Tax Implications begins plan B in Chelsey Flower Stakes
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Tax Implications ran so well at Monmouth Park in her debut last month that she was made the 4-1 co-favorite for the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 7. Relegated to the also-eligible list, however, Tax Implications didn’t get a chance to run in that race, basically ending any chance she had of making the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on Nov. 4.
Thus, trainer Chad Brown and owner Seth Klarman had to plot a new path for Tax Implications, one that begins in Friday’s $120,000 Chelsey Flower Stakes at Aqueduct. The Chelsey Flower, run at 1 1/16 miles, drew a field of just six 2-year-old fillies for turf, including the Brown-trained Implicated. Brown has won four of the first 10 runnings of the Chelsey Flower, named after the 1996 Flower Bowl winner.
Tax Implications, a Great Britain-bred daughter of Mehmas, was a dominant 6 3/4-length winner of her debut, sitting a perfect ground-saving trip under Hector Diaz Jr. before drawing off in an 11-horse field. Brown also finished second in that race with Liguria, who came back to win her maiden at Aqueduct last Saturday.
“This is a top prospect,” Brown said of Tax Implications. “I was trying to run her in the Breeders’ Cup. I think she would have been good enough.”
Brown said he debuted Tax Implications at Monmouth instead of New York because that’s where the race was offered when she was ready to run.
Manny Franco rides Tax Implications from the rail.
Brown also sends out Implicated, who after finishing a well-beaten third on dirt in her Aug. 17 debut came back to win a 1 1/16-mile maiden race on turf by a head. She was one of two next-out winners from that August race.
“She trained good on both surfaces, and with her pedigree you lean towards the dirt being by Connect, a horse we trained who had never been on the grass,” Brown said. “As it turns out, her future will be on the turf. She broke her maiden the right way in her own right. She fits very well in here.”
Flavien Prat rides Implicated from post 2.
While Brown has won this race four times, Christophe Clement has won three runnings. Friday, Clement sends out Smokie Eyes, a daughter of Nyquist coming off a 3 1/2-length maiden score versus New York-breds here in her third start Oct. 8.
The well-traveled Irish-bred Grand Oak makes her seventh start at as many tracks this year. In her second start, she won a turf maiden sprint at Churchill Downs in May, which earned her a trip to Ascot where she finished 18th in the Group 2 Queen Mary. Since returning to the U.S., the Graham Motion-trained daughter of Speightstown has fourth-place finishes in sprint stakes at Woodbine, Colonial Downs, and Presque Isle Downs.
The Classy One and Lifelovenlaughter complete the field on turf. Rosie’s Alibi, Binsky and La Vita Sofia are entered to run only if this race is moved to the main track, which given the forecast is unlikely.
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