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Gibberish Decisive In Turnback The Alarm At Belmont

Gibberish tracked 2-5 favorite Miss Marissa in the early going, took command before the turn, and finished strong to post a 3 3/4-length victory in Saturday's $150,000 Grade 3 Turnback the Alarm for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up going 1 1/8 miles on the main track at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.

The 27th edition of the Turnback the Alarm, the first of four stakes on Belmont's 10-race card, saw e Five Racing Thoroughbreds' Gibberish post her first victory in nearly a year, earning her first winner's circle appearance in six starts.

Gibberish, off at 3-1, broke from the outermost post under jockey Dylan Davis as Miss Marissa led the five-horse field through an opening quarter-mile in :23.56 and :47.22 for the half over a fast track.

As rider Kendrick Carmouche kept Miss Marissa to the inside, Davis urged Gibberish up from the three-path, taking command with three-quarters in 1:12.29. Gibberish kept command entering the stretch and easily repelled So Darn Hot's late bid, completing the course in a 1:51.93 final time for her first win since the Treasure Chest on November 27, 2020, at Delta Downs in Vinton, La.

The 4-year-old Lea filly returned $8.20 on a $2 win wager, improving to 5-2-1 in 14 career starts. She increased her career earnings to $340,010.

“I just wanted to come out running and not give an easy lead to Miss Marissa. I saw the four-horse [Firing Carol] was getting more engaged, so I was able to back off since she was doing a little more of the dirty work for me” said Davis, who rode Gibberish for the first time. “She's a big, nice-moving filly. She got to the turn and the half-mile pole and started picking up her stride.

“I didn't want to fight with her too much,” he added. “If you start fighting with her, she tends to back off, just looking at her replays. I let her run until the turn there and once we got in the stretch, she got her stride going even more and she was determined to get to the wire.”

Bred in Kentucky by Dell Ridge Farm, Gibberish had posted a pair of stakes runner-up in the current campaign, starting with the Lady's Secret on June 6 at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J., before finishing 1 1/4 lengths back to Miss Marissa in the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap on July 10 at Delaware Park in Wilmington, Del.

“We knew who the horse to beat was and we knew Gibberish can be forwardly placed,” said Sarah Shaffer, assistant to Joseph, Jr. “The idea was to be close to that. But if there was not much pace in front, we weren't going to restrain our filly. We wanted her to go to the front and get into a comfortable stride. We had another horse kind of creep up in there and put the pressure on, and it set up beautifully for her.”

Shaffer said Gibberish could be ready to embark on the next phase of her career.

“I have a van set up for her to ship out to the horse sale in Lexington. She's headed to the sale,” Shaffer said. “I think broodmare is in her future and I think she deserved it to go out with another stakes win.”

So Darn Hot, trained by George Weaver, bested Jilted Bride by five lengths for second. Miss Marissa ran fourth while Firing Carol completed the order of finish.

Live racing resumes Sunday with Closing Day of the Belmont fall meet. The 10-race card, which features an 11:50 a.m. first post, will feature a pair of stakes in the $150,000 Zagora for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up going 1 1/2 miles on the turf in Race 4 at 1:18 p.m. and the $150,000 Grade 3 Nashua for 2-year-olds in a one-turn mile on the main track in Race 9 at 3:43 p.m.

America's Day at the Races will present daily coverage and analysis of the fall meet at Belmont Park on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/tv-schedule.

NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Belmont Park, and the best way to bet every race of the fall meet. Available to horseplayers nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com.

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‘Stronger, Faster’ Miss Marissa Returns In Turnback The Alarm

Cammarota Racing's Miss Marissa will attempt to win her third graded stakes event when facing four other fillies and mares in Saturday's Grade 3, $150,000 Turnback the Alarm going nine furlongs over the Belmont Park main track.

Miss Marissa, trained by Jim Ryerson, was a last-out third in the Grade 2 Beldame on October 10 at Belmont where she finished behind the victorious Royal Flag and Horologist, both of whom are entered in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Distaff.

