This Year’s Ogden Phipps Resembles a Filly and Mare All-Star… – Online Gambling

Forgive yourself if you look at Saturdays Grade 1 Ogden Phipps at Belmont Park thinking youre looking at a sneak preview of the Breeders Cup Distaff five months early.

Theres defending Ogden Phipps champion Letruska, who made last years race look like a glorified workout. Her 2 3/4-length gate-to-wire victory was easier than that margin of victory indicated and provided another brick in the unassailable foundation building Letruska into the Champion Older Dirt Female.

Theres also Malathaat. You know her as the Champion 3-Year-Old Filly. Theres Grade 1 winner Clairiere, who missed the board only twice in 12 races, and theres Grade 1 winner Search Results. Theres also Bonny South, who kept Letruska company on the Personal Ensign and Spinster boards last year.

This years Ogden Phipps offers up what publicists call a compact field code for small. But this compact field of five features four Grade 1 winners. It truly is a preview of this falls Breeders Cup Distaff at Keeneland, which is appropriate considering the winner earns a berth in that race courtesy of the Ogden Phipps being part of the Win and Youre In Challenge Series.

Of the eight Grade 1 races on Belmont Parks Saturday card, the Ogden Phipps may be one of the most enticing from a racing standpoint. Starting with the inevitable, eye-catching duel between the two champions, Letruska and Malathaat.

Letruskarides into Belmont Park after defending her Apple Blossom title in April at Oaklawn Park. This victory, her fifth Grade 1 score in a year, came at Clairieres expense. Letruskawent out fast in her customary front-running style, then turned aside a surging Clairiere at the top of the stretch.

Nothing that happens with her is a surprise, trainer Fausto Gutierrez told the New York Racing Association. She keeps on confirming what we believe about her. To win two Apple Blossoms, shes a part of history.

Letruska tuned up for that with a routine three-length victory as the 1/10 favorite over a group of overmatched foes in the Grade 3 Royal Delta at Gulfstream. In the Ogden Phipps, that wont likely be the case..

Whatever is coming for us, we need to accept it. This is the way, Gutierrez said. We have a horse who has won 10 graded stakes in 20 months at different tracks and conditions.

One challenger whos definitely coming for Letruska is Malathaat. The last time these two tangled came in last years Breeders Cup Distaff when Letruska finished a woeful 10th after getting sucked into a searing speed duel. Malathaat, meanwhile, finished third.

She rides in off her tune-up victory in the April 22 Grade 3 Doubledogdare at Keeneland. That victory featured a marvelous ride from John Velazquez, who brought the daughter of Curlin back from 5 1/2 lengths back in fifth to score a three-quarter length victory over Bonny South.

Malathaat looms large over her fellow 4-year-olds. She beat Search Results and Clairiere in last years Kentucky Oaks. Then, later that summer, she turned aside Clairiere in last years Grade 1 Alabama at Saratoga.

This is Malathaats second race this year and her first around one turn. Trainer Todd Pletcher, who said Malathaat is carrying her weight really well this year, said that plays a big role in race tactics.

Its a one-turn race, so that will change the dynamics a little bit. Letruska will likely be the pace-setter, so well have to keep an eye on her, he said. Its a deep field with a lot of quality fillies in here. Im looking forward to it.

Two of those quality fillies are Malathaats fellow 4-year-olds, Clairiere and Search Results. Steve Asmussens Clairiere comes in off her strong runner-up finish to Letruska in the Apple Blossom. Before that, she opened her 2022 ledger easily dismissing her rivals in a Fair Grounds allowance optional claimer.

I think shes better than she was last year, Asmussen said about the Curlin filly, who won her Grade 1 the Cotillion at Parx Racing last fall. Shes more mature and is simply a bigger, better, stronger, and faster filly.

Morning Line (Jockey/Trainer)

Search Results, who won her Grade 1 at last years Acorn at Belmont Park, also comes in off a victory. That was the May 8 Grade 2 Ruffian at Belmont Park, which cleansed the unpleasant taste of her frustrating third as the 3/5 favorite in the Grade 3 Distaff at Aqueduct in April.

That Distaff outing brought Search Results back from an eight-month break. This followed her third in the Grade 1 Test last summer at Saratoga.

This is a really tough race, but shes training really well, trainer Chad Brown said. Unfortunately, she has a habit of not changing her leads, but she has been in her training, so Im hoping she does it in the afternoon on Saturday.

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This Year's Ogden Phipps Resembles a Filly and Mare All-Star... - Online Gambling