St. Elias Stable's Nonna Mela routed a field of well-meant juvenile fillies Aug. 19 in the Adirondack Stakes (gr. II) at nearly 9-1 odds, but the daughter of Arch will be no bargain Oct. 10 in the $400,000 Frizette Stakes (gr. I) at Belmont Park.
The Todd Pletcher-trained filly humbled the rest of the Adirondack field by six lengths in the 6 1/2-furlong dirt test, which followed her maiden-breaking, five-furlong score July 2 at Monmouth Park.
BALAN: Nonna Mela Dominant in Adirondack
Nonna Mela will continue to stretch out in the one-turn-mile Frizette, as will the rest of the field. She is the only graded stakes winner entered.
Plenty have shown early promise, however, including Libby's Tail, the Adirondack favorite who came in fourth at Saratoga Race Course, 9 3/4 lengths behind the winner. The Tiz Wonderful filly trained by Rudy Rodriguez closed from seventh to win her July 2 debut at Belmont, and may again take to the surface in Saturday's Breeders' Cup "Win and You're In" event for the 14 Hands Winery Juvenile Fillies (gr. I).
Challenging off debut victories are My Meadowview Farm's Sky Gesture, China Horse Club's Yellow Agate, and Michael Ryan's Colorful Charades.
Sky Gesture, a daughter of Tiznow trained by Rick Violette Jr., took pressure on the lead and outlasted her rivals going six furlongs at Saratoga Aug. 28. Yellow Agate, a Gemologist filly trained by Christophe Clement, closed from eighth to win Sept. 11 at Belmont and had to overcome a troubled trip to do so. Colorful Charades is a second entrant for Rodriguez following her frontrunning Aug. 14 debut score at Saratoga.
John O'Hara's Star Super completes the field following a third-place finish in the Sept. 5 Sorority Stakes at Monmouth for trainer Dale Capuano.
Belmont Park, Saturday, October 08, 2016, Race 4Entries: Frizette S. (G1)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Sky Gesture (KY) Mike E. Smith 120 Richard A. Violette, Jr. 2/1 2 2Libby's Tail (KY) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 120 Rudy R. Rodriguez 8/1 3 3Nonna Mela (KY) Javier Castellano 120 Todd A. Pletcher 8/5 4 4Yellow Agate (KY) Manuel Franco 120 Christophe Clement 3/1 5 5Star Super (KY) Trevor McCarthy 120 Dale Capuano 20/1 6 6Colorful Charades (KY) John R. Velazquez 120 Rudy R. Rodriguez 12/1
