OZONE PARK N.Y. – Edict, the new gal on the block, will bring a little measure of intrigue to the main event on Saturday’s Belmont at Aqueduct program, the $175,000 Noble Damsel Stakes for older fillies and mares at a mile on the turf.
Edict will make both her U.S. and 2024 debut in the Grade 3 Noble Damsel after having begun her career in her native Argentina. Edict, a daughter of the Chilean-bred four-time Group 1 winner Il Campione, was voted the 3-year-old filly champion in Argentina in 2023 after closing the year winning a pair of Group 1 races at San Isidro during the fall. Edict is now trained by David Donk for owner John Behrendt, a longtime client of Donk’s. Edict was trained by Eduardo Accosano when she raced in Argentina.
“She went to quarantine and spent a month in Ocala before arriving at my barn during the late spring,” Donk said. “We gave her plenty of time to get acclimated and actually had her entered in a three-other-than allowance race this summer at Saratoga but had to scratch after she spiked a fever. She’s had three breezes since, trained quite well, and although her best races might be going a little longer down the road, this is a good starting point for her.”
Campaigning South American-bred runners in the United States for Behrendt is nothing new for Donk.
“Most of the South American horses we’ve run in the U.S. we bred down there and then brought up here,” Donk noted. “But this is a little different. She beat the best they had down there. She was champion 3-year-old filly and she beat older mares. This is easily the best one we’ve had so far.”
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Because of the two Group 1 wins on her résumé, Edict will carry high weight of 126 pounds under the allowance conditions of the Noble Damsel.
As is the case in most graded stakes for fillies and mares on the turf in New York, trainer Chad Brown is well represented in the headliner, having entered the trio of Alluring Angel, Saffron Moon, and Midnight Mile in the body of the race with Signal from Noise one of the two main-track-only members of the lineup along with the Linda Rice-trained Movie Moxy.
Alluring Angel has not started since defeating allowance competition here with a last-to-first rally June 20. She finished third in the Tepin and fourth in the Grade 2 Miss Grillo over this course last fall.
Saffron Moon has been away even longer. She finished a distant second behind Star Fortress in the Grade 3 Cardinal at Churchill Downs 10 months earlier, while Midnight Mile has finished second in all three of her U.S. appearances, a frustrating streak that included a neck setback in the Perfect Sting over this course July 4.
“Alluring Angel popped a splint following her allowance win in June, which is why she missed the Saratoga meet,” Brown said. “I haven’t been able to get an allowance race for Saffron Moon yet this year. Midnight Angel is a tricky horse to train. She’s very aggressive. The key is to get her to settle. She’s been close a couple of times, hopefully she can break through here.”
Five Towns figures to garner plenty of support coming off a good third-place finish behind the speedy Full Count Felicia in the Grade 2 Canadian at Woodbine for trainer Graham Motion. The race winner flattered the effort when returning to dominate the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor in wire-to-wire fashion last weekend.
Ocean Club, who stretches back out in distance after finishing third in the 6 1/2-furlong, Grade 3 Ladies Turf Sprint last month at Kentucky Downs; Poca Mucha, a 14-length winner of the restricted De La Rose Stakes decided over a sloppy track at Saratoga in her last start; Breath Away, an allowance winner this summer over the turf at Saratoga; and Elounda Queen complete the field.
– additional reporting by David Grening
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