Elmont, NY (Sports Network) – Champion female Royal Delta will face five challengers Saturday as the 5-year-old mare goes for a second straight win in the $400,000 Beldame Invitational at Belmont Park.<\/p>\n
Last year in the 1 1\/8-mile stakes, Royal Delta blew away her competition with a 9 1\/2-length victory, leading to her second consecutive win in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic, now renamed the Distaff.<\/p>\n
The Beldame is a Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” event which gives the winner an automatic spot in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita. Royal Delta secured her entry in the Distaff with wins this year in the Delaware Handicap and Personal Ensign Stakes.<\/p>\n
Owned by Besilu Stables, Royal Delta will have Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith again riding. The pair will break from post 4 as the overwhelming favorites.<\/p>\n
Royal Delta, trained by Bill Mott, is a two-time Eclipse Award winner, having been voted 2011 champion 3-year-old filly and last year’s champion older female.<\/p>\n
“Royal Delta is doing well. I would say it seems she’s on the same path she was last year (en route to her second Breeders’ Cup win),” Mott said.<\/p>\n
The mare won her last two starts by better than 15 lengths, including a 10 3\/4-length victory July 20 in the Delaware Handicap. She notched the Personal Ensign on Aug. 25 at Saratoga by 4 1\/2 lengths.<\/p>\n
“When she comes with her ‘A’ game, that’s what you expect,” said Mott after the Personal Ensign at Saratoga on Aug. 25.<\/p>\n
In her first race of the year, Royal Delta posted a five-length victory in the Sabin at Gulfstream Park. On March 30, the mare finished a disappointing 10th in the Dubai World Cup. She came back home with a second-place finish as the 3-10 favorite in the Fleur de Lis on June 15 at Churchill Downs.<\/p>\n
Royal Delta has lifetime earnings of $4,611,126 with 12 wins in 20 starts.<\/p>\n
Trainer Todd Pletcher sends out leading 3-year-old filly Princess of Sylmar to face older females in the Beldame for the first time. The filly will have Javier Castellano riding again and start from post 2.<\/p>\n
“She’s a serious filly,” said Mott of Princess of Sylmar. “You can’t take her for granted.”<\/p>\n
Princess of Sylmar, Pennsylvania-bred and owned by her breeder King of Prussia Stable, has won her last three starts and seven of nine career starts for $1,367,220.<\/p>\n
The filly is coming off wins in the Alabama and Coaching Club American Oaks, both at Saratoga and the Kentucky Oaks on May 3 at Churchill Downs. She also registered wins this year in the Busanda and Busher Stakes at Aqueduct with a second in the Gazelle at the New York track.<\/p>\n
Here is the full field for the Beldame from the rail out: Roman Invader, Junior Alvarado, 20-1; Princess of Sylmar, Javier Castellano, 2-1; And Why Not, Luis Saez, 20-1; Royal Delta, Mike Smith, 3-5; Centring, Rajiv Maragh, 8-1 and Lady Cohiba, Irad Ortiz Jr., 15-1.<\/p>\n
Post-time for the Beldame will be approximately 3:10 p.m. (ET).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Elmont, NY (Sports Network) – Champion female Royal Delta will face five challengers Saturday as the 5-year-old mare goes for a second straight win in the $400,000 Beldame Invitational at Belmont Park. Last year in the 1 1\/8-mile stakes, Royal Delta blew away her competition with a 9 1\/2-length victory, leading to her second consecutive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[330],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-horses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9829,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9801\/revisions\/9829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}