Humana Distaff (gr. I) winner Dame Dorothy is scheduled to make her first start since that May 2 victory at Churchill Downs when she faces an expected seven other older fillies and mares in the $150,000 Bed O’ Roses Handicap (gr. III)June 20 at Belmont Park.
A winner of six of eight career starts, Bobby Flay’s Dame Dorothy scored at the top level in the seven-furlong Humana Distaff, when the 4-year-old Bernardini filly edged last year’s champion female sprinter Judy the Beauty by a neck. Trained by Todd Pletcher, the Pennsylvania-bred will try seven furlongs again Saturday, a distance at which she boasts three wins in as many starts—including this year’s Florida Sunshine Millions Distaff at Gulfstream Park.
“She’s doing well and we decided to run her in this spot,” Pletcher said. “She’s been very consistent and she’s coming off of her biggest win last time going seven-eighths so it seems like that might be the trick.”
Carrying just one pound less than 123-pound highweight Dame Dorothy will be the speedy New York-bred La Verdad, who will try to pick up her third straight graded stakes victory this season. The daughter of Yes It’s True opened her 5-year-old season with a victory in the Distaff Handicap (gr. II) at Aqueduct Racetrack followed by a May 16 score in the Vagrancy Handicap (gr. III) at Belmont.
Lady Sheila Stable’s La Verdad has won five of her six career starts at Belmont, but in her third start at the distance, she will be looking for her first career win at seven furlongs.
Also entering Saturday’s race off a graded stakes win is Whispering Oaks Farm’s Street Story, a 4-year-old daughter of Street Cry who won the Winning Colors Stakes (gr. III) May 25 at Churchill.