Dunbar Road Looks to Preserve Perfect Season in Beldame

Peter Brant's Dunbar Road will put a perfect season on the line Oct. 4 in the $150,000 Beldame Stakes (G2) at Belmont Park.

The 4-year-old daughter of Quality Road  arrives at the 1 1/8-mile test off a three-length victory in the July 11 Delaware Handicap (G2), which she won by three lengths under a hand ride from jockey Irad Ortiz Jr.

Before that win, Dunbar Road emerged from a 6 1/2-month layoff after a fifth in the Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) to win the May 23 Shawnee Stakes at Churchill Downs for trainer Chad Brown. She will also attempt to keep an unbeaten record at Belmont intact, having bested a first-level allowance field in May 2019 en route to her first graded stakes score in the Mother Goose Stakes (G2). She subsequently won at the highest level, taking the Alabama Stakes (G1) over Point of Honor and next-out grade 1-winner Street Band.

Dunbar Road boasts the most earnings in the field with $998,040 and is 6-1-1 from nine starts.

Jockey Jose Ortiz has the call from post 2.

Graded stakes winner Point of Honor has displayed consistency all year long but seeks a first win of 2020. While the Curlin  filly has finished in the money in all four starts for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Stetson Racing, she has not won since taking the 2019 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (G2) and arrives off three straight placings in grade 1 company. Her most recent effort for trainer George Weaver was a third in the Aug. 1 Personal Ensign Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course, where she finished 6 1/2 lengths behind Vexatious and champion Midnight Bisou. 

"She seems to respond well to space in between races," said Aron Wellman of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. "She's been able to sustain a pretty solid campaign this season, and even though she hasn't won, she's run some pretty exceptional races."

No plans have been made concerning a 5-year-old campaign from Point of Honor, who has been nominated to go through the ring at The November Sale, Fasig-Tipton's elite breeding stock sale Nov. 8 in Lexington.

"We keep an open mind as it relates to these types of situations with top tier fillies like Point of Honor," Wellman said. "Right now, our main focus is the Beldame, which is an important race and a historic race, and we would love to prove victorious there and take things step by step. In addition, we'd love for her to earn her way to the Breeders' Cup, but for now the Beldame is our main focus."

Hall of Famer Javier Castellano has piloted Point of Honor in eight of her 10 starts and has the call from post 4.

"Javier knows her so well," Wellman said. "She's definitely a filly that strategically is more effective when you let her find herself early in the race. I think we'll keep her with the same tactics employed, and hopefully some speed manifests and sets it up. She was beaten a nose in the Ogden Phipps, which was a mile and a sixteenth. We get a little more real estate to work with this time around."

Grade 3 winner Horologist, coming in off a third in the Sept. 4 La Troienne Stakes Presented by Oak Grove Racing and Gaming (G1) at Churchill, grade 3 winner Letruska, and graded stakes-placed Nonna Madeline complete the field.

Entries: Kelso H. (G2)

Belmont Park, Saturday, October 03, 2020, Race 8

• Grade II
• 1m
• Dirt
• $150,000
• 3 yo's & up
• 4:35 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Mo Dont No (OH)	Manuel Franco	116	Anthony T. Quartarolo	30/1
2	2Stan the Man (KY)	Eric Cancel	117	John P. Terranova II	8/1
3	3Endorsed (KY)	Junior Alvarado	118	William I. Mott	7/2
4	4Complexity (KY)	Jose L. Ortiz	119	Chad C. Brown	3/2
5	5Code of Honor (KY)	Javier Castellano	124	Claude R. McGaughey III	1/1