Brown sends two more from arsenal of turf fillies
July 16, 2015ELMONT, N.Y. – While the best 3-year-old turf filly in the country fights the good fight against laminitis, two of her stablemates will try to prove themselves worthy of competing in stakes for 3-year-old turf fillies later this summer when they run in a first-level allowance race Friday at Belmont Park.
Lady Eli, the sparkling winner of the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks in her last start, has set a bar that no one in the division can match, but it was announced Monday by trainer Chad Brown that she is battling laminitis, a sometimes-fatal hoof disease. Her absence – likely for at least the rest of this year – will leave a void in the division and in Brown’s barn. Brown has a plethora of turf fillies, and he hopes Fila Primera and Stella Street can develop into stakes-caliber horses.
Fila Primera, a debut winner at Belmont last September, was a twice beaten favorite in stakes company last fall. She is making her first start in eight months in Friday’s 1 1/16-mile allowance race. Stella Street was purchased privately by Seth Klarman and William Lawrence following a debut win against 13 rivals in Ireland in May of her 2-year-old season. She finished last after a slow start in the Wait a While Stakes at Belmont, her 2015 debut. Trainers Christophe Clement and Todd Pletcher also have two runners each in the race.
The Clement-trained Viva Malala, a half-sister to the five-time stakes winner Icabad Crane, will try open company for the first time after going 2 for 2 against New York-breds on turf. “I thought this would be easier than a two-other-than New York-bred,” said Clement, whose other runner is the Britain-bred Clutchingatstraws Irad Ortiz Jr., back from a suspension, rides from post 7.