War Like Goddess headlines strong group in New York Stakes
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ELMONT, N.Y. – While War Like Goddess will be a deserving favorite in Friday’s Grade 1, $600,000 New York Stakes at Belmont Park, this looks to be the deepest non-Breeders’ Cup field she’s met to date.
The streaking Didia, the multiple group/graded winner With The Moonlight, four horses from the barn of Chad Brown, and the Grade 1-placed Flirting Bridge comprise the seven fillies and mares set to challenge the eight-time graded winner War Like Goddess.
“This is almost a Breeders’ Cup field,” said Ignacio Correas IV, trainer of Didia.
War Like Goddess, trained by Bill Mott, is 10 for 14 in her career and a two-time Grade 1 winner. She kicked off her 6-year-old campaign with a facile victory in the Grade 3 Bewitch, her third consecutive victory in that race. War Like Goddess did race closer to the pace than she is accustomed, perhaps a good sign for a filly who has had to overcome slow early fractions often in her career.
“Her race was good and she trains much the same,” said Mott, a three-time New York Stakes winner.
In what will be her first start here, War Like Goddess should appreciate the spacious Belmont Park inner turf course, especially with the rails down for the first time this meet.
Didia, an Argentine-bred 5-year-old mare, has won seven consecutive races, including all four of her starts in the United States. Correas and jockey Vincent Cheminaud have gotten Didia to relax and come with a run going shorter distances. Now she stretches out to 1 1/4 miles, a distance at which she twice won in front-running fashion in Argentina.
“I think she’s going to relax enough,” Correas said. “We don’t want her to lose her kick. She’ll probably be a little closer than she was running a mile and a sixteenth.”
Chad Brown has won four of the last seven runnings of the New York, finishing 1-2-3 in 2016, 1-2 in 2018 and 2019, and 1-3-4-5 last year.
Friday, he sends out the foursome of McKulick, Shantisara, Marketsegmentation, and Virginia Joy. McKulick won the Belmont Oaks at 1 1/4 miles here last summer. She is coming off a fifth-place finish behind Didia in the Modesty, but Brown said he didn’t feel McKulick handled the Churchill Downs turf.
McKulick is owned by Seth Klarman as is Marketsegmentation, who is stretching out beyond 1 1/16 miles for the first time. Marketsegmentation could be in here to make sure there is some pace for McKulick, who prefers to come from off the pace.
Shantisara, another who didn’t run well at Churchill when fourth in the Modesty, won the Jockey Club Oaks in 2021 as part of a three-race winning streak that fall that included the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland.
Virginia Joy upset War Like Goddess in last September’s Grade 2 Flower Bowl when she was the lone speed in the race. She has not duplicated that running style, or success, in three races since.
After running second to McKulick in the Belmont Oaks, With The Moonlight turned the tables in the Saratoga Oaks last Aug. 7. With The Moonlight began her 4-year-old season by winning a pair of Group 2 races in Dubai before finishing second to In Italian in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland in April.
With The Moonlight comes into this off a sixth-place finish in the Group 2 Dahlia, a race run over soft ground at Newmarket.
“She’s back in America, back on a conventional flat track that she likes, back on a firm surface,” trainer Charlie Appleby said. “She’s going to be a big player again.”
Flirting Bridge has yet to win a graded stakes, but was beaten only a neck when finishing third – elevated to second by the disqualification of Moira – in last year’s Grade 1 E.P. Taylor at Woodbine. She came off a layoff with a solid second-level allowance win at Keeneland in April.
“We were delighted with her comeback race at Keeneland,” trainer Brendan Walsh said. “The New York is shaping up to be a very good race, but I think she’s improved since last year and if she has it would give her a chance.”
The New York goes as race 8 and is one of three Grade 1s and five stakes on an 11-race card that includes the Just a Game for older female milers on turf and the Acorn for 3-year-old fillies on dirt.
The New York also is the first half of a daily double linking to Saturday’s Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap. The base wager is $5 with an 18.5 percent takeout.
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