Buy Land and See breezes easy half on turf

June 25, 2022

Dutrow closing in on 2,000 wins

ELMONT, N.Y. – Joseph Imbesi’s Pennsylvania homebred Buy Land and See returned to the work tab on Friday with an easy half-mile breeze in 50 seconds flat over Belmont Park’s inner turf course. 

“It was a good work – very nice and very easy,” said trainer Tony Dutrow. 

A grey son of Cairo Prince, Buy Land and See was an emphatic winner of the With Anticipation against fellow Pennsylvania-breds on June 3 at Penn National under Flavien Prat, taking command at the half-mile marker and strongly widening his margin to 6 3/4 lengths at the wire for his second career stakes victory. 

Dutrow said a trip to Saratoga Race Course will be next for Buy Land and See. 

“We’ll take him to Saratoga. He’s good,” Dutrow said. “He was the best horse in that race and got aggressive. He’s come out of the race well and we’re super happy with him.”

The win came on the heels of three consecutive runner-up efforts against open allowance company in New York. He earned his other stakes victory as a juvenile in the Awad at Belmont before a game fourth-place effort for his best finish in graded company in the Grade 2 Hill Prince. 

High Opinion #7 ridden by Flavien Prat captures the Neshaminy. Photo by Barbara Weidl/EQUI-PHOTO.

Dutrow celebrated another stakes victory in Pennsylvania 11 days later when Team D and Woodford Racing’s multiple graded stakes-placed High Opinion scored her first stakes victory in the Neshaminy MATCH Series at Parx Racing with Prat in the irons. The dark bay Lemon Drop Kid mare tracked in fifth down the backstretch before unleashing a well-timed bid for the lead and finding more with every stride down the lane to take the 1 1/16-mile turf affair by three-quarters of a length. 

“She came back great. She was the best horse in the race and Flavien is a top rider,” said Dutrow. “She’s doing fantastic, and I couldn’t be happier with her. I don’t really know where she’ll go next. All the spots at Saratoga are extremely competitive.” 

High Opinion entered the Neshaminy on the heels of a gutsy third-place effort in the Grade 3 Beaugay on May 14 at Belmont where she was defeated three lengths by Rougir and nosed out of place honors by Our Flash Drive. She previously earned graded black type with a pair of runner-up efforts in the Grade 2 Ballston Spa at Saratoga and Grade 3 Noble Damsel at Belmont last year. 

Miss Brazil winning the Ruthless at Aqueduct on Feb. 8, 2021. (NYRA/Coglianese)

Team D and Madaket Stables’ stakes-winner Miss Brazil has been retired from racing after a distant fifth-place finish in the Grade 3 Vagrancy Handicap on May 14. The 4-year-old Palace Malice filly dueled with Grade 1-winner Bella Sofia through quick fractions before tiring and fading to last-of-5. 

“She came out of the race fine, but whatever happened in the race was enough for me to call it quits,” Dutrow said. “She’s been retired, she’s in Kentucky and she’ll be sold in the fall.” 

Miss Brazil retires with a consistent 9-4-1-2 record and earnings of $288,700. Her best performance was a commanding 6 1/4-length victory in the 2021 Ruthless facing open company at Aqueduct Racetrack. She was defeated a half-length by Grade 1-winner Search Results in the Busher Invitational in her next outing and was bested out of place honors by the well-regarded Bella Sofia in the Jersey Girl that spring. 

“She ran some good races against some good horses,” said Dutrow. 

Dutrow, who started his first runner in 1978, is closing in on his 2,000th career victory and inched closer to that milestone with High Opinion’s Neshaminy win and a determined allowance victory by Palace Gossip to close out the Belmont Stakes Day card on June 11. 

Owned by Niall Brennan and Stephanie Brennan, Palace Gossip scored her second career victory when she dueled with Blame It On Mary throughout the six-furlong turf sprint and battled to the wire to come out on top by a neck over her pacesetting rival. She earned a career-best 76 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort, which came after a trio of on-the-board efforts. 

“She runs hard every time. She’s commendable and that was a very game effort from her,” Dutrow said. “We’ll take her to Saratoga, too, and we’ll take the next step in the two-other-than New York-bred allowance. She promises to be competitive.” 

Dutrow said he is eager to celebrate reaching 2,000 victories, which include Grade 1 triumphs with Grace Hall, Seattle Smooth, Mo Town, The Big Beast, Burning Roma, Embellish the Lace and Rightly So. 

“When I was 100 away from 1,900, I got it with no problem. It’s taken me like five years to get to 2,000. But we’re so close now that we’ll get there,” said Dutrow. “I’ve never had any goals in racing. Sure, I’ve said to myself ‘Oh yeah, it would be great to win this race.’ But I never had any goal. Having gotten so close to 2,000, I think that’s the only goal that I’ve ever had now that I’m this close.” 

As of June 24, Dutrow’s wins stand at 1,993 with over 2,700 second and third-place finishes. 

“I think we can win seven more this year,” Dutrow said.  

Belmont Park Week 10 stakes probables

Saturday, July 2
G2 John A. Nerud 
Probable: Harvard (Rodolphe Brisset), Life Is Good (Todd Pletcher)
Possible: American Power (Rob Atras), Officiating (Saffie Joseph, Jr.), War Tocsin (Uriah St. Lewis)

G2 Dwyer 
Probable: Charge It (Pletcher), Nabokov (Chad Brown), No Sabe Nada (D. Scott Peck), Unbridled Bomber (James Ryerson)
Possible: Fluid Situation (John Terranova)

Sunday, July 3 
$100K Perfect Sting 
Probable High Opinion (Anthony Dutrow), Jouster (Pletcher), Love and Thunder (C. Brown), Messidor (Christophe Clement)
PossibleCheermeister (Arnaud Delacour)

Monday, July 4
$150K Grand Couturier
Probable: British Royalty (Barb Minshall), Channel Maker (Bill Mott), Highest Honors (C. Brown), Red Knight (Mike Maker), Soldier Rising (Clement)

$100K Manila
Probable: Chanceux (Pletcher), Coinage (Mark Casse), Daunt (Robert Ribaudo)
Possible: Affable Monarch (Jorge Duarte, Jr.)

NYRA Press Office
Buy Land and See #5 with Flavien Prat riding won the $100,000 With Anticipation Stakes at Penn National on Friday June 3, 2022.  Photo By Kathy Hair/EQUI-PHOTO

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