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Sweet Melania returns to action in Wonder Again (G3)

by Ryan Martin

Robert and Lawana Low's graded stakes winner Sweet Melania will attempt to keep her consistent record intact when she returns off a seven-and-a-half month layoff in Saturday's Grade 3, $150,000 Wonder Again at Belmont Park on Belmont Stakes Day.

Carded as Race 6 at 3:01 p.m. Eastern on the 12-race Belmont Stakes Day program, the seventh running of the Wonder Again will be featured on NBC, which will provide live coverage of Saturday's action from Belmont Park starting at 2:45 p.m.

Trained by Todd Pletcher, Sweet Melania, a chestnut daughter of American Pharoah, graduated in July at third asking in a 1 1/16-mile turf tilt at Saratoga Race Course. She followed up a month later at the Spa with a strong effort in the P.G. Johnson when second, by a neck, to Crystalle ahead of a front-running 5 1/2-length score in the Grade 2 Jessamine on October 9 at Keeneland that garnered a career-best 82 Beyer Speed Figure. She completed a lengthy 2-year-old campaign in November with a prominent third in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita.

Pletcher said Sweet Melania is a filly with potential.

"She's got a nice turn of foot," said Pletcher. "She's tactical. You can place her wherever you want. She ran great at Keeneland and I thought she ran very well at the Breeders' Cup. In retrospect, I wish we'd had a little more time in between such a monster effort at Keeneland and the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, but she still had a great performance that day."

Sweet Melania returned to training in April with Pletcher's string at Palm Beach Downs in Florida and posted a half-mile breeze in 49.78 seconds Saturday over Belmont's dirt training track.

Pletcher said Sweet Melania, who boasts an ultra-consistent record of 6-2-1-3 with purse earnings of $294,000, is training well into her seasonal debut.

"I gave her a little time off and this seemed like a good launching spot," said Pletcher. "She's done well. She's grown and filled out a little bit. She's an easy filly to train and it seems like she's maintained her form from last fall."

Bred in Kentucky by St. Elias Stables and purchased for $600,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Sweet Melania is out of the stakes-winning Discreet Cat mare Sweet N Discreet.

Sweet Melania will be piloted by Jose Ortiz from post 2.

Trainer Chad Brown will seek a fourth triumph in the Wonder Again, saddling graded stakes-winner Selflessly, who is also unraced since the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Owned by Seth Klarman's Klaravich Stables, the dark bay daughter of More Than Ready was fifth beaten four lengths in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, which came after breaking her maiden against graded stakes company in the Grade 2 Miss Grillo over Belmont's inner turf.

Bred in Maryland by George Louis Doetsch, Jr., Selflessly is out of the Grand Slam broodmare Uniformly Yours. She was purchased for $190,000 as a weanling from the 2017 Keeneland November Sale.

Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano, who seeks a second Wonder Again triumph, has guided Selflessly in all three of her career outings and retains the mount from post 5.

Four races before saddling Grade 1 Belmont Stakes-favorite Tiz the Law, trainer Barclay Tagg will send out Highland Glory in attempt of a second stakes win.

Owned by Steadfast Stable, the Sky Mesa bay is a full-sister to multiple stakes winner and Grade 1-placed Highland Sky, who also was trained by Tagg. She earned black type two starts ago with a victory in the Sanibel Island at Gulfstream Park by a neck over graded stakes winner Cheermeister. She enters the Wonder Again off a runner-up effort in the Honey Ryder on May 2 at the South Florida oval.

"She's a very nice filly," Tagg said. "She's a full-sister to Highland Sky and they're both very useful horses. There's not a whole lot of places to run her, so this is a good place. I think she'll appreciate going a mile and an eighth."

Jockey Manny Franco has the mount from post 3.

Waterford Stable's Speaktomeofsummer will attempt to stay unbeaten going one mile on the grass from the rail.

Trained by Christophe Clement, the Summer Front dark bay filly broke her maiden in her second-out turf debut at Monmouth Park before notching a stakes win in the Chelsey Flower on November 3 at Aqueduct.

"Speaktomeofsummer has not run since last year but she's working well," Clement said. "All these horses in New York need a place to go and this seemed like a logical place to start her out."

Jockey Joel Rosario, who piloted La Signare to a win in the 2018 Wonder Again, will ride from post 1.

Rounding out the field is Godolphin's Antoinette who returns to the grass after two stakes placings on the main track this year.

The daughter of Hard Spun is trained by Hall of famer Bill Mott and finished third in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks and the Gardenia at Oaklawn Park in her only two starts this year. After breaking her maiden over Belmont's inner turf, she won the Tepin at Aqueduct, which was contested over an off main track going a one-turn mile.

Antoinette will be ridden by Hall of Famer John Velazquez from post 4.

The one-mile event for sophomore fillies over the Widener turf course is named in honor of the five-time graded stakes-winning daughter of Silver Hawk who was trained by veteran conditioner Jimmy Toner. