Selflessly Adds to Brown's Dominance of Miss Grillo
Image:
Description:
Photo: Coglianese Photos
Selflessly takes the Miss Grillo Stakes at Belmont Park
There may not be sure things at the racetrack, but trainer Chad Brown winning the Miss Grillo Stakes (G2T) comes about as close as you can get to death and taxes.
The three-time Eclipse Award winner notched his fourth straight victory in the $200,000, 1 1/16-mile turf stakes for 2-year-old fillies as Selflessly posted a three-quarter-length victory over 2-1 favorite Crystalle Sept. 29 at Belmont Park.
It gave Brown his seventh Miss Grillo win in the past eight years and a top candidate for the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T), although running in the World Championships will cost more than usual. Selflessly was not nominated to the series and will have to be supplemented in order to run.
Given Brown's three straight wins in the Juvenile Fillies Turf and four overall since 2008, it figures to be money well-spent by owner Seth Klarman of Klaravich Stables to enter the daughter of More Than Ready in the Nov. 1 one-mile turf stakes at Santa Anita Park.
Just as it was to enter Selflessly in the Miss Grillo.
"The race has been good to us," Brown said after his eighth Miss Grillo victory. "It makes a lot of sense for us. It's a division we like to participate in, and it's at our home track. Everything about the race makes sense for us, and we've been lucky to have the right horses."
Selflessly proved to be the right choice among Brown's two starters in the Miss Grillo, even though she entered the stakes as a maiden. Aug. 28, in a 5 1/2-furlong maiden turf race at Saratoga Race Course, Brown's two Miss Grillo runners finished 1-2, with Alpha Delta Stables' Jazzique edging Selflessly by a half-length after the Klaravich filly had a troubled trip while rallying from 10th in the final furlong.
"She was unlucky to lose her first race. We treated it as if she had won," said Brown, who won the 2017 Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) with Good Magic , who was a maiden. "We always liked her. I was happy to see her get the extra distance."
Luck was on her side Sunday as jockey Javier Castellano kept the 5-1 shot rated in third behind a slow pace of :48.84 and 1:13.46 set by 73-1 shot Wicked Title in the field of eight. Selflessly rallied along with Jazzique to take the lead at the top of the stretch, then outkicked her stablemate and held off a determined late bid by Crystalle to add to Brown's Miss Grillo win total and earn a trip to the Breeders' Cup, provided Klarman pays the $100,000 supplemental fee plus $30,000 in starting fees.
"She improved. I liked the way she did it today," said Castellano, who guided her under the wire in 1:42.32 over firm turf. "I think she's just going to move forward. I don't think distance is a question the way she did it and the way she galloped out. She can be very competitive at the Breeders' Cup."
Jazzique was three-quarters of a length behind Crystalle in third, edging Sparkling Sky by a nose. English Breeze was another nose back in fifth.
"Both fillies had great trips. Selfishly was just a little better today," said Brown, who indicated Jazzique would not run in the Breeders' Cup, though she is nominated.
Selflessly was bought for $190,000 by de Meric Sales, agent, from the Nursery Place consignment at the 2017 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
The trip was anything but ideal for Tobey Morton and Chuck Hovitz's Crystalle, who overcame trouble at the start to rally from seventh and win the P.G. Johnson Stakes at Saratoga in her previous start. Last after six furlongs and seventh at the eighth pole Sunday, she launched a strong, wide rally in the stretch, but the slow fractions and wide trip haunted her as the Palace Malice 2-year-old settled for a fast-closing second.
"If you look at the fractions, they were pedestrian. They went :13 and change, and she put in her classic kick, but it was tough running into a slow pace like that. Another jump or two, and she was blowing by everyone," trainer John Kimmel said. "In a race like this with some sprinters going long, you thought there might be some pace here, but it didn't unfold that way. I know in the Breeders' Cup there will be plenty of pace."
The way Crystalle was chewing up ground late has Kimmel thinking about 2020, when his filly will have an opportunity to run in New York's Turf Tiara, a series of three $750,000 turf stakes for 3-year-old fillies at distances ranging from 1 3/16 miles to 1 3/8 miles.
"It looks to me like she'll be a really nice filly next year, regardless of whether she can do a mile at the Breeders' Cup," Kimmel said of Crystalle. "It looks like she can do 1 1/4 miles."