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Frank’s Rockette Tries To Keep Her Streak Alive In Gallant Bloom

Frank Fletcher Racing Operation's sophomore filly Frank's Rockette will face elders after winning three straight races in Saturday's 26th running of the Grade 2, $150,000 Gallant Bloom for fillies and mares going 6 ½ furlongs over the main track at Belmont Park.

The Gallant Bloom, named in honor of the 1968 Champion 2-Year-Old Filly and 1969 Champion 3-Year-Old Filly, is one of five graded stakes races carded for Saturday's action packed program which also features the Grade 2, $150,000 Kelso going a one-turn mile for older horses; the Grade 2, $150,000 Pilgrim for 2-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles over the inner turf; the Grade 1, $250,000 Belmont Derby Invitational for 3-year-olds going 1 ¼ miles over the Widener turf and the Grade 1, $250,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic – a 1 ½ mile test for older horses over the Widener turf.

Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, Frank's Rockette has gone off as the favorite in all nine of her lifetime starts and has never finished worse than second. She is 3-2-0 this year with each start at a different track.

Following a seven-length runaway win in the February 22 Any Limit at Gulfstream Park, the Into Mischief bay filly was second to Kimari in the Purple Martin on April 4 over a sloppy main track at Oaklawn Park. Frank's Rockette won her following three starts which took place in a Churchill Downs optional claiming tilt on May 25 followed by graded stakes triumphs in the Grade 3 Victory Ride on July 4 at Belmont Park and the Grade 2 Prioress on September 5 at Saratoga.

During her juvenile campaign, Frank's Rockette picked up Grade 1-black type with runner up efforts in the Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga and Grade 1 Frizette over Big Sandy.

Frank's Rockette has trained forwardly for Mott since her last victory, recently working a half-mile in 48.80 seconds over Saratoga's Oklahoma training track on September 25.

“She's been doing really well,” said Mott who won the 2000 Gallant Bloom with Dream Supreme. “She had a couple of nice works; very workmanlike breezes. They've all been on point.”

Jockey Junior Alvarado will pilot Frank's Rockette from post 4.

Trainer Chad Brown will send out Royal Charlotte in attempt of her first victory this year. Owned by First Row Partners and Parkland Thoroughbreds, the 4-year-old daughter of Cairo Prince kicked off her career undefeated in her first four starts, including the Grade 3 Victory Ride last July at Belmont Park.

After a distant sixth in the 2019 Grade 1 Test at Saratoga, she made amends with a win in the 2019 Grade 2 Prioress at the Spa, which was her last victory. A last out second as the favorite in Monmouth Park's Regret on September 13, Royal Charlotte began her season when second in the Harmony Lodge at Belmont Park on June 5, which was contested over a muddy and sealed main track.

Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano will ride from post 2.

Following a victory over Royal Charlotte in the Regret, 2W Stables' Bronx Beauty will attempt to best the dual graded stakes winner once more for trainer Anthony Margotta, Jr.

The Pennsylvania-bred daughter of Liaison was a 4 ¼-length winner of the six-furlong Regret, which she also won last year. A ten-time winner of 22 lifetime starts, Bronx Bomber is an eight-time stakes winner over four different tracks.
Jockey Eric Cancel picks up the mount from post 1.

Trainer John Kimmel will saddle Tobey L. Morton's Pacific Gale in attempt of her first graded stakes victory.

The Flat Out bay has not found the winner's circle since October 2018, where she defeated allowance optional claiming company going six furlongs at Belmont Park, but has acquired graded stakes black type five times since that effort.

Last spring, Pacific Gale was runner-up in the Grade 3 Distaff in April 2019 at Aqueduct behind Come Dancing and was subsequently a late-closing second beaten a neck to Heavenhasmynikki in the Grade 3 Vagrancy at Belmont Park. Three starts back, she was third beaten six lengths in this year's running of the Vagrancy, which was won by Victim of Love.

Jockey Jose Lezcano will ride Pacific Gale from post 6.

Completing the field are Bertranda [post 3, Manny Franco] and Honor Way [post 5, Jose Ortiz]

The Gallant Bloom is slated as Race 5 on Saturday's 10-race program, which offers a first post of 12:40 p.m. Eastern. America's Day at the Races will present daily television coverage of the 27-day fall meet on FOX Sports and MSG Networks. For the complete America's Day at the Races broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/tv-schedule.

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Doctor Mounty Headlines Pimlico’s Oldest Stakes Race, The Dinner Party

Already a four-time winner of the race, Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey will go after No. 5 with Maryland-loving multiple graded-stakes winner Doctor Mounty in the $250,000 Dinner Party (G2) Saturday, Oct. 3 at Pimlico Race Course.

The 119th running of the Dinner Party for 3-year-olds and up on the grass is part of a Preakness Day program of 12 stakes races, seven graded, worth $2.7 million in purses featuring the $1 million Preakness (G1) for 3-year-olds and $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan (G2) for 3-year-old fillies.

