Wedding Toast shifts sights to Beldame

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Wedding Toast, the five-length winner of the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps in her last start, will not make the Grade 1 Personal Ensign on Aug. 29 and instead will point to the Grade 1 Beldame at Belmont Park on Sept. 26, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Thursday.

McLaughlin said Wedding Toast has had some little issues – “mainly a foot” – and although she’s been in training, she hasn’t had a timed workout since July 17.

“We were freshening her after June 6 and pointing to the Personal Ensign, but now we’ll point for the Beldame,” McLaughlin said. “She loves the one turn, and [we] hope we go from there to the Breeders’ Cup. She hasn’t missed any time, she just missed a work or two.”

The Beldame will be run at 1 1/8 miles around one turn.

McLaughlin said Wedding Toast had been training over Saratoga’s main track, but she will now start training over the synthetic surface at Greentree, which is owned by Sheikh Mohammed, the owner of Wedding Toast.

Though she will be running around one turn in her next start, Wedding Toast is being pointed to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, a two-turn, 1 1/8-mile race at Keeneland on Oct. 30, McLaughlin said.