When Miss Marissa captured the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap on July 10, it prompted Ryerson to try the 4-year-old daughter of He's Had Enough in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign seven weeks later at Saratoga, where she finished a distant eighth.

Ryerson said a good effort by Miss Marissa on Saturday would result in a start in the Grade 3, $250,000 Go for Wand on Dec. 4 at Aqueduct.

“I thought she battled well to try and be second in the Beldame and ran really well that day,” Ryerson said. “Hopefully, we can do well and then go to the Go for Wand from there going a flat mile. We made our mark going a little further than that, but it's in our backyard.”

Miss Marissa shipped to Pimlico Race Course to capture the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan last October. Ryerson said Miss Marissa has developed well into her 4-year-old season.

“Going from three to four, you like to see them get a little stronger, faster and have some more maturity in them,” Ryerson said. “I think she's done that. They don't always do that. We'll see how we finish the year and see what Mr. [Alfonso] Cammarota wants to do with her next year. Hopefully, we can finish the year well. She's sound and if she races well finishing up this year, I think he'll plan to race her.”

Ryerson said Miss Marissa, who has won over five different ovals, gets a lot out of her training at Belmont.

“The one thing that I've noticed is that she really likes to train here,” Ryerson said. “I was a little disappointed with how she trained at Saratoga and to have the results we had, but we've gone out of here and run a number of places and she's run well.”

Kendrick Carmouche will ride Miss Marissa from post 2.

Three-time winner Jilted Bride seeks to make the grade for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.

The ultra-consistent 4-year-old daughter of Wicked Strong has never finished out of the money in a dozen lifetime starts. She arrives off a runner-up effort in a seven-furlong allowance optional claimer on October 2 at Churchill Downs, which came three months after earning black type when third in the Lady Jacqueline at Thistledown.

“There's very few that try every race, and she is a model of consistency,” said Peter Bradley of Bradley Thoroughbreds, who owns Jilted Bride in partnership with Tim Cambron, Anna Cambron, Brady Carruth and Zane Carruth.

Bradley expressed optimism in Jilted Bride being competitive at graded stakes level.

“This race will tell us,” Bradley said. “She ran a very solid race in her comeback at Churchill. She certainly needed the race. She's a filly that has definitely matured and gotten better physically.”

Ruben Silvera will ride Jilted Bride from post 1.

Gibberish, trained by Saffie Joseph, Jr for e Five Racing Thoroughbreds, will attempt a fifth career win. The 4-year-old Lea filly earned graded stakes black type two starts back when second to Miss Marissa in the Delaware Handicap ahead of a fourth in the Summer Colony at Saratoga. Her last victory took place in the Treasure Chest last November at Delta Downs.

Gibberish will break from post 5 under Dylan Davis.

Completing the field are So Darn Hot [post 3, Manny Franco] and Firing Carol [post 4, Eric Cancel].

The Turnback the Alarm is carded as Race 3 on Saturday's 10-race program, which also includes the $200,000 Mohawk; the $100,000 Stewart Manor; and the $100,000 Chelsey Flower. First post is 12 p.m. Eastern.

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Tough Task In Personal Ensign, But Miss Marissa ‘Going In The Right Direction’

Trainer Jim Ryerson said he knows that Miss Marissa is facing the biggest challenge of her career in Saturday's Grade 1, $600,000 Personal Ensign Presented by Lia Infiniti for older fillies and mares at Saratoga, yet he's optimistic that she will give a good accounting of herself.

“The race is very, very tough. There couldn't be a tougher filly and mare race anywhere,” Ryerson said of the nine-furlong test stacked with nine multiple stakes winners and three Grade 1 winners. “But we're here to participate. This race is so tough, but she deserves a chance to run with these and we'll see what happens.”