Previously run as the Dixie, Pimlico's oldest stakes race and the eighth-oldest in the country was named the Dinner Party for its 1870 debut and contested at two miles. The distance has changed eight times over its history, settling at the current 1 1/16 miles in 2014.

Larry Pratt and Dave Alden's Doctor Mounty snapped a five-race losing streak when he returned from a brief freshening with a front-running 1 ¾-length triumph in the 1 1/16-mile Henry S. Clark Sept. 7 at Laurel Park. It was his first victory since his previous trip to Maryland, when the now 7-year-old gelding rallied to win the Prince George's County by a length last June.

The Clark was Doctor Mounty's sixth win from nine lifetime tries at Laurel, including the 2018 Baltimore-Washington International Turf Cup (G3). Based at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., where he breezed a half-mile in a bullet 47.40 seconds Sept. 26, Doctor Mounty has yet to race at Pimlico.

“He's doing fine. He's been there at Fair Hill and he's trained well there, so we'll take a shot,” McGaughey said. “He likes Laurel, so [the Clark was] a good spot to try and start him back again.”

In the Clark, Doctor Mounty was reunited with jockey Forest Boyce, who has ridden him to five of his Laurel wins including all three stakes. She and the 2019 Tropical Turf (G3) winner will team up again from Post 6 in a field of seven for the Dinner Party.

McGaughey's previous wins came with Hall of Famer Lure (1993), Parading (2009), Ironicus (2015) and Fire Away (2018), when it was rained onto the main track.

“Forest rides him really well, so I think that's one of the things that's helped, too,” McGaughey said. “He's made more than a half-million dollars, he's won some stakes and won some graded-stakes. He's been off and on a little bit but we gave him a little time this summer. We thought about taking him to Colonial [Downs] but when that fell through [the Clark] was the next logical spot, [and] here we are.”

Trainer Graham Motion, who won with Dr. Brendler in 2003 and Better Talk Now in 2006 and was third the past two years with Just Howard, counters with the pair of True Valour and Irish Strait. R. Larry Johnson purchased Irish-bred True Valour over the summer and the 6-year-old debuted for his new connections Sept. 5 in the 1 1/8-mile Turf Classic (G1), pressing the pace before fading to seventh.

True Valour has gone winless in seven tries since taking the City of Hope Mile (G2) last October, his first start in eight months after winning the Thunder Road (G3), both at Santa Anita. Winner of the 2018 Ballycorus (G3) at Leopardstown in Ireland, he will be ridden by Julian Pimentel from Post 1.

“I think the mile and an eighth in Kentucky was a little far for him. I think shortening up to a mile and a sixteenth is going to help him,” Motion said. “He's pretty straightforward; I just think distance is going to be a bit limited for him. Last time was just a bit too far.”

Isabelle Haskell de Tomaso's homebred Irish Strait is a half-brother to Irish War Cry, millionaire winner of the 2018 Pimlico Special (G3). Irish Strait earned his own graded triumph in the 2017 Red Bank (G3) and has run second or third four times since in graded company.

After more than a year between races, Irish Strait has started twice this year with a third in the 1 1/16-mile Oceanport Aug. 9 and a fourth to Analyze It in the one-mile Red Bank Sept. 5, both at Monmouth under jockey Jorge Vargas Jr. Trevor McCarthy will be aboard for the Dinner Party from Post 5.

“He's run twice this year and run pretty well. Just looking over his form, he almost never gets beaten more than four lengths. Since last January he's just been very consistent,” Motion said. “He's 8 now so at some point in time it's going to catch up to him, but I thought in the Red Bank [trainer] Chad [Brown] won it with a filly coming off a long layoff with a pretty nice horse, a Grade 1 type horse. Jorge felt like he made a mistake by taking back little bit, and he was only beaten 4 ¼ lengths.”

Also in with a pair of horses is trainer Mike Maker, Somelikeithotbrown and Hembree, who will break side-by-side from Post 2 and 3, respectively, under Paco Lopez and Daniel Centeno. Skychai Racing and Sand Dollar Stable's Somelikeithotbrown, 4, captured the Bernard Baruch (G2) July 26 at Saratoga for his second career graded triumph, while Three Diamonds Farm's Hembree won the 2018 Nearctic (G2). The 6-year-old hasn't visited the winner's circle since the 2019 El Prado but placed six times in 13 tries, all stakes.

Gaining Ground Racing's Factor This, beaten less than a length after setting the pace in the Turf Classic, cuts back to a distance where the 5-year-old owns four wins from seven starts, the most recent coming in the June 20 Wise Dan (G2) for trainer Brad Cox. It was part of a three-race streak interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic following victories in the Muniz Memorial Classic (G3) and Fair Grounds (G3). An 11-time winner of nearly $1.1 million in purse earnings, Factor This drew outside Post 7 with Florent Groux.

