Sands Point a puzzle for handicappers

That the Grade 2 Sands Point at Belmont Park on Saturday is worth a lot of money and Chad Brown has three of the seven runners in the 1 1/8-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies isn’t that surprising. These things happen.

But the closer you examine the $500,000 Sands Point, the murkier things become. First of all, it is difficult to predict how the race will be run. There isn’t a front-runner or a pace presser in the group, meaning the early fractions could be glacial or that one of the entrants could take the initiative and make a run for it.

It also is tricky to compare the recent races of some of the top contenders. Is it better to have finished one-two in a $100,000 Grade 3, as Tin Type Gal and Galileo’s Song did in the Boiling Springs at Monmouth Park, or third and fourth behind division leaders Time and Motion and Catch a Glimpse in the Grade 2, $300,000 Lake Placid at Saratoga, like Diamond Fields and Elysea’s World?

The other runners in the group are Noble Beauty, who was beaten a nose but placed first in the Grade 3 Pucker Up at Arlington Park on Million Day; morning-line favorite On Leave, who has won three races in a row, including the $100,000 Riskaverse; and French-based Al Jazi, who enters off a Group 3 win at Goodwood.

Brown’s runners are Galileo’s Song, Elysea’s World, and Noble Beauty. They look pretty similar on paper, but Elysea’s World should be given a pass for her fourth in the Lake Placid because she stumbled badly at the start.

We also may not have seen Galileo’s Song’s best race. In upper stretch of the Boiling Springs, she looked like the most likely winner before Tin Type Gal found an open path along the inside and got a bit of a jump on her.

Tin Type Gal has since finished fifth, beaten 2 1/2 lengths, in the Del Mar Oaks.

Diamond Fields is interesting because trainer Tommy Stack, a former steeplechase jockey who won the Grand National aboard Red Rum, has sent her here for the summer from his base in Ireland. Diamond Fields finished eighth in the Grade 2 Lake George in July but improved noticeably in the Lake Placid.

Even though she finished a nonthreatening third in that race, she did close ground into the faster late splits after Catch a Glimpse was allowed to go a half-mile in 48.58 and six furlongs in 1:12.78.

On Leave, trained by Shug McGaughey, will be facing tougher company here but does own the highest Beyer Speed Figure in the field, a 93 earned for her impressive 2 1/2-length victory in the Riskaverse.

The second-highest Beyer in the lineup is the 92 earned by Diamond Fields in the Lake Placid.

Al Jazi was forwardly placed when she won the Group 3 Queen’s Plate Stakes at Goodwood on July 29. She’s a wild card here, but a similar strategy in this paceless race would work to her benefit.

While the win money should be spread around in the Sands Point, the race could offer its best value in the late pick three and pick four.