Beautiful Love rallies to victory in the Jockey Club Oaks (G3) Sep. 14 at Aqueduct (NYRA/Coglianese)
David Joseph/Gulfstream Park
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Godolphin’s Irish homebred Beautiful Love, beaten a length while facing older horses in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1) last fall, will stretch out to the furthest distance of her young career in Saturday’s $165,000 La Prevoyante (G3) presented by Stella Artois at Gulfstream Park.
The 55th running of the La Prevoyante for fillies and mares 4 and up, scheduled for 1 ½ miles on the grass, is the first of seven graded-stakes on a blockbuster 13-race Pegasus World Cup Day program that offers a total of 10 stakes worth $5.625 million in purses. First race post time is 11 a.m. (EST)
Now 4, Beautiful Love raced in England and Dubai before coming to the U.S. last spring and finishing sixth in her domestic debut, the 1 1/16-mile Lake Placid (G3) at Saratoga. Her three remaining starts as a 3-year-old came at 1 3/8 miles starting with a victory in the Jockey Club Oaks Invitational (G3), one of 14 North American graded-stakes won by Britain-based trainer Charles Appleby.
“Her second run of the year out in the States, when she won [at Aqueduct] was fantastic in that she was way off the pace, and she closed hard that day,” Appleby’s assistant trainer Chris Connett said. “She’s a tough filly.
“I’d say she’s tough as teak,” he added. “She always runs hard and tries. I wouldn’t want to get in a fight with her. She’s quite an opinionated chestnut mare. She runs hard.”
Following her graded victory, Beautiful Love was beaten 1 ½ lengths by La Prevoyante rival La Mehana when third in the Waya (G3), also at Aqueduct. Sent off at 29-1 in the Breeders’ Cup, the chestnut filly was never far from the lead in a field of 12 and wound up fourth behind Moira – Canada’s 2022 Horse of the Year that is a 2024 Eclipse Award finalist as North America’s outstanding turf female.
“Her run in the Breeders’ Cup was a step up in kind of quality from the horses that she had been running against and she acquitted herself pretty well,” Connett said. “If you look back and maybe go, ‘If we made more use of her, she’d have even been closer,’ but to run like she did is a positive.”
Champion British jockey William Buick, who will ride favored Nations Pride in the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1) presented by Qatar Racing and Bold Act in the $215,000 William L. McKnight (G3) presented by Visit Lauderdale, has the call from Post 5 in an overflow field of 13.
Christophe Clement has trained a record nine La Prevoyante winners, the most recent coming with Beautiful Lover in 2022. He is represented by LSU Stables’ La Mehana, last-out neck winner of Gulfstream’s 1 3/8-mile Via Borghese Dec. 26 that ran third in the 1 ½-mile Orchid (G3) last winter in her only local starts.
Trainers Graham Motion, Brendan Walsh and Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher each have two horses among the main dozen for the La Prevoyante. Pletcher, a five-time winner of the race including 2024 with Alpha Bella, sends out Whatloveslooklike and Chop Chop while stablemate Gilded Edge is the lone also-eligible.
Barry Schwartz’s 6-year-old homebred mare Whatlovelookslike is a New York-bred stakes winner taking on open company for just the fifth time in her 19th start; most recently she was fifth in the 1 3/8-mile Long Island (G3) last fall. Two-time Grade 3-winning millionaire Chop Chop will be racing first time for new connections after being purchased for $900,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s Kentucky fall mixed sale last November.
Motion won his eighth and latest La Prevoyante with Mean Mary in 2020. This year’s contenders are Cayton Park Stud Ltd.’s twice stakes-placed British homebred Marksman Queen, third by less than a length in the Via Borghese, and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners’ Grade 3-placed Yatta, fourth behind See You Around, In Our Time and De Regreso in the Tropical Park Oaks – all three entered in the $500,000 TAA Pegasus Filly & Mare Turf Invitational (G2) presented by SirDavis American Whiskey.
Walsh has the duo of Dixiana Farms’ Grade 1-placed homebred Forever After All, second in her last three stakes attempts – the 1 ½-mile Dowager (G3) and 1 3/8-mile Red Carpet (G3) and Via Borghese, the last two as the favorite – and Queen Regent, third in the 1 ¼-mile Maple Leaf (G3) on synthetic and 1 1/8-mile Cardinal (G3) on turf to cap her 2024 campaign.
Completing the field are Argentinian Group 1 winner Ballado’s Beach, fifth in the Via Borghese in her North American debut; Grade 3-placed Shiloh’s Mistress; Avenue Niel and Lady Firefoot.
