Pair of Graded Turf Stakes Welcome Fans Back to Belmont

The May 1 card at Belmont Park will generate more emotions than your typical Saturday afternoon at the historic Elmont, N.Y., oval.

It all starts with the long anticipated April 28 news that Belmont Park will allow a limited number of fans on the grounds beginning Saturday, marking the first time since early March of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic exploded on the scene, that the general public can enjoy a day at the races at a New York Racing Association track.

Adding to that euphoria, Saturday will feature a simulcast of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) and a sensational undercard.

The icing on the cake comes from an entertaining card at Belmont Park, which features three graded stakes, two of them on turf.

The grassy duo of the $200,000 Fort Marcy Stakes (G2T) and the $200,000 Sheepshead Bay Stakes (G2T) for fillies and mares will give New York fans a couple of opportunities to sit back, watch, and enjoy the colorful drama of stakes horses competing around two turns at still Beautiful Belmont Park.

The 1 1/8-mile Fort Marcy will be contested first as the fifth of 11 races. 

A field of five will break from the gate with trainer Chad Brown dominating the entries, all of whom will be making their 2021 debut.

The four-time Eclipse Award winner will be represented by three starters, topped by grade 2 winner Devamani  and grade 1-placed Rockemperor .

Devamani, a son of Dubawi  owned by Sanford Goldfarb and Samuel Abraham, will be making his first start since winning the Oct. 18 Knickerbocker Stakes (G2T). He was second, beaten by a neck, in last year's Fort Marcy.

Rockemperor has not raced since finishing fifth in the Oct. 3 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic (G1T). The son of Holy Roman Emperor  was in top form earlier in the year when he was second by a neck in the Manhattan Stakes (G1T) and third in the Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic (G1T) and Charles Whittingham Stakes (G2T) for the ownership group of Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, Wonder Stables, Michael Kisber, and Michael Caruso.

Brown will also send out Tribhuvan , who suffered a broken rein in the 2020 Fort Marcy and was pulled up. The son of Toronado , owned by Dubb, Madaket Stables, Wonder Stables, and Caruso, won a July 4 allowance optional claimer in his last start.

The New York-bred City Man  and Wissahickon  round out the small field.

The 1 3/8-mile Sheepshead Bay attracted a solid group of six proven distaff turf runners.

Repole Stable's Always Shopping , an Awesome Again  mare, will try to get back on the winning track after a nose loss in the Orchid Stakes (G3T) snapped a streak of back-to-back stakes wins for trainer Todd Pletcher.

Godolphin's Antoinette  and Lael Stables' Magic Attitude  accounted for the two legs of NYRA's Turf Triple for 3-year-olds that were contested last year.

Magic Attitude, a daughter of Galileo , won the Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1T) in her United States debut, then finished third in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes Presented by Dixiana (G1T). Trained by Arnaud Delacour, she started 2021 with a disappointing seventh-place finish in the Hillsborough Stakes (G2T) at Tampa Bay Downs. 

"She may have been a little short when we brought her back at Tampa," Delacour said. "So, we just regrouped after that race, and we wanted to go where she's been successful in the past to try and bring back her best form. We know she likes Belmont Park."

Antoinette, a Hard Spun   4-year-old trained by Bill Mott, captured the 2020 Saratoga Oaks Invitational Stakes then was second in the Belmont Oaks. She opened 2021 with a sharp, frontrunning score in the Feb. 27 The Very One Stakes (G3T) at Gulfstream Park.

Brown will have "only" two starters in the Sheepshead Bay: Peter Brant's My Sister Nat , who was second in the Flower Bowl Stakes (G1T), and Dubb, Madaket Stables, and Wonder Stables' Orglandes , who was last seen winning the Nov. 26 Red Carpet Handicap (G3T) at Del Mar.

Al Shira'aa Farms' Mutamakina , unraced since winning the Nov. 28 Long Island Stakes (G3T) for trainer Christophe Clement, rounds out the field.

The Sheepshead Bay is slated as the 10th race with a post time of 5:37 p.m.