Street Story may benefit from early speed in Victory Ride Stakes
ELMONT, N.Y. – The Grade 3 Victory Ride Stakes at Belmont Park on Sunday has drawn a mixed bag of 3-year-old filly sprinters. While three of the seven entrants have started at this meet and can be considered New Yorkers, the other four last ran at Churchill Downs, Oaklawn Park, Parx, and Pimlico.
The 6 1/2-furlong Victory Ride can be expected to produce starters for Saratoga’s two graded stakes for the division: the Grade 1, $500,000 Test Stakes at seven furlongs Aug. 2 and the Grade 2, $300,000 Prioress Stakes (knocked down a grade this year) at six furlongs Aug. 30.
The $150,000 Victory Ride should have a lively pace with five front-end specialists in the field. That may benefit the two late runners, the Steve Asmussen-trained Street Story and Milam, who is conditioned by Eddie Kenneally.
Street Story has been freshened since running five times between late December and early April. She bookended the Oaklawn Park meet by rallying from well off the pace to win $100,000 stakes on opening day (the Dixie Belle) and closing day (the Instant Racing). In between, she finished off the board twice.
“She won two listed stakes at Oaklawn and had quite a bit of activity there,” Asmussen said. “After the meet, we thought it was time to put some weight back on her and freshen her up. This looks like a nice spot for her to start back.”
Probably the quickest of the quick in the Victory Ride is Red Velvet, a Pennsylvania-bred by City Zip who is trained by Todd Pletcher. She has won two straight, including the $100,000 Jersey Girl Stakes at Belmont Park, after opening up sizable early leads. It will be interesting to see if Red Velvet can clear this group early.
Miss Behaviour, based at Laurel with 36-year-old trainer Phil Schoenthal, also is fast but has shown the ability to come from slightly off the pace if needed. She enters off a front-running victory in the $100,000 Miss Preakness Stakes.
“In the Pimlico race, it looked like there were three or four horses who wanted the lead,” Schoenthal said by phone Friday. “And we thought we’d come from off it. She just dragged Sheldon [Russell] to the lead, and he went on with it.”
Russell had been riding at Arlington this summer and was scheduled to come in for the Victory Ride. Unfortunately, he was injured in a paddock accident Thursday and will be out for an extended period.
Miss Behaviour is no stranger to Belmont. She won the Grade 2 Matron Stakes here last September and was a close second in the $95,000 Sharp Cat Stakes. Although it doesn’t look like it on paper, one of her better efforts came in defeat when Schoenthal tried her in a turf sprint in April. Farther back than usual, Miss Behaviour stubbornly dug in and rallied to finish third.
“She may or may not like the turf. It’s hard to say because she came out of that race with mucus,” Schoenthal said. “But I can tell you she is all racehorse. She has that second-quarter speed that can break a race open.”
Other players in the Victory Ride include Milam, who narrowly was beaten by the talented Fiftyshadesofgold in the Eight Belles Stakes on Kentucky Derby Day at Churchill Downs; Isabelle, who has won two straight New York-bred races; West Coast Chick, a winner of two in a row for Nick Zito; and Parx shipper Fat Kast, a winner of 3 of 5 starts.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 5 West Coast Chick. Trainer Nick Zito is 2 for 5 with a $7.06 ROI in the past three years in graded stakes sprints on dirt with horses that won their last start. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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