Rounding out the field is O Dionysus, a stakes winner on turf and dirt for previous trainer Gary Capuano making his third start since being purchased by Irvin S. Naylor for $135,000 last December. The 6-year-old gelding has won stakes in each of his first four racing seasons but is 0-for-2 in 2020, finishing off the board in the United Nations (G1) and Henry Clark. This will be his third straight year in the race, running fourth in 2018 and fifth in 2019.

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Wicked Whisper Showed She ‘Still Wants To Play,’ Tops Saturday’s Miss Preakness Stakes

Alex and JoAnn Lieblong's Grade 1 winner Wicked Whisper, making just her sixth career start, looks to return to the winner's circle for the first time in nearly a year when she lines up against six rivals in the $150,000 Miss Preakness (G3) Saturday, Oct. 3 at Pimlico Race Course.

The 35th running of the six-furlong Miss Preakness for 3-year-old fillies is part of a Preakness Day program of 12 stakes races, seven graded, worth $2.7 million in purses featuring the $1 million Preakness (G1) for 3-year-olds and $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan (G2) for 3-year-old fillies.

A $500,000 yearling purchase in September 2018, Wicked Whisper debuted last August at Saratoga with a popular front-running 6 ¼-length triumph. She was stepped right into stakes company by Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and captured the one-mile Frizette (G1) in similar fashion at Belmont Park.

From there, Wicked Whisper ran fifth after pressing the pace in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), exiting the race with a minor leg issue. She didn't kick off her 3-year-old season until June 10, fading to be fourth behind Four Graces in the seven-furlong Beaumont (G3) at Keeneland.

“She's done well [but] she's had a couple issues. She had [one] out of the Breeders' Cup and we got that one up going and then I'll be darned if she didn't get another one on the other leg,” Alex Lieblong said. “So, we took it slow. When she ran back she ran into a very good filly but I think, knowing Steve, he probably hadn't squeezed on her much with what had happened. She seems to be over that.”

In most recent start Wicked Whisper rallied to be second by a half-length in the seven-furlong Charles Town Oaks (G3), contested around two turns at unique six-furlong track. She has trained forwardly since with Asmussen's string in Saratoga.

“She ran a pretty good race over at Charles Town, especially for being a new experience running at that track. She didn't get the greatest start but almost got there,” Lieblong said. “It showed me that she still wants to play. She seems to be training very well. I haven't heard any moans or groans out of Steve, so that's a good thing.”

Joe Bravo has the mount on Wicked Whisper from Post 2. Asmussen won the Miss Preakness with Heart Ashley in 2009 and Vertical Oak in 2017.

“I don't have any excuses. It looks like there's plenty of pace in the race, but pace has never really been her problem,” Lieblong said. “Charles Town, I think, tightened her up the right way. It'll be what it is. She shouldn't have any excuses at this point.”

Nearly half the Miss Preakness field comes from Laurel Park-based trainer Claudio Gonzalez, Maryland's champion trainer three years running who entered Charles Town Oaks winner Fly On Angel, Beyond the Wire winner Princess Cadey and multiple stakes-placed Ankle Monitor.

Gonzalez claimed Fly On Angel for $50,000 in August on behalf of owner Joseph Besecker, and the Palace Malice filly immediately paid dividends with her gate-to-wire triumph in the Oaks. It was the fourth win from nine career starts for Fly On Angel, who posted splits of 22.81 and 46.25 seconds.

“She looks like she likes to go in front, so that's why I told the jockey that day to make sure she was in front,” Gonzalez said. “She's fast. She went out front and she held on. She went fast for the first half of a mile and she held it. I think the six furlongs is only going to help her.”

Angel Cruz gets the call on Fly On Angel from Post 3.

Gonzalez considered running Magic Stable's Princess Cadey in Saturday's $100,000 Hilltop, contested at one mile over the Pimlico turf, but opted to stay on dirt with the Dialed In filly who was third in the Oaks just a nose behind Wicked Whisper. Princess Cadey was second in the Wide Country that preceded her Beyond the Wire win, both coming before live racing was paused for 2 ½ months in Maryland amid the coronavirus pandemic. She is winless in four tries since racing returned, finishing sixth in the about 1 1/16-mile Weber City Miss Sept. 7 at Laurel.

Princess Cadey is another Gonzalez claim, haltered for $16,000 last December. She is twice Grade 3-placed in the Charles Town and July 4 Delaware Oaks, where she was beaten less than two lengths by Black-Eyed Susan contender Project Whiskey. Weston Hamilton has the riding assignment from outside Post 7.

