Belle Gallantey romps in Beldame
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Michael Dubb, Bethlehem Stables LLC and Gary Aisquith's Belle Gallantey utilized the same tactics that saw her score in the Delaware Handicap to wire the Grade 1, $400,000 Invitational by 8 1/4 lengths on Belmont Park's Super Saturday card. Trained by Rudy Rodriguez, who celebrated his second straight win on the card after Vyjack captured the Kelso Handicap, Belle Gallantey was sent off the 9-2 third choice against six rivals and returned $11.40 for adding another Grade 1 triumph to her resume. "It's very, very special. We're working very hard with these kinds of horses and thank God they did it," Rodriguez said of the back-to-back victories. "I don't know what to tell you. I'm speechless." The After Market mare immediately took command of the Beldame while breaking from the far outside 7 post and never looked back through splits of :24, :47 2/5, 1:11 1/5 and 1:35. Stopchargingmaria, the 3-2 favorite, was closest to the pacesetter but could never make up any ground. |
Belle Gallantey was still loping along under jockey Jose Ortiz heading into
the stretch and distanced herself from the others with just a tap of the whip
from her rider. She finished nine furlongs on the fast dirt in 1:47 2/5.
"She's improved a lot since Rudy has had her. He has to get all the credit, and
I'm glad I've had the opportunity to ride her," Oritz said. "I just put my hands down and was a passenger. As soon as I
went to the lead she relaxed really well. Rudy told me she was 100 percent, and
I always trust him. When we went to the quarter-pole I had a lot of horse, so I
knew I had it."
"I told Jose, 'You've got the outside and
you've got the option to see what everyone else is doing, so take it from there. If they leave you alone, take it,'"
Rodriguez remarked.
"I think she's a pretty versatile filly where
she can sit and come from behind. When they left them alone and they went (the
first quarter) in :24.18, I was very happy.
"She's a very nice filly and she showed it today. She really took off in the stretch. She's nice. She's been
very fun to have around."
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Stopchargingmaria got the best of Endless Chatter by 2 1/4 lengths on the wire, while Stanwyck followed in fourth by a neck. Fiftyshadesofhay, Toasting and Oasis at Midnight completed the order under the wire. "The winner is tough when she gets things her way on the front end. We tried to stay as close as we could without totally taking our filly out of her game, but we just kind of kept chasing the whole way," noted Todd Pletcher, trainer of Stopchargingmaria. "Perfect trip; that's just the way it is," stated the favorite's jockey, John Velazquez. "I couldn't do the dirty job to try and go with (Belle Gallantey), and I didn't have any help in front. She still ran really great."
Belle Gallantey, a relative newcomer to the stakes ranks, improved her career record to 43-9-12-7 and joined the millionaires' club with $1,111,270 in lifetime earnings thanks to her Beldame score. The former claimer passed through many barns after making her racing debut at Park in 2011 before finally ending up in Rodriguez's shedrow, but seems to have found new life with the trainer. The five-year-old mare was sent off at 25-1 while making just her second black-type start in the June 7 Ogden Phipps, but just missed by two lengths when fifth that day. She tried the Handicap a month later, wiring the 10-furlong contest by 2 3/4 lengths, before being distanced in the Personal Ensign last out.
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That race was contested over a muddy
and sealed main track, which Rodriguez felt compromised his chestnut mare's
chances.
"She has some bad ankles and I think
her ankles kind of pinched her in the slop when they go to the bottom of the
(racetrack)," he said. "It's not the same as running on a fast track."
Following the Del 'Cap, Rodriguez attributed Belle Gallantey's recent success
to running her in longer races and getting her to relax.
Bred in Kentucky by Pam and Martin Wygod, Belle Gallantey sold for $10,000 as
yearling in 2010 and then $30,000 at the 2011 Pegasus Two-Year-Olds in Training
Sale. She is out of the winning Old Trieste mare Revealed, making her third dam
champion and multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire Meadow Star.
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