Occult, Shidabhuti Give Brown Two Threats in Gazelle

Four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown will have two chances to secure his fourth $250,000 Gazelle Stakes (G3) with stakes winners Occult  and Shidabhuti  in the 1 1/8-mile test for sophomore fillies April 8 at Aqueduct Racetrack. 

The six-horse Gazelle, which will award 100-40-30-20-10 qualifying points towards the May 5 Kentucky Oaks (G1) at Churchill Downs to the top-five finishers, is race 3 on Saturday's Wood Memorial Day 11-race card. 

Alpha Delta Stables' Occult will look to follow in the footsteps of the Brown-trained Lewis Bay, a homebred for the same connections that won the 2016 Gazelle en route to a third-place finish in the Kentucky Oaks. Occult, a dark bay daughter of Into Mischief  , was last seen pouncing to a 3 3/4-length victory in the Busanda Stakes going the Gazelle distance Jan. 14 at Aqueduct. She is 2-for-3 with earnings of $107,450.

Dylan Davis returns to the irons from post 5 on Occult, who appears likely to receive a pace-pressing trip in a race without much speed.

Peter Brant's Shidabhuti will look to keep her perfect record intact after a last-out stakes triumph in the one-mile Busher Stakes over a muddy and sealed Aqueduct main track March 4. The daughter of Practical Joke   is 3-for-3 with earnings of $189,600.

Manny Franco will look to engineer a winning ride from post 6. 

Two-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox will send out the stakes-placed Juddmonte homebred Capella  on the heels of a third-place effort to Shidabhuti in the Busher last out. She made both her stakes and dirt debut in the Busher after starting her career a perfect 2-for-2 over the all-weather surface at Turfway Park. 

The bay daughter of Quality Road   could prove the one to catch from post 1 under Kendrick Carmouche.

Capella has breezed over the Belmont Park dirt training track three times since the Busher in company with Wood Memorial Stakes (G2) entrant Slip Mahoney . The pair most recently covered a half-mile in :49.10 April 1. 

"She's training well and came out of the breeze in good shape," said Dustin Dugas, Cox's Belmont-based assistant. "She went to the gate this morning and stood really well. She's got her game face on, so we're just going to keep her happy until race day. She's been a lot more forward in her works every week and she's gotten more and more comfortable here at Belmont. She's very intelligent and a very cool filly." 

Hall of Fame conditioner Todd Pletcher will also go two-deep in his pursuit of a third Gazelle conquest with Repole Stable's New York-bred Gambling Girl , fourth in the Honeybee Stakes (G3) last out at Oaklawn Park, and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' Frosty O Toole , a recent acquisition after two victories at Tampa Bay Downs for owner/trainer Mike Dini.

"She's a big, good-looking filly and galloped well today," said Byron Hughes, Pletcher's Belmont-based assistant, said of Frosty O Toole, a daughter of Frosted  . "It looks like she's got a lot of talent."

Completing the field is Hoffman Thoroughbreds and Tom F. McCrocklin's Promiseher America , who graduated at third asking on February 19 traveling a one-turn mile at Aqueduct for conditioner Ray Handal. The American Pharoah   chestnut pounced from fourth in the five-horse field under Dylan Davis to take a 2 1/2-length advantage at the stretch call and extend her margin to 6 1/4 lengths at the wire.

Handal said he expects Promiseher America to relish the stretch out in distance as she races around two turns for the first time.

Entries: Gazelle S. (G3)

Aqueduct Racetrack, Saturday, April 08, 2023, Race 3

• Grade III
• 1 1/8m
• Dirt
• $250,000
• 3 yo Fillies
• 1:27 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Capella (KY)	Kendrick Carmouche	118	Brad H. Cox	3/1
2	2Gambling Girl (NY)	Jose L. Ortiz	118	Todd A. Pletcher	4/1
3	3Frosty O Toole (FL)	Jose Lezcano	118	Todd A. Pletcher	9/2
4	4Promiseher America (KY)	Jorge A. Vargas, Jr.	118	Raymond Handal	12/1
5	5Occult (KY)	Dylan Davis	120	Chad C. Brown	2/1
6	6Shidabhuti (KY)	Manuel Franco	120	Chad C. Brown	7/2