well as graded winners Blamed, Golden Award, and Point of Honor in the Phipps, which offers a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff in November at Keeneland.

The Phipps, like the Grade 3 Rampart and Grade 2 Inside Information won by Pink Sands, is run around one turn. The Inside Information was run at seven furlongs, the Rampart at a mile.

Distance isn’t as important to trainer Shug McGaughey as the need for pace. With Ollie’s Candy and Blamed in the field, “I think there’ll be plenty of that,” McGaughey said.

Jose Ortiz, who has 5 wins from 7 mounts on Pink Sands, has the call from the rail.

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Noting that Ollie’s Candy has not shown a fondness for Santa Anita in the afternoon, trainer John Sadler has shipped the 5-year-old mare to New York for the Phipps. Ollie’s Candy was fast enough to outsprint Cookie Dough and Serengeti Empress for the lead in the Apple Blossom Handicap and she just got caught late by Ce Ce.

“She ran great, everything but the ‘W,’ ” Sadler said. “She ran fast against a quality field; you’re disappointed in the result but not disappointed with the horse.”

The Apple Blossom was Ollie’s Candy’s first start outside of California, so the performance showed she could ship and run well.

“She’s a good traveler,” Sadler said. “They’ve got to like the surface, so the question is will she like the main track. She’s having a good week.”

Joel Rosario rides Ollie’s Candy from post 5.

Blamed looks like the other main speed in the Phipps. However, she got burned up in a pace duel when last in the Hurricane Bertie on March 13. Trainer Bill Mott took the blinkers off Blamed and she responded by sitting off another horse and winning a one-mile allowance at Gulfstream on April 30.

“She was just too anxious,” Mott said. “I didn’t see any need for her to have the blinkers going that fast. She rates well.”

Golden Award is a two-time graded stakes winner at 1 1/8 miles around two turns. She is coming off a second-place finish to Cookie Dough in the Grade 3 Royal Delta at Gulfstream in February, a race run over a sloppy track.

“She doesn’t really like the mud,” Mott said. “She was second, but I don’t think that was her best race.”

Golden Award had a sharp workout Monday over the Belmont training track.

She’s a Julie does her best running when she’s close up, a position she was unable to attain last out when she broke poorly in the Shawnee Stakes at Churchill on May 23. Point of Honor also broke poorly yet made a strong late run to be third in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom last out.