Belmont excitement hits McLaughlin

By Jenny Kellner / NYRA

On Saturday, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin will be saddling Shadwell Stables’ Alwajeeha as she goes for her second consecutive stakes victory in the Grade 2, $150,000 Sands Point at a mile and an eighth on the turf at Belmont Park. But with the $1 million Belmont Stakes a little more than a week away, McLaughlin, who won that race in 2006 with Jazil, can’t help but be affected by the excitement surrounding the final leg of racing’s Triple Crown.

“Once he’s in the starting gate, there’s no doubt Big Brown is the horse to beat,” said McLaughlin of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner. “But I think the Japanese horse, Casino Drive, is adding excitement, too. That was a gutsy move bringing him over for the Peter Pan and the Belmont.”

McLaughlin has a personal interest in Casino Drive, just as he had for 2007 Belmont Stakes winner Rags to Riches. Like Jazil, both Casino Drive and Rags to Riches have the same mother – Better Than Honour.

“It’s a great story behind the mare,” said McLaughlin. “If she produced three Belmont Stakes winners in a row it would be pretty incredible.”

Alwajeeha, a 3-year-old daughter of Dixieland Band, has a link to the Belmont Stakes as well. Her dam, Ridaa, is by 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew.

“She’s a nice filly and she’s learned the game” said McLaughlin. “She won a nice race at Keeneland under a great ride from John Velazquez.”

In the Grade 3 Appalachian at Keeneland on April16, Alwajeeha rallied from sixth with a lightning-like move to score a head victory over Sweepstake in the one-mile race. It was her second victory in five starts, each of which came over a different track.

The bay filly began her career at Belmont Park last year, finishing fifth in a six furlong maiden event on the turf, and scored her first victory at Aqueduct going a mile. On New Year’s Day, she was second in the Tropical Park Oaks at Calder, and second again in February going a mile and a sixteenth in an allowance at Gulfstream Park.

“This is her first time going this far I think it’s a plus, not a negative,” said McLaughlin.

Facing Alwajeeha in the Sands Point will be six other 3-year-old fillies, including the Bill Mott-trained Life Is Sweet, who defeated her in the allowance at Gulfstream in February and then was fourth in the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland to Little Belle.

Also starting is Ambidaxtrous, who is going for her third straight victory as she makes her first stakes start. Trained by Thomas Bush, the daughter of Deputy Commander broke her maiden in her fifth start on April 10, then came back to post a 2½-length win over a yielding course at Belmont on April 30.

I Lost My Choo, third in the Appalachian; Lookalike, a winner of a nine-furlong allowance at Keeneland in her last start; Queen of Protocol, making her first stakes start, and Raw Silk, third in the Gaviola here on May 8, round out the field with Forest Trail entered as main track only.