Wednesday TimeformUS Highlight Horse: Added distance should help More Mischief in the Joseph A. Gimma
Belmont Park | Race 8 | Post Time 5:18 p.m. (ET) | Go to the TimeformUS PPs
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Elegant Zip and Party Like Grandma figure to vie for favoritism in this Joseph A. Gimma. I prefer the former filly, even though she comes off a maiden win. Elegant Zip (#4) participated in two of the fastest New York-bred 2-year-old filly maiden races of the summer at Saratoga, and she ran very well on each occasion. Collegeville Girl, the filly that defeated her on July 25, was a strong favorite over Party Like Grandma in the Seeking the Ante before she was scratched at the gate. I thought Elegant Zip was game when running down the talented filly Tossup last time. She put in a very strong final quarter mile, which suggests he should have no issues stretching out to 7 furlongs.
Party Like Grandma (#5) has done nothing wrong in her two career starts, but she was greatly aided by a track that was favoring speed and the rail on Aug. 24. I actually prefer Maiden Beauty out of the Seeking the Ante, since she was chasing the pace two wide throughout and has a more versatile running style.
I’m using these fillies, but my top pick is MORE MISCHIEF (#1). Like Elegant Zip, she comes into this race off a maiden victory. While she has yet to run as fast as some of her competitors, she strikes me as a filly that still has room for improvement. She clearly didn’t handle the slop in her debut, and ran a much better race over fast going second time out. She was very keen in the early portions of that Aug. 29 performance, but she nevertheless settled well and finished up with good energy while coming down the center of the racetrack. While her final quarter was relatively slow, the main track was very tiring on Aug. 29 and horses racing on the rail in the stretch seemed to have an advantage. More Mischief has trained in the morning better than she’s performed in the afternoon, but I believe she stands to improve on the stretch-out.
THE PLAY
Win: 1
Exacta Key Box: 1 with 2,3,4,5
Trifecta: 1,4 with 1,4 with ALL
