Englehart eyes strong finish

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Jeremiah Englehart will look to put an exclamation point on his most successful Belmont Park meeting when he sends out I Still Miss You in Sunday’s $125,000 Lynbrook Stakes for New York-bred juvenile fillies.

Englehart also entered the maiden Missbigtimes in the five-horse, six-furlong Lynbrook, which goes as race 4 on the 11-race card that closes the 54-day Belmont springsummer meet. Racing on this circuit moves to Saratoga beginning Friday.

Englehart entered the final three days of the meet with 15 wins from 53 starters. His previous-best Belmont meets were the springs of 2013 and 2015, when he won seven races each.

Englehart, who also maintains a string at Finger Lakes, credited his Belmont assistant, Axelle Angeliaume, for doing “a really good job this meet. It’s the least amount of time I spent down there. It was a little slow getting started at Finger Lakes, and I needed to be up here, so they’ve done a really good job down there.”

Englehart has won with both of his stakes starters at this meet, including I Still Miss You, who recorded a 2 1/4-length victory against open company in the $150,000 Astoria Stakes on June 8. In the Astoria, I Still Miss You fended off early challenges from Sugar Queen and Waki Patriot before holding Best Performance at bay.

“I thought her last race was a very nice race, fighting off three challenges and still responding,” Engelhart said. “I think she’s a smart horse. Not a whole lot of things bother her. She walks around like she knows what she’s doing. She seems to like the competition.”

The competition Sunday figures to come from Pure Silver, one of two fillies entered by trainer Todd Pletcher. Pure Silver won her debut on the front end by 1 1/2 lengths, beating, among others, Missbigtimes.

Englehart said he thinks I Still Miss You could sit off Pure Silver if necessary. Englehart noted that in her last work, I Still Miss You breezed in company with Missbigtimes, and both were behind another trainer’s horse who had started a workout a little bit in front of them.

“My rider kept her right behind that one, eating dirt, and she went on and finished well,” Englehart said. “Not that it means she can sit, but it made me feel better.”

Javier Castellano rides I Still Miss You from post 4. Missbigtimes drew the rail. In her debut, Missbigtimes broke slowly from post 2, then veered in. She showed some late interest in finishing third, albeit beaten eight lengths.

Pure Silver will break from post 2 under John Velazquez. Pletcher’s other runner, One Last Cast, won her debut at Aqueduct in April before finishing sixth, 18 3/4 lengths behind I Still Miss You, in the Astoria.

Northernstreetgal, who finished fifth in a turf race, gets Lasix for the first time in her dirt debut.