Beauty Reigns seeks first stakes win in G2 Gallant Bloom
Tranquility Lake Farms’ Beauty Reigns has hit the board in four stakes, and seeks the elusive victory at the level in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Gallant Bloom, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up, at Belmont Park.
Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, the 4-year-old Into Mischief filly enters from a closing third in the seven-furlong Grade 1 Resorts World Casino Ballerina on August 29 at Saratoga Race Course. There, the gray rallied from 8th-of-9 to finish 6 3/4 lengths back of the victorious Ways and Means and 1 1/4 lengths back of Kilwin for second.
Beauty Reigns also finished third to Kilwin over that same course and distance in the Grade 1 Test presented by Ticketmaster last August.
“She’s Grade 1-placed twice, but she’s not a stakes winner yet,” Mott said.
Beauty Reigns [post 6, Junior Alvarado] has finished in the top three in 10-of-14 career starts via a 4-3-3 record, including three allowance-level dirt sprint scores with off-the-pace tactics. Prior to the Ballerina, she defeated returning rivals Senza Parole and Munnings Express in a seven-furlong optional claimer in July at the Spa.
“She’s a hard-knocking filly,” Mott said. “My job is to try to get a stakes win from her. Whether it is a Grade 2 or 3 or whatever it is, that’s my job.”
Out of the unraced Tapit mare Ilsa, Beauty Reigns’ second dam is 2009 Broodmare of the Year Sweet Life, who produced multiple Grade 1-winners Sweet Catomine and Life Is Sweet.
Team Spoor’s Munnings Express [post 1, Manny Franco] tries graded company off a successful stakes debut last out in the seven-furlong New York-bred Johnstone on August 5 at Saratoga, pouncing to a 1 3/4-length score over multiple stakes-winner Landed and Grade 1-winner Usha. Trained by Linda Rice, the 4-year-old Munnings bay has never missed the board in 12 career starts through a 6-3-3 record with $423,870 in earnings.
Munnings Express was previously third behind returning rivals Beauty Reigns and Senza Parole in the aforementioned optional claimer at the Spa. She has fared well in open company before, winning two optional claimers this spring at Aqueduct Racetrack, among four wins this year.
Bred by Fergus Galvin, Marc Detampel, Jayne Johnson and Adrian Wallace, Munnings Express, a $325,000 purchase from the 2023 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Preferred New York-bred Yearling Sale, is out of the multiple stakes-winning Freud mare Freudie Anne - a half-sister to multiple stakes-winner Frostie Anne.
Don Alberto Stable’s Kentucky homebred Senza Parole [post 2, Flavien Prat] exited her second to Beauty Reigns to win a six-furlong optional claimer over muddy and sealed footing on September 2 at the Spa. Trained by five-time Eclipse Award-winner Chad Brown, the 4-year-old Gun Runner chestnut defeated the Rice-trained multiple stakes-winner With the Angels by 2 1/4 lengths.
Senza Parole, 10-4-3-1 overall with $340,650 in earnings, returns to the stakes level in her third start since a third in the Grade 2 Bed o’ Roses presented by Boldyn Networks in June at Saratoga. She has contested two other stakes, including a fifth in this event last year to returning rival R Disaster.
Averill Racing and Anthony Mattera’s Grade 1-winner R Disaster [post 5, Jose Ortiz] seeks a title defense after a sixth in the Grade 1 Ballerina. Trained by Saffie Joseph, Jr., the 5-year-old Awesome Slew bay traveled off-the-pace early after previously wiring the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff on May 2 at Churchill Downs.
In her Ballerina defeat, R Disaster finished off the board for the first time in her 17th career start. She has banked over $1.3 million via a 17-9-6-1 record, including her 3 1/2-length score in last year’s Gallant Bloom. Her career-best 103 Beyer Speed Figure from the Derby City Distaff represents the field-high.
Joseph, Jr. also sends out C Two Racing Stable, Shining Stables, Paul Braverman, Timothy Pinch and BAG Racing Stables’ Paradise City [post 4, Dylan Davis]. The 4-year-old McKinzie bay was fifth last out in the Ballerina following her first career stakes win in the Saylorville in July at Prairie Meadows. Paradise City is 15-4-3-1 overall with $397,367 in earnings.
Rounding out the field is Pick View, Two Eight Racing, Ribble Farms, Quinn's Ride and Legion Racing’s Queen Jubilee [post 3, Edgard Zayas], who makes her stakes debut in her ninth career start. Trained by Whit Beckman, the 4-year-old Authentic dark bay graduated seventh-out in January at Fair Grounds Race Course and returned in August to win an allowance by 8 1/2 lengths at Colonial Downs.
Both of those wins were at six furlongs, and all of Queen Jubilee’s other starts were at one mile or beyond. Her last effort returned a career-best 84 Beyer.
“She’s a big, huge filly, so we always kind of thought two turns for her,” Beckman said. “Now obviously, her best races have come around one turn. She’s probably going to sell in November, so we are going to take a shot for some black type. Her last race was very impressive. I think she’ll fit.”
Beckman said it is difficult to assess how ambitious of a try this race is.
“That’s hard to gauge,” Beckman said. “She was running at Colonial and this is a much different group of fillies.”
The Gallant Bloom is slated as Race 4 on Saturday’s 11-race card, which includes the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic [Race 10], the Grade 2 Flower Bowl [Race 11] – a “Win and You’re In” for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf – and the Grade 3 Vosburgh [Race 9] – a “Win and You're” for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. First post is 12:05 p.m. Eastern.
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