Seek and Destroy avoids traffic to win Soaring Softly Stakes

ELMONT, N.Y. – In a tale of two trips, Seek and Destroy used an unimpeded outside run to defeat Feel Glorious, who was bottled up for quite a while on the inside, by one length in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Soaring Softly Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Belmont Park.

Despite being trained by three-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown, Seek and Destroy was let go at odds of 10-1, the second-longest shot in the field of eight. She returned $22.20 to win.

Seek and Destroy had been entered four times on the turf as a 2-year-old but managed to run just once on that surface, finishing sixth in a maiden race at Saratoga. She ended the year with two strong off-the-turf wins, including a 3 1/2-length victory in the Chelsey Flower Stakes here last October.

“She got so good at the end of last year, we just saw her on the dirt,” said Whit Beckman, Brown’s Belmont-based assistant. “Why wouldn’t she run good on the turf?”

Especially the way the race set up.

Jockey Kendrick Carmouche had Seek and Destroy second to last early while My Galina, under Reylu Gutierrez, opened up a clear advantage through a quarter in 22.36 seconds and a half-mile in 45.78 while being chased by Stillwater Cove, Missmizz, and Entirely. Carmouche, seeing things start to bottle up on the inside, guided Seek and Destroy widest of all turning for home. Though he may have lost some ground, he never lost momentum and got to the wire first.

Seek and Destroy, a daughter of Verrazano owned by Bob Edward’s e Five Racing Thoroughbreds, covered seven furlongs in 1:22.53 over a “good” turf course.

“They had a lot of horses wanting to get through on the inside; I just wanted to give my horse a clear trip,” Carmouche said. “Once I saw those guys stacking up on the inside, I just asked her to run, and she took off.”

Feel Glorious, the 5-2 second choice under Eric Cancel, was saving ground along the inside. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but Cancel was forced to steady behind Stillwater Cove from around the turn until inside the eighth pole. When room finally opened, Feel Glorious got running, but Seek and Destroy had gotten the jump on her and beat her by a length.

“I know it would have been better if I could have gotten her outside; it would have been a much cleaner trip,” Cancel said. “It was a little bit unfortunate I was bottled up so much. It was a completely bad race at the end. I made a mistake by staying on the rail so much, and it cost me the race.”