Charming Kitten stays best of all in inaugural Belmont Gold Cup

Charming Kitten stays best of all in inaugural Belmont Gold

Cup

Summoning a strong closing kick at the end of two miles over the Widener

turf, Ken and Sarah Ramsey's homebred Charming Kitten rolled past former

Canadian champion filly Irish Mission to capture the inaugural running of the

$200,000

Belmont Gold Cup Invitational at Belmont Park. The Todd Pletcher trainee,

who stopped the clock in 3:21 2/5 on the good course, earned his first stakes

victory since the 2013 Kitten's Joy -- the race named for his champion sire --

at Gulfstream Park.

"I've got the sire," Ken Ramsey beamed, "and a rising tide raises all ships,

you know? So that makes all the rest of them worth something, and it increases

the distance factor -- I mean, two miles, that's good advertising.

"We may have a grinder there today, but he got the job done. That's the first

two-mile winner for the sire."

Although the Belmont Gold Cup marked only his second career stakes win,

Charming Kitten has been an honest and genuine performer with seven stakes

placings to his credit, and the four-year-old was exiting a one-paced fourth in

the May 17 Dixie at Pimlico. The respective second and third from the Dixie, Hey

Leroy and Chamois, will appreciate the form boost ahead of Saturday's Grade 1

Manhattan, even if that represents a much greater class test than this marathon.

Charming Kitten, the 5-1 third choice, was given a lovely midpack trip by

Hall of Famer John Velazquez. Up front, Come the Dream made the running through

sensibly slow fractions of :26, :52 2/5, 1:18, 1:43 4/5 and 2:09 1/5. Mambo Man

and 3-1 second choice Twilight Eclipse drew alongside the leader as they

advanced down the backstretch, while Irish Mission continued to hold her

stalking position just behind Come the Dream on the rail. Charming Kitten crept

closer to flank Irish Mission nearing the final turn.

Twilight Eclipse put Come the Dream away turning for home and tried to draw

off, but Irish Mission angled to the outside and delivered a strong challenge.

The mare took over from the tiring Twilight Eclipse, only to find Charming

Kitten accosting her on the outside and Reflecting diving through to her inside.

Irish Mission gallantly staved off Reflecting by a nose, but she could not

contain the winner.

Charming Kitten powered one length clear and returned $13 to win.

"It worked out perfect," Velazquez recapped. "He broke really well and got

into a really nice position, and he was tugging me along the whole way around.

He was going well the whole way around and when we got to the half-mile pole, I

tried to move a little bit and put him in the clear. He was tugging me so long

that when I went to ride him, it took him an eighth of a mile to get back into

the race. Finally, when he got down the lane he started running again, so it

worked out good."

"(Velazquez) and I were on the same page," Pletcher said. "I told him to

break from the gate and gallop for two miles. I wanted to try to leave him

relaxed in the post parade and, hopefully, leave there settled. He gave him a

great ride; he had him covered up, and (Charming Kitten) relaxed really well. A

great trip."

Twilight Eclipse reported home another 3 1/4 lengths behind Irish Mission and

Reflecting in fourth. Next came Sky Blazer, the steeplechaser Spy in the Sky,

Auld Alliance, Eagle Poise, slight 3-1 favorite Draw Two, Comes the Dream and

the tailed-off Mambo Man. Wings of Fortune was scratched.

Charming Kitten improved his resume to 19-5-5-2, $706,250, reflecting

placings in the 2012 With Anticipation and Dania Beach as a juvenile and the

2013 Blue Grass, Virginia Derby, Palm Beach, Hawthorne Derby and Penn Mile at

three. One of his rare poor efforts came in the Kentucky Derby, where he ended

up ninth.

Twice an allowance winner at 1 1/16 miles this season, on the Gulfstream turf

in January and on the Keeneland Polytrack in April, the dark bay had failed to

hit the board in his three stakes tries in 2014. He was sixth in the February 9

Gulfstream Park Turf, fifth in the March 29 Pan American in his only attempt

over so far as 1 1/2 miles, and fourth in the aforementioned Dixie.

"Where do you go from a two-mile race?" Pletcher asked. "I guess you try to

stay stretched out and look at mile-and-a-half type races. We'll put all of

those in play. Kind of cool winning a two-mile race."

The Kentucky-bred Charming Kitten was produced by the Wild Again mare

Iteration, making him a full brother to multiple Grade 3-placed stakes scorer

Queen'splatekitten. His third dam is Irish classic-placed Lake Champlain, and

his fourth dam, Sensibility, is the ancestress of champion and successful sire

Theatrical; champion Paradise Creek; Japanese star Taiki Blizzard; and Grade 1

winners Forbidden Apple and Wild Event. This is the further family of 1964 Prix

de l'Arc de Triomphe hero *Prince Royal II and ill-fated champion Landaluce.

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