Grade 1-placed Haughty will stretch out in distance when aiming for her first graded victory in Saturday's Grade 1, $700,000 Belmont Oaks Invitational for 3-year-old fillies going 1 1/4-miles over the inner turf at Belmont Park.
The sophomore daughter of Empire Maker is trained by four-time Eclipse Award-winner Chad Brown, who pursues his sixth Belmont Oaks conquest and also sends out Belmont Oaks aspirants Consumer Spending and McKulick.
Haughty captured her 2022 debut in the Penn Oaks over soft going last out on June 3. The 4 3/4-length victory in the one-mile turf test was her first start since a close third in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf in November at Del Mar, a race that produced four other next-out winners at stakes level.
Haughty's third-place finish in the Juvenile Fillies Turf came less than three weeks after breaking her maiden going 1 1/16 miles over the Keeneland turf.
“It was probably a little too much to do, but she handled it. Even though she didn't win, she ran a tremendous race,” said co-owner Peter Bradley of her Breeders' Cup effort. “The form that has come out of that race has just been unbelievably good, so it was a pretty key race. She's a filly that's improved since then in size and maturity. She had one good, easy race and it's a step up, but I think she's ready for it.”
Bradley, whose Bradley Thoroughbreds owns Haughty with Belmar Racing and Breeding, Cambron Equine and Team Hanley, said he was impressed with her Penn Oaks triumph.
“She probably wasn't in the best spot early on, but it looked like the proverbial walk in the park,” Bradley said. “You don't see those kinds of performances very often. There were some solid fillies in there, but she breathes different air. I think this is the next step in line and it will tell us a lot about how good she really is.”
Haughty crossed the finish line first in her September debut but was disqualified to third.
“It may be her best race with how she quickened and what she did. Unfortunately, she was taken down that day,” Bradley recalled.
Purchased for $310,000 out of Julie Davies' consignment at the 2021 OBS Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, Haughty is out of the two-time winning Kingmambo mare Soaring Emotions. She is a half-sister to multiple stakes winner and graded-stakes placed Souper Stonehenge.
“She looked like a filly that had all the parts,” Bradley said. “She had the balance you look for, a stride that you don't always see. We pressed for her; I was happy she sold on the first day. I think she would've brought 50 percent more later in the sale when people get more aggressive on how they bid. I couldn't have been happier. There were no secrets with her, she looked like the right kind and she's done what she's supposed to do.
“She's out of a Kingmambo mare, obviously he was a miler from the Mr. Prospector line, but her bottom side should have some stamina to it also,” Bradley added. “I don't think the ten furlongs should be a problem. The first time they go that distance, they tell you whether it's a problem or not. I don't see it being a factor.”
Flavien Prat, aboard Haughty in the Penn Oaks, has the return call from post 3 as the 5-1 co-second choice.
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