The Personal Ensign field includes three-time Grade 1 winner and reigning Champion 3-Year-Old Filly Swiss Skydiver, who beat the boys in last year's Grade 1 Preakness and took the Grade 1 Alabama on this track last year; Letruska, who won the Grade 1 Apple Blossom, the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps, and the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis in her last three outings; and Harvey's Lil Goil, the 2020 winner of the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on the grass. Add dual Grade 2 winner As Time Goes By, whom Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert is so confident in that he sent her here from Southern California, to the mix.

That lineup is mighty fearsome but Miss Marissa, whom Alphonso Cammarota bought for the bargain price of $11,000 as a yearling, might have a surprise in store. She's done it before.

Sent off at 10-1, she was a neck winner over Bonny South in the 2020 Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan in October. She outran her odds again last time out when she took the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap on July 10 and Bonny South disappointed as the odds-on favorite with a fifth place finish. Incidentally, the Brad Cox-trained, Grade 3 winning Bonny South is also entered in Saturday's Personal Ensign.

“Marissa jumped up those times in those Grade 2s. Absolutely,” her trainer said. “She's been very consistent over the last year and done very well running two turns.”

What is also beneficial to this filly is her familiarity with her Saratoga surroundings and her affinity for the racing strip. In a pair of Saratoga starts she finished first in an optional claiming allowance race at nine furlongs in August 2020 and was the runner-up in a maiden special weight race in 2019.

“She ran good on this track and won that allowance race on this track last year. That race she ran here last year was her coming out party. She really improved in terms of her speed and her ability to run a mile-and-an-eighth, and that race propelled her into the Black-Eyed Susan,” Ryerson said. “I think that she has grown up both physically and mentally this year. She's more relaxed, she's put on weight, she's grown. She's matured like you would want a filly to move from three to four. I think that's why you see those two efforts since we stopped her in January and gave her a freshening. Those were real solid efforts and she's going in the right direction. Whether she's good enough, we'll find out on Saturday.”

The Personal Ensign is a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff at Del Mar in November. Ryerson last had a Breeders' Cup runner when multiple graded stakes winner Park Avenue Ball competed in the 2007 Dirt Mile. He is best known as the trainer of 1995 Breeders' Cup Juvenile with Unbridled's Song, who also captured the Grade 1 1996 Florida Derby.

“When you're lucky enough to have a nice horse, they make things different for you and for the whole crew. Everybody gets excited. This is some important stuff,” said Ryerson.

Daniel Centeno has been Miss Marissa's partner for the wins in the Black-Eyed Susan and the Delaware Handicap and Ryerson will leg him up again on Saturday.

“Daniel has done great with her and they team up well. We're sticking with him. He deserves this chance and Marissa deserves this chance,” he said.

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Letruska To Face Top-Class Field In Personal Ensign

Despite Letruska's imposing presence, a field of nine top-class older fillies and mares will line up in the Saratoga Race Course starting gate to contest the Grade 1, $600,000 Personal Ensign presented by Lia Infiniti at 1 1/18 miles on Saturday's blockbuster Runhappy Travers Day card.

Named in honor of the Phipps Stable's homebred champion and Hall of Famer who went undefeated in 13 career efforts, the Personal Ensign is a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Distaff at Del Mar in November.

Owned by St. George Stable and trained by Fausto Gutierrez, the dual Grade 1-winning Letruska will be attempting her fourth consecutive graded stakes score. She has already secured her Breeders' Cup Distaff spot with a dominating gate-to-wire 2 ¾ lengths victory in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps, also a “Win and You're In” event, two starts back at Belmont Park on June 5.

“She's a horse with a lot of talent. She has a strong character and the different places that we ship get more serious and more competitive,” Gutierrez said of his Mexican champion and the winner of five of her last six efforts, all graded stakes races.

The Personal Ensign is competitive indeed. Every other horse is a graded stakes winner in her own right and the field includes reigning 3-Year-Old Filly champion and 2020 Grade 1 Alabama Stakes and Grade 1 Preakness-winner Swiss Skydiver.

“This race very well could dictate who is the champion older filly and mare,” said Kenny McPeek, who trains Swiss Skydiver and will saddle King Fury in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes on Saturday's card.

