By Joe Bianca
It wasn't quite Frosted (Tapit)'s 13 1/2-length demolition in the GI Mohegan Sun Metropolitan H., but the next most impressive performance on last year's GI Belmont S. card likely belonged to Celestine (Scat Daddy), who dazzled in a dominant GI Longines Just A Game S. victory, covering a mile on turf in 1:31.64, just one hundredth of a second off of Elusive Quality (Gone West)'s course record. The now 5-year-old mare will go for a repeat in the $700,000 race Saturday, but will have no guarantees against a short, but salty field of grass milers.
Purchased by Moyglare Stud Farm from Phaedrus Flights LLC for $2.55 million at last term's Keeneland November sale, Celestine is two-for-two for new trainer Christophe Clement, and will make her first start since wiring the GII Honey Fox S. Apr. 1 at Gulfstream, a race she won last year as a springboard to her Just A Game heroics.
Celestine is the third choice on the morning line, however, as favoritism rests with win machine Roca Rojo (Ire) (Strategic Prince {GB}). Capturing her first two starts in her native Ireland in the spring of 2015, the bay scored in her U.S. debut for the Chad Brown barn last June and has won three of five since, including a game victory in the GII Distaff Turf Mile S. in her seasonal debut May 6 at Churchill. The Just A Game is one of the few major New York turf stakes her Eclipse-winning conditioner has yet to land.
Godolphin Racing's Dickinson (Medaglia d'Oro) was a middling dirt horse for the first eight starts of her career, but sprung to life when switching to turf late last summer at Parx, dominating an allowance/optional claiming event there Sept. 6. She followed that up with a high-priced optional claimer victory over course and distance and, after suffering her only turf loss to date when fourth in the GIII Marshua's River S., annexed the GIII Suwanee River S. and GII Hillsborough S. The Kiaran McLaughlin trainee's development crested when she picked off superstar Lady Eli (Divine Park) in the GI Jenny Wiley S. last out Apr. 15 at Keeneland.
One sleeper who cannot be overlooked is Juddmonte Farms' Antonoe (First Defence). A victress of her first two outings as a juvenile, including the G3 Prix d'Aumale at Chantilly, the dark bay went winless in her next four starts, but blew away a field of allowance foes off of a near eight-month layoff Apr. 14 at Keeneland in her first start for the Brown stable.
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