Captain`s Lover - G1 Beldame stakes (dirt)

Captain`s Lover seen winning the Cape Guineas 2007



Team Valors Captain`s Lover is to be entered for the G1 Beldame stakes over 9 furlongs on the dirt at Belmont Park next Saturday evening.Trainer Todd Pletcher has an amazing record in the race having won 3 out of the last 4 runnings of the $600 000 event and will be anxious to add to his tally.

Captain`Lover could be joined at Belmont by Stable Mate Unbridled Belle who will also be given an entry by Team Valor.Unbridled Belle the 2007 winner of the Beldame and with close to $1.5m in win and place earnings is a good second string(soory Barry couldn`t help that bit).

Both Captain`s Lover and Unbridled Belle worked at the weekend with Captain`s Lover breezing 5 furlongs in 1:01.64 at Belmont and Belle Covering a half-mile in 48.95

Barry said:

"She worked in company with Munnings (two G1s this season) and he couldn't get by her. So we will run an entry with Unbridled Belle in the G1 Beldame.

Todd Pletcher thinks she will be better on dirt than turf, so we will give it a try."



A possible foe could be Cocoa Beech last years winner,who done a bullet piece of work covering 5 furlongs in under 60secs and the Godolphin Mare could be the one to beat..

LAST YEARS RACE

Well done Hibby.

Asiatic Boy to run on the same card

I see coupled on the tote Captains and Unbridled.
Big money at stake
Asiatic bumping some big names, Macho, Summer and Quality.

txs

Found this preview on ntra.com


BELMONT, N.Y. - When Music Note finished fifth in her seasonal debut in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps in June, it was fair to wonder whether she was the same filly that had come within a head of being crowned the 3-year-old champion filly of 2008.

When Music Note romped to a 5 1/4-length in the Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga, it was fair to wonder if she might be better than she was last year.

With that strong race under her belt and with her major competition headed elsewhere, Music Note looms a short-priced favorite to win Saturday's Grade 1 $600,000 Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park. Music Note will face only four rivals in the Beldame, led by the Team Valor International entry of Unbridled Belle, the 2007 Beldame winner, and Captain's Lover. Copper State and With Flying Colors complete the lineup.

Music Note won 4 of 6 starts as a 3-year-old, including the Mother Goose, Coaching Club American Oaks, and Gazelle - all Grade 1 races at Belmont. Her head loss to Proud Spell in the Alabama at Saratoga probably cost her the 3-year-old championship.

This year, Music Note did not get started until the Ogden Phipps, where she made a premature move and backed up to fifth, beaten 10 1/4 lengths.

"We misread her fitness a little bit," said Rick Mettee, the New York-based Godolphin assistant trainer. "She needed the race. After that race we had to back off her a little bit due to hind end issues we had to work out."

Judging by her race in the Ballerina, those issues were indeed worked out. In a race run over an extremely sloppy Saratoga main track, Music Note was into the race immediately, and dueled with Indian Blessing from the half-mile to the three-sixteenths pole before drawing away under mostly a vigorous hand ride from Rajiv Maragh. Now she stretches out from seven to nine furlongs.

"Our filly should be better at nine than she was at seven," Mettee said.

With Icon Project opting to skip this race in favor of the Spinster next week at Keeneland, Music Note appears to have little competition in this spot.

Unbridled Belle won this race in 2007, but she comes off a last-place finish in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign at Saratoga. Unbridled Belle's stablemate Captain's Lover beat grass horses in the off-the-turf Matchmaker Stakes at Monmouth Park in the slop on Aug. 2. A third Pletcher horse, With Flying Colors, finished sixth in the Personal Ensign.

Totally ignoring Captain's Lover. Amazing.

In the 5-year-old Captain’s Lover, Team Valor has a Group 1 winner of the prestigious Cape Fillies Guineas in 2007 in South Africa and a recent winner of the Matchmaker at Monmouth.

That race, taken off the turf, was a revelation about the horse, which had run exclusively on grass.

