Bleecker Street Improves to 7-for-7 in New York Stakes

The locales and the names of the races may change, but each time the 4-year-old filly Bleecker Street  breaks from the starting gate, the result has been the same.

Seven starts for the gray daughter of Quality Road   and seven victories.

The latest triumph for owner Peter Brant and trainer Chad Brown came June 10 when the daughter of the Exchange Rate  mare Lemon Liqueur rallied from last in a field of seven to capture the $735,000 New York Stakes (G1T) for fillies and mares at Belmont Park.

"I thought she was incredible," Brant said. "The pace was slow and the others didn't have the momentum to get there. This filly has run well in spite of everything. If she doesn't get the right track, she makes up for it. She's a gutsy filly. To be 7-for-7 in this division, that's tough."

For Bleecker Street, the 1 1/4-mile New York marked her debut in grade 1 company and was the culmination of a slow but steady rise to the top rungs of the filly and mare turf division. She started with maiden and allowance wins at Monmouth Park and Meadowlands Racetrack, respectively, and then shipped to Tampa Bay Downs and added victories in an allowance optional claiming race, the Endeavour Stakes (G3T), and the Hillsborough Stakes (G2T).

A May 6 win in the Modesty Stakes Presented by TwinSpires (G3T) at Churchill Downs set the stage for her perfect landing in top-level competition while racing beyond 1 1/8 miles for the first time.

"Even with the slower pace and horses trying to back them up in the middle of the pack, she was still good enough to overcome it and get there. What a remarkable horse," Brown said. "I wasn't sure about a mile and a quarter with her. Obviously she finishes her race like she'll get it, but it doesn't always work out that way. From where she started and where she came from, she's moved up through the ranks and is one of the better ones I've had."

For Brown, running multiple horses in a graded stakes seems to be a weekly occurrence. Yet for Brant, who has won Breeders' Cup races and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1) and owned a share of a Kentucky Derby (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1) winner, Friday's stakes provided him with the proud sight of seeing four of the seven jockeys—all of them trained by Brown—dressed in his forest green and light green silks.

"I was very proud of that because I specialize in racing fillies. It was great and my thought in running all of them was that they all deserved to be in the race and I'm glad we did it," Brant said.

Aside from Bleecker Street ($7.70), Brant and Brown sent out Flighty Lady , who was third, Virginia Joy , who was fourth, and Rougir , the 3-5 favorite who never fired and finished fifth in her third United States start. Of the four, only Rougir had a co-owner (Michael Tabor).

"Peter's remarkable," Brown said. "Since he's gotten back in the game, it's been a wonderful partnership. He had a plan and it's come to fruition. He's a brilliant horseman and this is what he envisioned when he came back."

Flighty Lady, a Sir Percy  5-year-old, set the early fractions of :24.54, :50.76, and 1:16.48 and led by 1 1/2 lengths after six furlongs, while Bleecker Street and Irad Ortiz Jr. were still last. Turning into the stretch Fergus Galvin, Debra O'Connor, and Marc Detampel's Family Way  moved up from second and surged past the leader, looking like she was going to spoil the Brant-Brown festivities. 

The daughter of Uncle Mo   trained by Brendan Walsh grabbed a half-length lead at the eighth pole, but could not fend off the five-wide charge from Bleecker Street who motored past her to cover the mile and a quarter in 2:02.58.

Family Way held on for second by a neck over a game Flighty Lady.

"She ran a great race. She ran super. She's absolutely a grade 1 filly," Walsh said.

Bleecker Street, who was bred by Branch Equine in Kentucky, was bought by Brant for $400,000 from the Warrendale Sales consignment at The Saratoga Sale, Fasig-Tipton's Select Yearling Sale in New York. Friday's win increased her earnings to $834,700.

She is Lemon Liqueur's second foal and first stakes winner. Her dam, whose two foals who have raced are winners, has also produced Red Lemonade, a 2-year-old Always Dreaming   filly; a yearling filly by Flatter  ; and a Not This Time   colt born earlier this year.