Minorette Races Hard for Underdog Win at Belmont Oaks

Everyone loves an underdog, so Minorette’s victory at Saturday’s Belmont Oaks was well received by many. The three year old filly, whose pedigree comes from Canadian Champion sire Smart Strike, outpaced favorite Sea Queen and earned her first North American victory and Grade 1 score under jockey Joel Rosario.

“She was really training big coming into this race. We were pretty confident she’d give a good showing of herself in there,” said Minorette’s trainer Chad Brown. “The more I got to train her, even before we first ran her, she just moved and looked like a mile and a quarter horse. Her pedigree wouldn’t deter you from that either.” This makes three wins in a row for Brown at the Belmont Oaks, formerly known as the Garden City Stakes. In 2013 he won with Alterite, while Samitar won it in 2012.

Minorette settled early into third place as Sea Queen took the lead as expected. Minorette pushed past second place holder Wonderfully close to the one mile mark before sprinting to the lead in the last eighth mile for a finishing time of 2:01.64 and two lengths to spare for the runner up Sea Queen, while Summer Solo pulled into third place. “She moves like she wanted to go longer,” said jockey Rosario. “Last time, I moved a little to take the lead and she waited a little bit. This time I wanted to be a little closer because it looked like there wasn’t a lot of speed. I could see (Sea Queen) on the outside and wanted to keep an eye on her, and didn’t want to move early. When (Minorette) took the lead she just kept going.”

Christophe Clement, who trained Sea Queen and Summer Solo, was pleased with the second and third place finishes for his horses. “They both ran a great race and nobody can take that away from them.”

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