City Girl shines bright in G3 Beaugay
The French-bred City Girl, owned by Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, and Michael Kisber, stepped up into graded stakes company and on to the turf course at Belmont at the Big A for the first time to upset her more heralded Chad Brown-trained stablemate and defending titlist Dynamic Pricing in Sunday’s Grade 3, $175,000 Beaugay.
City Girl, ridden by dual Eclipse Award-winning jockey Flavien Prat, was dispatched at 7-2 odds in the field of five older fillies and mares traveling 1 1/16-miles over the firm outer turf. She was away alertly but Prat took back as Mo Fox Givin, under Hall of Famer John Velazquez, set pedestrian fractions of 48.90 seconds for the half-mile and 1:13.12 for the first six furlongs.
When the field reached the top of the stretch, Prat sent City Girl to the outside and she kicked in, just a head behind Grade 2-winner Laurelin and Kendrick Carmouche as they neared the mile in 1:36.68.
City Girl dug deep in the stretch and took command inside the sixteenth pole, holding off the multiple graded stakes-winning and fast charging Dynamic Pricing with Irad Ortiz, Jr. aboard.
City Girl crossed the wire in 1:42.61 on the firm turf, three-quarter lengths of a length in front of the even-money favorite Dynamic Pricing. The 4-year-old Laurelin, who was coming back from a near six-month layoff and had never been worse than second in seven previous starts for trainer Graham Motion, was another two lengths behind. Mo Fox Givin and Racing Colors followed them home. Shore War was scratched.
"I wanted to get her in the race. It seemed like Johnny's [Mo Fox Givin] horse was pulling and wouldn't settle. At that point, I changed my mind and sat behind him. When I tipped her out, she gave me a good run," said Prat.
The 5-year-old City Girl ran her first six races in her native France and was privately purchased after her 2024 campaign. After being away from competition for 22 months, she reappeared at Tampa Bay Downs in February for Brown with a third in the optional claiming ranks and then won her next start at that track at the same level in March. In the Beaugay, she sat closer to the pace that in her previous American starts.
"Short field, obviously she had a few runs in her now. She had run further distances in France. I thought stamina wouldn't be a problem, so I thought it was a good day to try," Prat explained.
Klaravich Stables’ Grade 1-winning Dynamic Pricing was making her second 2026 start and was dropping down in class from the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland, where she ran fourth on April 11 under Ortiz, Jr.
“I just saw they started off running in the [first] turn, and I felt like the pace was going comfortable, so it was a little harder for her,” Ortiz, Jr. said. “In the [last] turn, she took a few jumps to start going, so I jumped on her earlier trying to get the jump on the other horse [City Girl]. I couldn’t. She kept finishing and finished really good, but… we moved good on the turn, but he [Prat] moved quicker than me. She was traveling good."
The victory by City Girl, who paid $9.02, was a record-extending eighth Beaugay win for Brown, who has now won this race in seven of the last nine years. In addition to Dynamic Pricing, Brown’s past Beaugay scores also include Waterway Run [2014], A Raving Beauty [2018], Homerique [2019], Rushing Fall [2020], Rougir [2022] and Marketsegmentation [2023].
City Girl is by City Light and out of the Smart Strike mare Nimpheas. She upped her record to 9 4-2-1 and improved her earnings to $166,901 with the $96,250 winner's share of the purse.
Live racing resumes Thursday at Belmont at the Big A with an eight-race card. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern.
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