Letruska comes into the Personal Ensign as the deserving favorite and will break from Post 6 under Irad Ortiz, Jr.

In the Grade 1 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park three starts back, Letruska defeated multiple champion Monomoy Girl by a nose, while Swiss Skydiver was third. Next time out when taking the Ogden Phipps, Letruska finished in front of Bonny South, a Grade 3 winner she meets again in this contest. In her last effort Letruska seemingly toyed with her competition when drawing away to a 5 ¾ lengths triumph in her typical front-running fashion in the nine-furlong Grade 2 Fleur de Lis on June 26 at Churchill Downs.

“This year since the Apple Blossom, she's run with the toughest filles and mares in the division like Swiss Skydiver and Monomoy Girl,” Gutierrez said. “The performance she gave in the Apple Blossom was no coincidence. You don't beat horses like Monomoy Girl by coincidence.

“After Belmont, she was in good condition,” he continued. “It wasn't my original idea to run in the Fleur de Lis. I was going to go to the Delaware Handicap. But after she went back to train at Keeneland, something told me to nominate. After I checked the nominations a couple of times and saw her training, I decided to run her. If we are in a fight to win an Eclipse, we have to win races.”

To that end, McPeek is returning Peter Callahan's Swiss Skydiver to the distaff division. After circumstances forced his hand earlier in the Saratoga meet, he ran her in the Grade 1 Whitney against the boys here last out on Aug. 7 and she finished fourth.

“She needed the race,” McPeek said in reference to the Whitney. “She hadn't run since April. She went through that little fever she had for the Ogden Phipps. She was just off a long time. My preference was the Shuvee. I think it certainly would have been a better launching pad, but it was a good run. I'm sure she's going to improve fitness wise off that.

“In her race at Arkansas against Letruska I had to make a difficult decision. She had a light infection in a hind ankle,” McPeek added. “I felt we had it under control, and I think that dulled her effort a little bit. We're confident she's going to run a lot better than she did at Oaklawn. I think she's going to be able to put three consecutive races together to finish the year, probably in the Personal Ensign, Spinster and then the Breeders' Cup. I think the Whitney hopefully leads us into that.”

Swiss Skydiver, who took the Grade 1 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita in March, will depart from post 4 with Jose Ortiz aboard.

Bonny South, a Juddmonte homebred coming from the powerhouse stable of reigning Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox, will try to turn the tables on Letruska after a runner-up finish in the Ogden Phipps. The 4-year-old filly was a well-beaten fifth in her last start in the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap as the odds-on favorite but has been breezing with stablemate, Grade 1 Runhappy Travers Stakes 4-5 favorite [and Belmont Stakes-winner] Essential Quality, impressing her trainer in the process.

“She seems to really like it here. She's had some really good moves over the main track and has worked the last two weeks with Essential Quality and holding her own,” said Cox. “We're going to throw her last race out at Delaware. There was a lack of pace, and she probably didn't want to be that close. She needs a set up and she didn't get it. She's been here for a good while and she's settled in, so I'm excited to give her this opportunity.

“I'm excited about getting her back in good form in the Personal Ensign. Hopefully, she has a pace to run at, and I think we'll get that,” Cox added. “She's going to have to step up and run her 'A' race, but she's certainly training like she's ready to do it.”

Bonny South, second in the Grade 1 Alabama to Swiss Skydiver here last year, drew post 3 and Manny Franco takes over the reins.

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Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott is sending out Harvey's Lil Goil, third in the 2020 Alabama, who will be returning to the dirt after making her last six starts on the grass. On July 17 the gray/roan daughter of 2015 Triple Crown champion American Pharoah was fourth in the Grade 1 Diana here.

Harvey's Lil Goil, the winner of the Grade 3 Beaugay on the Belmont Park inner turf course three starts back, drew post 8 and will partner for the first time with Luis Saez.

She turned in an eye-popping bullet five furlongs work over the Oklahoma dirt training track in :59.79 seconds on August 21 for the fastest time of 40 horses working the same distance.

