The historic $250,000 Beldame (G2), the first of three stakes at Aqueduct on Sunday, has seen better days. For the third consecutive year, the 1 1/8-mile test for fillies and mares attracted a small field and figures to be dominated by an odds-on favorite.
The three-year-olds Nest and Randomized won the last two editions of the Beldame, but it’s a four-year-old who has the edge this time. That would be Raging Sea, who enters off a head victory over reigning older mare champion Idiomatic in the Personal Ensign (G1), with subsequent Princess Rooney (G3) heroine Soul of an Angel a distant third.
This serves as a final Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) prep for Raging Sea, who also captured the Shuvee (G3) and Doubledogdare (G3) earlier this season.
Of more betting interest is the $200,000 Miss Grillo (G2), a 1 1/16-mile event that will award the winner an automatic bid to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) at Del Mar. The race was postponed from last weekend due to inclement weather.
Trainer Chad Brown has won the Miss Grillo a record nine times, including last year with Hard to Justify, who followed up with a win at the Breeders’ Cup. All three of his entries — Virgin Colada, Lavender Disaster, and Marvelous Madison — merit respect, with Virgin Colada having earned black type when a close second in the P.G. Johnson S.
“There was no pace in the race, and she was really compromised by it,” said Brown of Virgin Colada’s run in the P.G. Johnson. “She came with a nice run, and I think with more pace in the race, she’ll run her best.”
Shifty broke her maiden impressively in the Catch a Glimpse S. at Woodbine for Mark Casse, who subsequently saddled the top three finishers in the Natalma (G1), Woodbine’s leading turf race for juvenile fillies.
“We thought she was one of our better fillies and that’s why we ran her as a maiden in the stake,” Casse said. “Of all our two-year-old fillies, she’s been as impressive as anybody.”
Others in the mix include Kentucky Downs debut winner Correto and Rare Art, who rebounded from a debut loss to Virgin Colada to win second last out by overcoming a slow pace.
The stakes action is rounded out by the $175,000 Matron (G3), in which a dozen mostly unexposed two-year-old fillies will dash six furlongs on the turf.
