Concrete Rose Looks to Cement Status in Belmont Oaks

[Wandering Eyes]

Ashbrook Farm and BBN Racing’s Concrete Rose (Twirling Candy) looks to continue her ascent to the top of the sophomore filly turf division in Saturday’s GI Belmont Oaks Invitational. Trained by Rusty Arnold, the dark bay filly’s lone loss in five trips to the post came when she was eighth in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. She opened her 2019 season with a win in the Mar. 9 GIII Florida Oaks and defeated the highly touted Newspaperofrecord (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) by 3 3/4 lengths in the May 3 GIII Edgewood S. in her last trip to the post.

“She’s improved from two to three, but we had a little edge on Newspaperofrecord last time out,” said Arnold. “We got a race in at Tampa and Newspaperofrecord was coming off a longer layoff, so the edge went to us. Now, she [Newspaperofrecord] has two races into her and we have two races in us, so it’s a different ball game now.”

Concrete Rose, who has three graded wins at 1 1/16 miles, will be stretching out to 1 1/4 miles Saturday, but Arnold thinks his filly has versatility on her side in the Oaks.

“She has won from five and a half furlongs to a mile and a sixteenth,” Arnold said. “She has speed of her own if there’s none in there. She’ll be comfortable. If there’s a lot of speed in there, she’s not rank and she can lay back. She’s done it both ways. She was very close in her race at Tampa, and very close in her race at Keeneland last year. She came from off the pace in her last race, so it’s really not a concern.”

Newspaperofrecord, one of a trio of Chad Brown-trained fillies in the Oaks, looked untouchable at two, capping her season with a win in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, but she’s suffered back-to-back defeats in 2019. She had no answer for the late challenge of Concrete Rose in the Edgewood and was edged by re-opposing stablemate Cambier Parc (Medaglia d’Oro) in the June 6 GIII Wonder Again S. at Belmont last time out. Fourth in the Edgewood, Cambier Parc captured the Mar. 2 GIII Herecomesthebride S. at Gulfstream.

Brown’s Oaks trio is completed by the lightly raced Cafe Americano (Medaglia d’Oro), who makes her stakes debut Saturday in her third lifetime start. The Peter Brant-owned filly took a nine-furlong optional claimer over the Belmont lawn last time out June 1.

The Belmont Oaks is the first race in Belmont’s inaugural Turf Tiara. The series continues with the Aug. 2 Saratoga Oaks and concludes with the Jockey Club Oaks at Belmont Sept. 7.

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