“She did work really well. We've seen her good before, but she's doing well and we're happy with her. She handles either surface [dirt or turf] very well,” said Mott, a three-time winner of the Personal Ensign with Close Hatches [2014], Hall of Famer Royal Delta [2013], and Link River [1994]. “Letruska is the one who's in good form right now, but I'd like to see my horse run well. We're crossing our fingers and she'll give us a good effort, I think.”

As Time Goes By, who runs for the Coolmore connections and has been sent from the Southern California base of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, ran second to Swiss Skydiver in the Grade 1 Beholder Mile and then racked up a pair of Grade 2 wins, taking the Santa Margarita by 9 ¼ lengths and the Santa Maria by a nose, both at Santa Anita.

The 4-year-old daughter of the Baffert-trained American Pharoah, out of the multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire Take Charge Lady, looks to rebound from a fourth-place finish last out in the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch on August 1, where she stumbled out of the Del Mar gate and then came up empty.

“She's probably the best-bred horse in the race. She's a big, beautiful mare,” Baffert said. “She had a bad race last time. I thought she was going to win at Del Mar, but she got away bad and got shuffled back and at Del Mar, if you get shuffled back early you have no chance. So, she just didn't run. She didn't show up that day, and they'll do that.”

Baffert said that the 1 1/8 miles of the Personal Ensign should suit his filly.

“The further the better for her. She's been working really well, so hopefully we'll get a good, clean break. I think she'll like that big track,” he said. “I've been very high on her and took my time with her, so hopefully this race could be her coming-out party. It's a tough race, but it's a good spot for her.”

Hall of Famer Mike Smith will jet in from Southern California to ride As Time Goes By from post 2. Smith and Baffert teamed up to win the 2018 Personal Ensign with Abel Tasman.

Graceful Princess, winner of the Grade 3 Molly Pitcher at Monmouth Park in her last outing, will have home field advantage. Whisper Hill Farm's exquisitely bred daughter of Tapit out of former Horse of the Year Havre de Grace has a pair of Hall of Famers in her corner with trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey John Velazquez [outermost post 9].

“It's a tough race as you'd expect in a Grade 1 but there's a gap in the stakes schedule for older and fillies and mares going long at the moment, so not too many options. She's really stepped it up, her last race in particular, and I hope she can continue moving forward,” said Pletcher, who won this race in 2012 with Love and Pride and in 2006 with Fleet Indian.

Four-time Saratoga leading trainer Chad Brown will attempt to add the Personal Ensign to his redoubtable resume and will saddle Royal Flag and Dunbar Road, who also figure to benefit from some home cooking.

Will Farish' homebred Royal Flag, who breaks from post 5 under Joel Rosario, won the Grade 3 Shuvee here at 1 1/8 miles on July 25 when returning from a three-months layoff, and Peter Brant's 2019 Grade 1 Alabama winner Dunbar Road, who drew the rail, tries to regain her winning ways with new rider Flavien Prat.

“Hopefully, Royal Flag will have a similar trip where she has a big pace in front of her and she can come with her run,” Brown said of the daughter of the undefeated and four-time Grade 1 winner Candy Ride and the Mineshaft (2003 Horse of the Year) mare Sea Gull. “It would be the ultimate for her. It's quite a family. She's been an improving horse over the years, and it would be well deserved.”

Cammarota Racing's Miss Marissa, who is trained by Jim Ryerson and will be ridden by Daniel Centeno, completes the field and will leave from post 7. The 4-year-old daughter of He's Had Enough captured last year's Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan and enters from a front-running score in the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap on July 10.

The Personal Ensign is slated as Race 10 on the 13-race card. First post is 11:35 a.m. Eastern. For the third consecutive year, FOX will air the Runhappy Travers as the centerpiece of a 90-minute telecast beginning at 5 p.m. The networks of FOX and FOX Sports will air 7.5 total hours of live racing and analysis on Runhappy Travers Day, with coverage scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. on FS1. For the complete Saratoga Live broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule.

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