SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Coming off an impressive victory in Saturday’s Grade 2 Flower Bowl Stakes at Saratoga, Bellezza “will be heavily considered” for the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 1, trainer Miguel Clement said Sunday morning.
“The horse was very impressive,” Clement said. “The field might have been subpar, but that’s okay, she was visually impressive. She’s a Grade 2 winner, Grade 1-placed, it’s a bit tough not to go for the swing. She’s a 4-year-old, she’s still improving, she’s a very good filly.”
Bellezza, an Irish-bred daughter of Siyouni, is now 2 for 4 in this country. She won the Grade 3 Sheepshead Bay in May and then was third in the Grade 1 New York and second in the Grade 2 Glens Falls - those two races run over yielding turf courses - before her 2 1/4-length victory in the Flower Bowl, a race run over firm ground.
Clement said the only thing he has to decide is whether to run Bellezza again before the Breeders’ Cup. Were she to run again, the most logical option would be the Grade 3, $175,000 Waya Stakes at Aqueduct on Oct. 5. That race is run at the same 1 3/8-mile distance as the Breeders’ Cup and as the Flower Bowl, which awarded Bellezza a fees-paid berth into the BC Filly and Mare Turf.
Clement said he’s not sure what he’ll do next with La Mehana, who finished fourth as the favorite in the Flower Bowl. She was coming off back-to-back wins, including an 8 3/4-length romp in the Glens Falls run over yielding ground.
Clement feels the trip, not so much the ground, played more of a role in La Mehana’s performance in the Flower Bowl. Jockey Kendrick Carmouche told Clement he could never get La Mehana covered up and relaxed.
“She was always a touch keen the whole way and if you watch the last 100 yards she actually comes on and finishes on again late; it definitely cost me a better placing,” Clement said.
Meanwhile, Clement said Far Bridge would run in the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic on Sept. 27. Clement said he was considering a race at Kentucky Downs for Far Bridge, but will point to the Hirsch, a race he won last year.
“I’m going to start putting him back on the work tab,” Clement said. “If you look at him, he looks light in a good way. I’ll probably just work him twice.”
Far Bridge has won three graded stakes this year but is coming out of a sixth-place finish as the even-money favorite in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer, in which he had a difficult trip.
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