Turf races at mercy of Elsa

ELMONT, N.Y. – A pretty good Friday card at Belmont Park with three turf allowance races could fall victim to the weather.

If the forecast is right, the remnants of Hurricane Elsa could bring approximately an inch of rain to Long Island between Thursday night and Friday morning, and with two Grade 1 turf stakes scheduled for Saturday, Friday’s races could be washed off to the main track.

Race 6 is a second-level allowance scheduled for a mile on turf. If it stays on turf, the Klaravich Stables entry of Principled Stand and Price Talk would likely be favored and tough to beat. Principled Stand, trained by Chad Brown, has won both his starts, while Price Talk, trained by Jorge Abreu, would be cutting back to a more suitable distance after finishing seventh in this same condition going 1 1/8-miles to close out Belmont Stakes Day.

Though Island Commish is entered for the turf, he did beat maiden $35,000 claimers in an off-the-turf race run over a sloppy track at Gulfstream in the summer 2019.

Blewitt is the one part of the Mike Repole-Todd Pletcher entry that is entered for the main track. In his only start on a wet track, Blewitt was beaten a neck in a maiden race in December 2017 at Aqueduct.

Race 8 is a second-level/optional $80,000 claimer scheduled for 1 1/16 miles that, if it stays on turf, looks like a good spot for Flighty Lady to get a win. The Brown trainee is coming out of a fourth-place finish in the Grade 3 Gallorette at Pimlico, a race from which the top two finishers, Mean Mary and Vigilantes Way, came back to win stakes in their next starts.

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Classic Lady is a New York-bred stakes winner who did beat open company in the Dayatthespa Stakes at Saratoga last July 29. She has not run in 10 months, but part of that was due to prior weather-related issues.

Sun Summers, racing this year in restricted stakes in Florida, returns to Belmont Park where she has a win and a second from two starts.

The race will lose one player as Platinum Paynter ran in Tuesday’s Dr. James Penny Memorial at Parx.

Kilkea would move up on a wet track. She finished second, three-quarters of a length behind Robin Sparkles in the off-the-turf Mount Vernon Stakes for New York-breds on May 31. Robin Sparkles came back to win an open-company allowance on turf in her next start.

Race 3 is a first-level allowance scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on turf. Love and Thunder has twice finished second in this condition for Brown. Her recent workouts on dirt have been solid enough, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see her run if the race is moved off the turf.

Creative Legacy and Halo City have the best off-track form in the field.