“When I claimed her she had run better on grass than on dirt,” Gonzalez said. “After we came back from the break, she didn't break that sharp in all her races. In the Delaware Oaks, I believe if we break good we could win the race. Then at Charles Town, if we break good we can win the race. She lost only a half-length in that race. We've been working with her to break a little better and if we can get a good position, I think we can make it.”

Magic Stable also owns Ankle Monitor, fourth in each of her past two starts, the Charles Town Oaks and Weber City Miss, beaten 5 ½ lengths combined. She has never run at six furlongs but owns wins at five and seven furlongs and one mile, and will be ridden by Victor Carrasco from Post 6.

e Five Thoroughbred Racing's Sound Machine will be making her second straight start against graded company, having run fifth to Frank's Rockette in the six-furlong Prioress (G2) Sept. 5 at Saratoga, her first race in more than six months. Another $500,000 yearling out of the September 2018 sale, the Into Mischief filly won the 6 ½-furlong Glitter Woman Jan. 4 and was second in the six-furlong Any Limit and House Party, all at Gulfstream Park.

“Her first race back off a layoff was a tough place to start her back, but we had to get her started. I thought she ran credibly behind some nice horses,” trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said. “This spot is not going to be easy but it's going to be probably a little easier than the last spot. She's going to ship [Tuesday] from Gulfstream and hopefully she runs her race. I think she goes in with a nice chance.”

Mundaye Call, track record-setting winner of the seven-furlong Audubon Oaks Aug. 9 at Ellis Park, and Ain't No Elmers are also entered.

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Juliet Foxtrot, Varenka Trying To Get 2020 Seasons Back On Track In Saturday’s Gallorette

Juliet Foxtrot and Varenka, graded winners in 2019, will seek their first stakes score this season in the $150,000 Gallorette (G3) Saturday, Oct. 3 at Pimlico Race Course.

A field of eight fillies and mares was entered in the 1 1/16-mile Gallorette on grass, the second on a 12-race all-stakes Preakness Day program, and the first of seven graded events. First race post time is 11 a.m.

The Gallorette honors the Hall of Fame mare bred in Maryland, who was the leading money-winning female in history when she retired in 1948. During her five seasons of racing she often competed against the top male handicap runners in the country. She won 21 of 72 starts, including the Whitney and the Carter.

Augustin Stable's homebred filly Varenka showed so much promise as a 2-year-old that she raced in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) as a maiden and won three of five starts last year, topped by a dead-heat victory in the Lake Placid (G2) at Saratoga.

The daughter of Hall of Famer Ghostzapper is winless in three tries in 2020. In her most recent outing, she was fifth, beaten 2 ¼ lengths, as the 3-1 favorite in the One Dreamer on Sept. 7 at Kentucky Downs.

“She's been a little disappointing this year, I would say,” trainer Graham Motion said. “She won a stake last year as a 3-year-old and I think she's found the step up to older horses a little bit tougher. Having said that, she hasn't been beaten very far in her races this year. I thought she was a little unlucky last time at Kentucky Downs. She didn't have a great trip and she was only beaten two lengths. In three times year this year she's been beaten two, three lengths each time. She's right there she just has to step up a little bit.”

Varenka will race in blinkers for the first time. She will start from the outside post under jockey Trevor McCarthy.

Juddmonte Farm's British homebred Juliet Foxtrot had a very strong 2019 season after being imported and turned over to trainer Brad Cox. The daughter of Dansili capped a three-race win streak with a front-running score in the Modesty Handicap (G3) at Arlington Park. She just missed by a nose to Vasili in the John C. Mabee (G2) at Del Mar, then was second to champion Uni in the First Lady (G1).

Juliet Foxtrot finished the season with a third, beaten 1 ½ lengths, in the Matriarch (G1). This season, the speedy 5-year-old mare, who drew the inside post in the Gallorette under Florent Geroux, has not been able to find the same type of success.

Robert and Lawana Low's 4-year-old homebred She'sonthewarpath has thrived this year for trainer Steve Margolis, winning three of five starts, all in stakes company. With Gabriel Saez taking over for regular rider Chantal Sutherland, the Declaration of War filly will be making her first start since finishing second on Aug. 2 in the Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf Stakes. She'sonthewarpath's third dam is the Lows' standout sprinter Capote Belle.

Storm the Hill will make her first start since January and debut for top turf trainer Mike Maker. The 6-year-old Get Stormy mare, owned by Alastar Thoroughbred Company and Michael Valdes, is the most seasoned of the Gallorette runners with 29 starts. The Gallorette will be her 11th straight graded-stakes. Her most recent victory was in the Senator Ken Maddy (G3) at Santa Anita in November 2018. Horacio Karamanos as the mount from Post 3.

Not in Jeopardy, third by a half-length in the 2019 All Along at Laurel Park; No Mo Lady and Jabuticaba, respectively second and fourth in the 2020 All Along Sept. 7; and Wicked Awesome are also entered, the latter for main track only.

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