Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Phipps field comes up short in numbers, long on talent
ELMONT, N.Y. – The lament over a quartet of five-horse fields on Saturday’s Belmont Stakes Day card is warranted. Except when it comes to the Grade 1, $500,000 Ogden Phipps Stakes.
With the possible exception of Ce Ce, the Phipps has all the major players in the older female dirt division going long, led by reigning older dirt female champion Letruska and 3-yearold filly champion Malathaat. Add in Grade 1 winners Clairiere and Search Results and three-time Grade 1 runner-up Bonny South and you have an elite-quality field from top to bottom.
Letruska, who has won nine of 11 starts – including five Grade 1’s – dating back to December 2020, will be the one to catch and beat in the Phipps, a one-turn, 1 1/16-mile race that offers a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Keeneland in November. In April, Letruska won the Grade 1 Apple Blossom for the second straight year and she will be trying to do the same in the Phipps.
Unlike 2021, when Letruska ran eight times – a campaign that may have caught up to her when she finished 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff – trainer Fausto Gutierrez has sought a shorter campaign in 2021. It began with a victory in the Grade 3 Royal Delta at Gulfstream Park followed by her 1 1/4-length victory over Clairiere in the Apple Blossom.
“She’s more fresh,” Gutierrez said this week at Belmont. “We need to select and maybe reduce one or two races in relation to last year. This is a very prestigious race; it’s one of the most important races of the year. It’s very important to win back-toback these kinds of races like the Apple Blossom and Phipps.”
Mares with Letruska’s résumé –19 wins from 25 starts including 10 graded stakes victories – rarely are seen on the track at age 6. Gutierrez sees a bit of a different mare this year, and it sometimes concerns him.
“She’s a horse with a lot of character, and now she started to be more relaxed,” he said. “What I was looking for all the time before now she has it. Some days I worry because where is this horse that jumped around? Now, she’s more professional. These kinds of horses need to have a big mind and she has it. Also, she is stronger. We don’t need to forget with age they grow up.”
Letruska still seems to have her natural speed that puts her on the lead early in the races, and then her stamina carries her the remainder of the way. As was the case last year in the Phipps, Letruksa will break from the rail under Jose Ortiz.
“I like to be more to the outside than the inside, but it’s okay,” Gutierrez said.
Malathaat and Search Results meet for the first time since they were separated by a neck in last year’s Kentucky Oaks. Malathaat is 5 for 7 in two-turn stakes and finished third in the BC Distaff. At the beginning of her career, Malathaat won a pair of one-turn races laying up close.
“She wants to have a target, so hopefully Letruska gets some entertainment up front and the race sets up well,” said Todd Pletcher, the trainer of Malathaat, who kicked off her 4-year-old campaign with a victory in the Grade 3 Doubledogdare at Keeneland. “It’s a little different dynamic. Most of these fillies have been running two turns, and coming back to one turn seems like the race doesn’t spread out as much. We’re happy the way she comes into it.”
John Velazquez rides Malathaat from post 3.
In her two starts at Belmont Park, Search Results won the Grade 1 Acorn at 3 and the Grade 2 Ruffian last month, both at one mile. She pressed a pretty strong pace in the Ruffian, run over a sealed, muddy track.
“It’s a tough race, but she belongs,” trainer Chad Brown said. “She loves Belmont.”
Clairiere is an example of a horse who got better and faster as her 3-year-old campaign progressed. She finished behind Malathaat four times, but by only a head when those two were third and fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. After winning an allowance at Fair Grounds to kick off her 4-yearold season, Clairiere finished second to Letruska in the Apple Blossom with a less-thansmooth trip.
“She ran a good race, she really did,” said Clairiere’s trainer, Steve Asmussen. “I thought there was some dead weight between Letruska and the field. Clairiere ran on valiantly, was up against it the way the race unfolded, but Letruska makes her own trip, makes her own race. She’s a very worthy champion who gets nothing but my respect.”
Joel Rosario rides Clairiere from post 4.
Bonny South is the only horse in this field to not have won a Grade 1 stakes, but she’s finished second in three such races including this race last year. She is coming off a secondplace finish to Malathaat in the Doubledogdare, her first start of the year.
“She reminds of Juliet Foxtrot,” Cox said, referring to a turf horse he trained who came close in several Grade 1’s before winning the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley in her 6-yearold season. “She deserves a Grade 1 and we’ll give her some opportunities this year. She’s doing really well. She’s trained extremely well all year. Her last run was a good one. Hopefully, she can build off it.”
Flavien Prat has the call for the first time on Bonny South from post 2.