On Saturday at Belmont Park, the featured race is the $200,000 Noble Damsel Stakes. A Grade 3 race scheduled to be run at one mile on the turf, the stakes race has drawn a field of nine fillies and mares.
Coffee Clique has been tabbed as the heavy favorite at morning line odds of 2-1 for trainer Brian Lynch. A five-year-old daughter of popular stallion Medaglia d’Oro, she has won seven of her sixteen starts and is a multiple graded stakes winner. She has one win from five starts this year and will be trying to rebound after finishing fifth in the Ballston Spa Stakes (G2) at Saratoga. Manuel Franco will be aboard and they will break from the rail.
Second choice at morning line odds of 4-1 is Lady Lara (IRE), one of two fillies in the race for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. A four-year-old daughter of Excellent Art (GB), she has been on the board in ten of her nine starts and is a four-time winner. She has been off the board in her last three starts against graded stakes competition and will try to return to form with Junior Alvarado in the irons from post position eight.
Also in the field at morning line odds of 5-1 is Marbre Rose (IRE) for trainer Christophe Clement. A four-year-old daughter of Smart Strike, the bay filly has won four of her thirteen starts and earned the first graded stakes victory of her career last time out in the Seaway Stakes (G3) at Woodbine. She will get a jockey change to Jose Lezcano and they are scheduled to break from post position two as she goes for her second straight win.
The field is set for the $1 million Haskell, where Nyquist will be trying to re-stake his claim as the top three-year-old in the country.
On Sunday at Monmouth Park, the featured race is the $300,000 United Nations Stakes. Scheduled to be run at a mile and three-eighths on the turf, the Grade 1 event has drawn a field of ten colts and geldings.
On Sunday at Monmouth Park, the featured race is the $150,000 Pegasus Stakes, a key prep race for the Haskell Invitational (G1). The Grade 3 event will be contested at a mile and a sixteenth and has drawn a field of seven three-year-olds.
With five grade 1 races and a grade 2, the undercard for the June 11 Belmont stakes could be the best single day of racing on the calendar outside of the Breeders’ Cup.
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