Dogtag Seeks First Graded Score in Miss Grillo

L N J Foxwoods' Dogtag will look to notch her second consecutive stakes win when she steps up in class in the $200,000 Miss Grillo Stakes (G2T) for 2-year-old fillies Sept. 30 at Belmont Park.

Dogtag, one of two entrants for trainer Chad Brown along with Newspaperofrecord, has already earned a stakes triumph, overcoming a yielding Saratoga Race Course turf course to win the P.G. Johnson Aug. 30.

A gray or roan filly with a distinctive white face, Dogtag finished fourth but was elevated to third via disqualification on the dirt in her debut Aug. 5 at Saratoga in a maiden race that was moved off the turf. on the turf for the P.G. Johnson, the daughter of War Front  won at the Miss Grillo distance of 1 1/16-miles and now will look to make her first appearance at Belmont.

"She handled the ground well and so does Newspaper, so I think those two horses are good enough to run on any kind of ground," Brown said.

Hall of Famer Javier Castellano, aboard for the P.G. Johnson, will have the return call from post 9.

Newspaperofrecord, the 6-5 morning-line choice, won her debut Aug. 19 at Saratoga as she heads into her first stakes appearance. The Irish-bred, owned by Klaravich Stables, breezed five furlongs in 1:01.75 on the Belmont inner turf Sept. 23 in company with Dogtag.

"She's doing great and really moving forward and so has Dogtag," Brown said. "Both horses ran well at Saratoga, so I'm not going to say they need the (Belmont turf) course. They did great as it was. I felt good about letting them breeze over the course they are going to run on."

Miss Technicality will look to stay undefeated after starting her career 2-for-2. The Christophe Clement trainee won the Exacta Systems Juvenile Fillies Stakes at one mile Sept. 1 at Kentucky Downs and will now return to the Belmont inner turf where she broke her maiden July 6 at six furlongs.

"She's been training well," Clement said. "This race comes up a little bit quick to ship there and back, I would have loved a little more time between races, but I like the way she's training. She had two nice works. If she can relax in the race, there will be no problems, as long as she relaxes.

"She's a good mover. Every time we've run her, it's been in a better race, so she has a chance to compete."

Entries: Miss Grillo S. (G2T)

Belmont Park, Sunday, September 30, 2018, Race 9

• Grade II
• 1 1/16m
• Inner turf
• $200,000
• 2 yo Fillies
• 5:50 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Takecharge Mirella (KY)	Joe Bravo	117	Kiaran P. McLaughlin	5/2
2	2Stellar Agent (KY)	Manuel Franco	117	Jorge R. Abreu	8/1
3	3No More Fast Women (FL)	Jose Lezcano	117	Louis C. Linder, Jr.	30/1
4	4Kitty's Legacy (NY)	Luis Saez	115	Bruce N. Levine	15/1
5	5Varenka (KY)	John R. Velazquez	115	H. Graham Motion	10/1
6	6Newspaperofrecord (IRE)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	117	Chad C. Brown	6/5
7	7Miss Technicality (KY)	Joel Rosario	121	Christophe Clement	3/1
8	8Virginia Eloise (KY)	Joe Bravo	117	Todd A. Pletcher	12/1
9	9Dogtag (KY)	Javier Castellano	121	Chad C. Brown	5/1
10	10Decorated Ace (FL)	Hector Rafael Diaz, Jr.	121	Michael Dini	20/1