Lady Eli has been visually impressive every time she’s been to the races. She dominated the two year old grass fillies last year emphasized with a nice victory in the Breeders’ Cup. She’s come back strong with two wins as a three year old, the second of which came despite a lack of pace to run at and more than her share of traffic in the stretch. She’s poised for a big effort in the Belmont Oaks, a race Chad Brown has likely pointed her to for a while. Given all that, I think she may have a tussle in front of her. A few things to consider: first off, as good as her record is (undefeated) she doesn’t dominate these fillies on the sheets. She’s good, and right there, but not dominant. Second, she drew inside, (the 2 post) and she may get bottled up down there. Last but certainly not least she catches a filly I think will improve significantly in the Oaks and may be better than many think.
Miss Chatelaine won her first two starts as a two year old on the Belmont grass. She caught my eye and I expect her to turn out to be a very nice filly. Her three year old debut came in Lady Eli’s placeless and traffic filled Wonder Again and she didn’t do a lot of running. I’m willing to forgive the effort as she looked like she needed the race and the pace was absolutely dawdling. As with Chad Brown and Lady Eli, I suspect Christophe Clement pointed this filly for this race and she’s going to take a big step forward. She’ll have to, figure wise, to compete with some of these, Lady Eli included but I believe she will. Especially at this increased distance of a mile and a quarter. At 30-1 on the morning line she’s a nice filly to take a shot with and definitely a good play in all the superfecta slots.
We made a nice score on this day last year with Mr Speaker and we are going for the repeat. We’re just changing from the boys to the girls. Good luck everyone and enjoy a great weekend of racing and opportunities and have a safe and wonderful holiday.