“This filly, we ran her a couple times in France. When we came here, we thought she was a miler on grass, and her best race came on a sloppy track in the Matchmaker,” Irwin said. “She loved it. Once she gets into her rhythm on dirt, she just keeps going and going. Pletcher has been impressed with the way she’s trained with (top 3-year-old sprinter) Munnings.”

Millennium Farms’ Copper State, a recent winner of a stakes race at Prairie Meadows for trainer Steve Asmussen, completes the field.

Hibs you slipping up, no result yet?

gregbucks Wrote:

---

> Hibs you slipping up, no result yet?


Race is tonight greg..

If you can post now Hibby will send you a bottle of JWB.

Summer Bird heads Jockey Club Gold Cup


Preview: USA, Saturday 10.43pm BST (live on ATR)

Belmont Park: Jockey Club Gold Cup (Grade 1) 1m2f, dirt, 3yo+

FEW American races outside the Breeders' Cup and Triple Crown are as prestigious as the Jockey ClubGold Cup, which provides the centrepiece of a massive day at Belmont featuring no fewer than five Grade 1 events.

Top three-year-olds Summer Bird (Tim Ice/Kent Desormeaux) and Quality Road (Todd Pletcher/John Velazquez) are set to meet their elders for the first time in the Gold Cup, a race - just like the other Grade 1s on the card - holds major Breeders' Cup implications.

The older horses set to face that pair are headed by Grade 1 winner Macho Again (Dallas Stewart/Robby Albarado), Grade 2 winner Dry Martini (Barclay Tagg/Edgar Prado) and Dubai hero Asiatic Boy (Kiaran McLaughlin/Alan Garcia).

Summer Bird, winner of the Belmont Stakes in early June, returns to the scene of that Classic victory having added the Travers Stakes at Saratoga in August to his bounty.

"I think he's up to it," said trainer Tim Ice as he faced up to the challenge of meeting older horses.

"He's had seven races, and now is as good a time as any to face them. He is doing excellent."

Summer Bird has put in two solid works at Belmont park a week apart, most recently a week before the Gold Cup.

"It was perfect," said of the five furlongs in 1m2.40s. "Last week's work was superb, so we wanted to slow him down a little today. He galloped out strong and is right on target."

Quality Road, favourite for the Kentucky Derby before being sidelined by quarter cracks, was a disappointing third in the Travers after an auspicious comeback following a layoff for new trainer Todd Pletcher.

"He's always been kind of a push-button horse, but we're really pleased with the way he's training," said Pletcher.

"He's travelling well and doing everything you'd like to see a horse do leading up to a big race."

Though based at Belmont Park, Quality Road has never run in a race there.

"He's run well everywhere he's raced," said Pletcher, "so I don't think it's going to make a difference one way or another. We're hoping for fast conditions and we're ready to go."

Macho Again won the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap in June at Churchill Downs, then followed that effort with runner-up finishes in the Whitney (to Bullsbay) and Woodward (to Rachel Alexandra) at Saratoga.

"He's a top horse, championship calibre," said trainer Dallas Stewart. "We're looking forwardto running."

Dry Martini won the Grade 2 Suburban at Belmont for his biggest victory on the season.

Robin Smullen, assistant to trainer Barclay Tagg, said: "He likes this track. I don't think anybody is going to let anybody else get away. If the speed comes back at all, Macho Again and us will make our moves and we'll see."

Asiatic Boy is seeking his first US win on his fourth outing in America, having kept top company on his three previous runs.

"He's a neat horse, a nice horse," said trainer Kiaran McLaughlin.

"The weights have not been in his favour the last couple of races, and he's been a notch below those who have been beating him. But he's deserving of a chance."

Asiatic Boy finished a good second behind Macho Again in the Foster in what was his US debut, and he also was second in the Suburban behind Dry Martini. He was fourth behind Rachel Alexandra in the Woodward on his last start.

Jockey Club Gold Cup

Coral: 7-4 Summer Bird, 11-4 Macho Again, Quality Road, 11 Dry Martini, 12 Asiatic Boy, 16 Tizway, 25 Sette E Mezzo