Royal Charlotte takes Victory Ride to stay undefeated

ELMONT, N.Y. – Already flush with 3-year-old fillies who excel at middle distances on dirt, trainer Chad Brown now has a bona fide graded stakes sprinting filly in that division as well.

Royal Charlotte passed her graded stakes debut Friday at Belmont Park, rallying wide turning for home under Javier Castellano and galloping to a four-length score in the Grade 3, $150,000 Victory Ride Stakes. The win kept her unbeaten in four starts and likely earned her a shot in the Grade 1 Test at Saratoga on Aug. 3.

“Here’s a horse that keeps getting better, she’s earned her way into every race I put her in, she keeps stepping forward,” Brown said. “It’s a rare horse that can start off their career that’s getting better with every start and maintaining their undefeated record. She beat a good field of fillies today, I feel.”

Royal Charlotte began her career with a maiden win at Gulfstream Park in March and followed up with an allowance win at Keeneland in April. Last month, she won the Hystericalady Stakes at Monmouth with an eye-catching move around the turn under Joe Bravo.

Friday, under Castellano, Royal Charlotte made a similar move around the turn after sitting fourth early on. Castellano said Royal Charlotte didn’t like the dirt being kicked back at her early in the race, but once he got her in the clear she kicked in.

“She’s never been in that position before, being a little far back and a lot of dirt in the face, she didn’t like it much,” Castellano said. “I had to squeeze in between horses and that’s the reason I save all the ground the best I could, and when I tip outside in the clear and she saw daylight she took off.”

Royal Charlotte, a daughter of Cairo Prince owned by Steve Laymon’s First Row Partners, covered the 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:15.82 and returned $5 as the 3-2 favorite.

Royal Charlotte gave Brown his 37th win of the meet, 18th in a stakes race. Among those stakes wins were 3-year-old fillies Guarana in the Grade 1 Acorn and Dunbar Road in the Grade 2 Mother Goose. Guarana is likely headed to the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks on July 20, while Dunbar Road will likely train up to the Grade 1 Alabama on Aug. 17.

Royal Charlotte will be headed to the Grade 1 Test at seven furlongs on Aug. 3.

“She got a really good education today and she continues to gain a lot of experience, seasoning, and fitness,” Brown said. “She’s earned her way into the Test, it looks like.”

Cookie Dough, who set fractions of 22.26 seconds for the quarter and 44.77 for the opening half-mile, finished second by 5 1/2 lengths over Peruvian Appeal. Brill finished fourth.

Sue’s Fortune, the 9-5 second choice, was pulled up by Junior Alvarado in upper stretch and vanned off.

“Turning for home she switched to the right lead and got very short-strided on me, I wasn’t going to push her after that,” Alvarado said. “She’s never been like that. As soon as I put my hands down, she pulled herself up rather quick.”

On Twitter, Jeremiah Englehart, trainer of Sue’s Fortune, wrote the filly “came back fine. Wasn’t her day today and Junior did a great job pulling her up when he knew it wasn’t her day.”