Beaugay Stakes 2019: Entries & Odds

A pair of grade-or-group stakes winners will give trainer Chad Brown a 1-2 punch of domestic and foreign contenders in Saturday’s six-horse Grade 3, $200,000 Beaugay Stakes for older fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles on the Belmont Park inner turf.

One of five stakes including the Grade 1, $700,000 Man o’ War Stakes for 4-year-olds and up at 1 3/8 miles, the 42nd running of the Beaugay also joins the Grade 3, $300,000 Peter Pan Stakes for 3-year-olds, the traditional Belmont Stakes prep; the Grade 3, $200,000 Vagrancy Handicap for fillies and mares 4-years-old and up; and the $150,000 Runhappy, a six-furlong sprint for 4-year-olds and up. Carded as Race 7 on the 11-race card, the Beaugay has a 4:45 p.m. post time.

Brown will send out Klaravich Stables’ Competitionofideas off a four-month layoff following a 2 ¾-length win in the Grade 1 American Oaks on December 29 at Santa Anita Park.

Since running fourth in her debut in May 2018 at Belmont, Competitionofideas has never finished off the board, going 3-1-2 in six starts. After breaking her maiden, by 8 ½ lengths, at the Beaugay’s distance at fourth asking on September 7 at Belmont, the Speightstown filly has continued to improve, finishing third in her stakes debut in the Winter Memories taken off the turf on November 22 at Aqueduct Racetrack before rallying to win her first graded stakes appearance over firm turf in the American Oaks, tying a personal best with a 90 Beyer Speed Figure.

She will make her 4-year-old bow at Belmont, where she is 2-1-0 in four starts. Joel Rosario, aboard for both of her previous stakes starts, will be in the irons from post 3 for the filly who was purchased for $325,000 at the 2016 Keeneland Sale.

Competitionofideas, 2-for-2 on turf labeled good in her career, breezed four furlongs in 52.12 seconds at Belmont on Tuesday.

“She just had a nice easy breeze yesterday because we’re real close to the race. She did fine,” Brown said. “I don’t think it [soft turf] will bother her. She’s run well on it before.”

Brown will also get his first chance to see Homerique race live. After going 2-1-2 in six starts in France, Peter Brant purchased the Exchange Rate filly, with Brown picking up the training duties. The 4-year-old has not raced since running third in the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera in October at Longchamp.

Bred in Kentucky by Nicky and Francois Drion, Homerique has posted both of her career wins at 1 ¼ miles, including a three-quarter of a length win in the Group 3 Prix de Pysche in July at Deauville.

Irad Oritz, Jr. will ride Homerique in her North American debut, breaking from post 5.

Homerique shipped from her training center in Palm Meadows and had her final workout before the race on Tuesday on the Belmont main track, breezing four furlongs in 49.03.

“Homerique had a maintenance half-mile and looked okay. She went in company with [multiple Grade 1-winner] Sistercharlie. Her training has been a little bit interrupted with the weather, but we want to get her started.”

West Point Thoroughbreds, Hubert Honore and Robert Masiello’s Chipolata will return to stakes company after an allowance win at 1 1/8 miles on April 11 at Aqueduct, marking her first win in three starts since the French-bred arrived from her native country.

Since making the transatlantic flight and going into trainer Christophe Clement’s care, Chipolata has run competitively, finishing third in her first U.S. start in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational on July 7 before running fifth in the Zagora in October.

Following a six-month break, the 4-year-old daughter of Muhtathir will be cutting back in distance after running between 1 1/8 miles to 1 ½ miles in her three starts since arriving from Europe.

“She’s a nice filly. She did well last time but now it’s a Grade 3 and it’s more difficult, but she’s doing well and training well,” Clement said. “We’ll see if she can step up. Ideally, I think she can go a mile and an eighth to a mile and a quarter. But we don’t have those kind of races right now, so it’s either we go further or we go shorter. We thought it’d be wiser to go shorter and see what happens.”

Jockey Eric Cancel will pick up the mount from post 1.

Don Alberto Stable’s Andina Del Sur will be going for her first win in 10 starts but has come close to breaking through for trainer Tom Albertrani, finishing third last out in the one-mile Sand Springs on March 30.

In the finale of her 3-year-old campaign, Andina Del Sur dueled Too Charming to the end, finishing second by a head in the Tropical Park Oaks on December 29 at Gulfstream Park. She then started her 4-year-old year with a fourth-place effort – just 1 ½ lengths back to winner Dolce Lili – in the South Beach on January 26 before hitting the board in the Sand Springs.

Her previous victory, in the Grade 3 Florida Oaks in March 2018 at Tampa Bay Downs, was on firm turf.

“Her last three races were really close, hopefully we can make up more of the margin this weekend,” Albertrani said. “This race, it should be in her sights. Her last win was in the Florida Oaks was at a mile and a sixteenth, so she has this distance in her sights. She’s run well over the track going back a few races. Hopefully, she’s on her game and the rain doesn’t come until late and it’ll be a little firmer than what we’ve been having lately.”

The Kentucky homebred, out of Giant’s Causeway, will be making her seventh graded stakes start; tracking the speed in each of those contests.

“It looks like she does better rating a little bit,” Albertrani said. “She’s done it both ways. I think when you look back at her race at Tampa, she came back from far back that day and finished well and she did it again in one of her better races in the Tropical Park Oaks, she took back also that day. She does better when you don’t have to rush her so much.”

Jockey Luis Saez will be aboard for the sixth consecutive time on Andina Del Sur, leaving from post 2.

“It looks like Luis is getting on very well with her; he’s ridden her at a couple of locations. Hopefully, we’ll make up the difference this week,” Albertrani said.

Matty’s Magnum, winner of the Winter Memories for trainer David Donk, will return off a fifth-place finish in the Ladies Handicap on January 20, drawing post 4 with Junior Alvarado aboard.

Rounding out the field is German-bred Binti Al Nar, making her first North American start after going 2-4-0 in 11 starts racing in Germany, Italy England and France. The Peter Schiergen trainee will have the services of Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez from post 6.