The French horn ready to sound in Astoria

By Keith McCalmont – NYRA Press Office

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY—BG Stables’ Impressive First Winner French horn will attempt to make her winning Stakes debut Thursday in the $150,000 Astoria, a 1,400-yard sprint for 2-year-old fillies, on the opening day of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course.

The Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, which runs Thursday through Sunday, is highlighted by the 156th running of the $2 million Grade 1 Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets on Saturday, June 8. The four-day festival will feature 24 stakes races with purses totaling $10.25 million, the highest purse levels and number of stakes offered since the multi-day festival launched in 2014.

Trained by a Hall of Famer Marc Casse, French Horn was an early gate-to-wire winner when asking to go 4 1/2 furlongs on Tapeta May 12 at Woodbine Racetrack, breaking sharply and pulling away to a score of 1 3 /4 length under Sofia Vives. French Horn, bred in Ontario by Narola, came out of the outermost post 4 and clocked splits of 23.41 seconds and 46.43 before stopping the clock in 52.26 for the top figure Beyer speed of 69.

By first-crop sire Complexity, who already has three 2-year-old winners, French Horn is out of the double-ranked winning mare Congrats Emma’s Encore, who in 2012 won the Grade 3 Victory Ride at Belmont Park and the Grade 1 . Prioress in Saratoga of the late Hall of Fame coach H. Allen Jerkens.

“She’s a very pretty filly and she trained well from the start,” Casse said. “She trained well on dirt in Ocala for us and we sent her to Woodbine because she is Canadian bred.

“We did a lot more with our young horses this year in Ocala trying to be prepared,” Casse added. “Some break quickly and some don’t, but we definitely worked on that, and she took off running from there. She quickly broke up and settled down. Sofia asked her to leave, she sped up and they couldn’t reach her. His pedigree is a little dirtier than anything else. I think she will run well in the Astoria.

French Horn fell five eighths in 58.60 Saturday on the dirt practice track at Woodbine.

“She worked phenomenally. She’s always a well-trained filly,” Casse said.

Flavien Prat collects the mount at post 3.

Will Stroud’s Long Neck Paula (post 9, John Velazquez) was an impressive debut winner May 2 at Churchill Downs, coming off the outermost post 11 to make every pole a winner under Hall of Famer John Velazquez for the coach Wesley Ward.

“She’s all speed. Just a fast-moving rocket,” Ward said. “We will hopefully take advantage of the fact that the first stakes races are short distances and judge each race one by one and go from there.”

Bay Uncle Mo, out of Take Charge’s winning Take Charge Indy mare Paula, was selected by Ward for $500,000 at the OBS March 2-Year-Old in Training Sale.

“When they come from the 2-year-old sales, you always wonder how they’re going to break because they don’t participate in the program like I do with my yearlings,” Ward said. “It’s a good thing she learns quickly.”

Velazquez was aboard Long Neck Paula for a half-mile breeze in 50.25 Friday at Oklahoma’s clay practice along with Touchy (49.75), who is entered Thursday in the $150,000 Tremont listed at 5 1/2 furlongs for 2-year-olds.

“She came out of her race well and blew well here this morning,” Ward said.

C Two Racing Stables The MG Queens (post 8, Irad Ortiz, Jr.) jumped early in her April 7 debut at Keeneland and brushed past a rival before taking the lead with times of 22.30 and 45.84. She stubbornly stayed on to score at 45-1 odds in a final time of 52.44, edging out next-time winner Kentucky Juvenile and returning rival West Memorial by a head.

Originally trained and owned by Israel Acevedo, the Queens MG was purchased privately and transferred to the care of conditioner Saffie Joseph, Jr. She worked twice at Gulfstream Park, including a 47.97 half-mile effort on Saturday .

The $3,500 purchase from the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale is owned by Thousand Words – who also produced three 2-year-old winners this year – and is out of the Grindstone mare Show Queen. His third dam is Parade Queen, a double ranking winner.

Swinbank Stables West Memorial (post 4, Reylu Gutierrez) graduated in style to the five-furlong Kentucky Juvenile on May 2 at Churchill, starting from third and closing out the lane wide to take command in the final turn to win by 1 3/4 lengths. The winning effort earned a 63 Beyer.

West Memorial is out of the Super Saver mare Vita Bella, who is a half-sister to multiple stakes winner Mo Town. She was purchased for $45,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

To complete this talented peloton, the first winners Aoraki (position 2, Keith Asmussen) for Hall of Fame coach Steve Asmussen; Cookiewiththeboss (station 5, Manny Franco) for conditioner Brittany Russell); the duo of first winners formed by Paul McEntee Baytown Butterfly (post 7, Joseph Bealmear) and young daughter Cleopatra of Baytown (post 6, Dylan Davis); and young girl What in the literal (post 1, Javier Castellano), who is trained by last year’s Belmont Stakes-winning conditioner, Jena Antonucci.

The Astoria will be featured in Thursday’s Race 9, headlined by the $250,000 Grade 2 Belmont Gold Cup in Race 10, offering a “Golden Ticket” for a automatic place in the A$8.4 million Group 1 Lexus Melbourne Cup on November 5 at Flemington Racecourse in Victoria, Australia.

The lucrative 10-race program also includes the $150,000 Jersey Girl for second-grade fillies sprinting six furlongs in Race 4; and Listed’s $150,000 Tremont in Race 2. First post is 12:50 p.m. Eastern.