Lewis Bay returns April 9 to the combination of racetrack and distance that contributed to her breakout performance in a graded stakes back in November.
The daughter of Bernardini —Summer Raven, by Summer Squall, is one of seven in the $300,000 Gazelle Stakes (gr. II), a 1 1/8-mile contest for 3-year-old fillies on Aqueduct Racetrack's main track.
The last time Lewis Bay ran at Aqueduct, she won the grade II Demoiselle Stakes by 1 3/4 lengths Nov. 28 as the even-money favorite. The race was her first start in stakes company.
Owner/breeder Alpha Delta Stables then sent Lewis Bay to Gulfstream Park with trainer Chad Brown. In her next start she cut back to one mile in the Davona Dale Stakes (gr. II) and faced East Coast heavyweight Cathryn Sophia, who beat her by seven lengths. Undefeated Cathryn Sophia is the morning line even-money favorite in the April 9 Central Bank Ashland Stakes (gr. I) at Keeneland.
"This is the race we had planned on all along for her," said Brown about the Gazelle. "She won the Demoiselle last fall and had the one prep race, so she's ready and coming into the race really well."
Lewis Bay should relish the longer distance and the lighter competition in the Gazelle that includes only three other listed stakes winners—Mo d'Amour (Busher Stakes), Flora Dora (Busanda Stakes), and Behrnik's Bank (Blue Mountain Juvenile Fillies Stakes). Flora Dora has been tried in two other graded stakes, with her best finish a second place Nov. 4, 2015, in the grade III Tempted Stakes.
In a race also light on early speed, one of Lewis Bay's toughest competitors may be improving allowance winner Clair de Lune. The Malibu Moon filly, owned by Tracy Farmer and trained by Brown, broke her maiden in her second start by 2 1/2 lengths Feb. 11 at Aqueduct. She followed that performance with a wire-to-wire romp in an $80,000 allowance race that she won by six lengths March 11.
Aqueduct Racetrack, Saturday, April 09, 2016, Race 8Entries: Gazelle S. (G2)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Clair de Lune (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 116 Chad C. Brown 2/1 2 2Lewis Bay (KY) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 122 Chad C. Brown 8/5 3 3Mo d'Amour (KY) John R. Velazquez 120 Todd A. Pletcher 6/1 4 4Dreams to Reality (KY) Kendrick Carmouche 114 Michael Dilger 20/1 5 5Royal Obsession (KY) Manuel Franco 116 Steven M. Asmussen 5/1 6 6Behrnik's Bank (PA) Edwin Gonzalez 116 Peter Kazamias 15/1 7 7Flora Dora (FL) Junior Alvarado 120 Marialice Coffey 10/1
