Include Betty Tries Grade I Mother Goose

While the Mother Goose Stakes (gr. I) features some promising youngsters trying stakes company for the first time, Include Betty enters as the most accomplished in the expected field of 10 3-year-old fillies on Saturday, June 27 at Belmont Park.

Brereton Jones and Timothy Thornton's Include Betty enters the 1 1/16-mile test off a runner-up finish to Keen Pauline in the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (gr. II) May 15 at Pimlico Race Course. The daughter of Include   is the lone graded stakes winner entered, having won this year's Fantasy Stakes (gr. III)—at 18-1 odds—April 4 at Oaklawn Park.

While Include Betty has been dismissed at the windows, she has been consistent with three victories including two stakes wins and the Black-Eyed Susan runner-up finish in her past five dirt starts.

Starladies Racing's Eskenformoney, who placed in a pair of graded stakes at Gulfstream Park this year, will try to secure her first stakes victory. The daughter of Eskendereya   will be making her first start since an off-the-board finish in the Longines Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) May 1 at Churchill Downs.

The field also features Treadway Racing Stable's Wonder Gal, who finished third in last year's 14 Hands Winery Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I) and enters off a third-place finish in the Acorn Stakes (gr. I).

"I thought she ran huge [in the Acorn]," said trainer Leah Gyarmati. "It was a really good ride. Maybe if she were outside, she may have had a shot to win. She got in a little tight in the stretch, and she's a big horse, when she's got some momentum she needs to keep going. She ran huge and tried really hard."

With only three weeks between the Acorn and the Mother Goose, Gyarmati was unsure whether she wanted to run Wonder Gal on such short rest, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to try a grade I in her backyard.

"I was back and forth whether or not I wanted to run her or wait for the [grade I] Coaching Club American Oaks [at Saratoga Race Course], but she was doing so well and we're here at home so it seemed like a good spot to go ahead and run her," Gyarmati said. "She hasn't run much. ... She's not over-raced."

Wonder Gal, the 3-1 morning-line favorite, will break from outermost post 10 with Rajiv Maragh aboard.

The Mother Goose could be ripe for a new shooter. Some of the fillies making their stakes debuts in the field include Alex and Joann Lieblong's Embellish the Lace, a daughter of Super Saver   who has won her previous two starts by a combined 23 1/2 lengths; Shadwell Stable homebred Munasara, a daughter of Bernardini   who has registered clear victories in her first two career starts; and Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider homebred Chide, a daughter of Blame   who has won two of her first three career starts.