Gazelle

TRACK BANDIT PREVIEWS

Champion STARDOM BOUND (Tapit) will make her much anticipated return to
racing in Saturday’s $300,000 Gazelle S. (G1) at Aqueduct. Purchased for $5.7
million in November of last year, the leggy gray will be making her dirt debut
in this affair and has too many question marks for us to back at a short price.
We’ll take a chance elsewhere.

The streaking UNRIVALED BELLE (Unbridled’s Song) is a neck away from four
straight wins and has yet to lose on the dirt for Hall of Fame conditioner Bill
Mott. The gray lass dominated the Real Prize S. last out, earning a nifty 101
BRIS Speed figure in the process, and scorched a bullet half-mile in advance of
her graded debut. The sophomore is the quickest horse in the field and is our
pick to lead at every call beneath Kent Desormeaux.

Alabama S. (G1) runner-up MILWAUKEE APPEAL (Milwaukee Brew) has run big in
her only two starts on the dirt, including a near-miss versus males in the
Prince of Wales S. The consistently good three-year-old miss has been worse than
third just once in her 14-race career, and while her lack of a win in her last
five starts is a mild concern, she cannot be dismissed for the top spot. John
Velazquez is a positive rider switch.

Multiple stakes victress BON JOVI GIRL (Malibu Moon) has faced some of the
better sophomore fillies in the land for Tim Ritchey, and her class alone makes
her a viable option for the upset beneath Edgar Prado. The Kentucky-bred will
likely track near midpack before putting in her best run.

Stardom Bound has reportedly been training well and is in a live barn, but
this field is solid from top to bottom and she might have a difficult task at
hand even if she had run a few times prior to this. Mike Smith, who has guided
her in each of her lifetime tries, comes in to ride which looks like a huge
plus, but she’ll need her best to win and we don’t see it happening. Then again,
we’ve been wrong before.

We think of FLASHING (A.P. Indy) as more of a miler at this stage of her
development, even if her pedigree suggests otherwise. The talented Grade 1
heroine didn’t show much at Keeneland last out but we can throw that one out,
and she’s run two big races over this oval. If the well-bred chestnut wins this
1 1/8-mile race we won’t be terribly surprised, but we’re going to go in another
direction. Richard Migliore has the assignment.

Grade 3 vixen PEACH BREW (Milwaukee Brew) was third in the Remington Park
Oaks behind a pair of useful fillies two back, and while she’s not our first
choice for the win in here, her running style and affinity for a route make her
playable in the gimmicks at a square price.

MULTIPASS (Olmodavor), second in the Remington Park Oaks, has come a long way
since breaking her maiden in a claiming event on the green for Eddie Kenneally,
and her current form makes her a threat in the exotics against these. The
Kentucky-bred earned a lifetime best 97 BRIS Speed number at this trip at
Saratoga three prior and should be gaining some in the lane with Rajiv Maragh.