Harvey's Lil Goil Returns vs. Classy Group in Beaugay

The $150,000 Beaugay Stakes (G3T) at Belmont Park May 8 will be a reunion of sorts for several top-level fillies and mares who last met in the fall when competing for a championship title in the Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1T). 

Harvey's Lil Goil , Civil Union , and Nay Lady Nay  will comprise half of the six-horse Beaugay field. The headliner for the 1 1/16-mile inner turf test is Harvey's Lil Goil, a grade 1 winner who will be making her 4-year-old debut for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. 

Owned by the Estate of Harvey A. Clarke and Paul Braverman, the daughter of 2015 Triple Crown-winning and recent Hall of Fame inductee American Pharoah   won a pair of graded stakes in her sophomore campaign, capturing the Regret Stakes (G3T) at Churchill Downs going 1 1/8 miles in just her second career turf start.

Next out, Mott returned her to the main track, where she had run her three previous starts. The switch in surface proved to be of little obstacle to the filly, who finished a strong third in the Alabama Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course.

Moved back to the grass once again, Harvey's Lil Goil ran second in the Exacta Systems Dueling Grounds Oaks at Kentucky Downs before besting Micheline  to win the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes Presented by Dixiana (G1T) at Keeneland. That preceded her Breeders' Cup effort, where she ran just a neck and a head behind the winner Audarya  and runner-up Rushing Fall  when third in a blanket finish.

Mott said her success on both surfaces keeps options open, though a strong Beaugay effort could facilitate a start in the New York Stakes (G2T) going 1 1/4 miles on the turf June 4.

"She's been doing fine. We're happy with her," Mott said. "Interestingly enough, we think she's one that can do both. First things first, if she runs well in the Beaugay we could come back in the New York."

Allen Stable's Civil Union, a fellow grade 1 winner, is also making her way back to the track after a successful 2020 that saw her win 4-of-6 starts, with all victories coming consecutively. Civil Union posted back-to-back graded scores in the 1 3/8-mile Glens Falls Stakes (G2T) at Saratoga and the 1 1/4-mile Flower Bowl Stakes (G1T) at Belmont. The now 6-year-old War Front   mare closed out her year with a competitive fifth in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

"She's been doing real good, and we're excited to get her out there," trainer Shug McGaughey said. "I think she likes Belmont. The distance, going a mile and a sixteenth, might not be the perfect spot, but we just need to get her going."

First Row Partners and Hidden Brook Farm's Nay Lady Nay, eighth in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf, is one of two starters for trainer Chad Brown, who also runs Peter Brant's Lemista , a group 2 winner in Ireland who makes her U.S. debut. No Lady Nay is a grade 2 winner who showed in the Flower Bowl last fall.

Brown has won the Beaugay four times, including three straight editions from 2018-20 with A Raving Beauty , Homerique , and Rushing Fall.