Pletcher Pair Heads Turnback the Alarm

Todd Pletcher appears to hold a strong hand in the $200,000 Turnback the Alarm Handicap (gr. III) at Belmont Park Oct. 26 with the duo of Teen Pauline and Dame Dorothy, who are both riding three-racing winning streaks.

Three-year-old Dame Dorothy, owned by Bobby Flay, has won all three of her starts including a four-length victory in a Pennsylvania-bred stakes at Presque Isle Downs in her last start Aug. 10, and a 12-length romp in an allowance/optional claimer at Gulfstream Park back in January. Javier Castellano has the mount aboard the daughter of Bernardini  .

But Pletcher’s big horse in the eight-horse field is Teen Pauline, who has not run since her victory in the grade II Top Flight Handicap at Aqueduct Racetrack March 1. Before that, the 4-year-old daughter of Tapit   won the Ladies Handicap by 10 3/4 lengths and the Affectionately Stakes by nearly five lengths. She will be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., who was up for all three of her three stakes victories this year.

If lack of racing should catch up to Pletcher’s pair in the field of eight fillies and mares, Chad Brown could step right in with Endless Chatter. She is coming off a well-beaten third in the Beldame Invitational Stakes (gr. I), with three successive victories preceding that effort including a victory in the restricted Summer Colony Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. In all, the 4-year-old daughter of First Samurai   has finished in the money in nine of her 10 career starts.

Like Pletcher, Brown is coming into the 1 1/16-mile race with two barrels loaded. His other filly is the promising 3-year-old Catch My Drift, whose only defeat in four career starts came in the Alabama Stakes (gr. I), in which she finished seventh. The daughter of Pioneerof the Nile   rebounded off that effort with a convincing 2 1/4-length score in an allowance/optional claimer Sept. 20 at Parx Racing. John Velazquez will ride for the first time.

The remainder of the field consists of Tapit's World, trained by Michelle Nevin, who was second, beaten a head, in the Gardenia Stakes (gr. III) at Ellis Park in her last start; Moment in Dixie, whose best effort was a fast-closing second by aneck in the grade III Doubledogdare Stakes at Keeneland in April; Flores Island, second in an overnight stakes at Gulfstream last time out; and Toasting, winner of the Sky Beauty Stakes at Belmont two races back and second in the grade III Seaway Stakes at Woodbine.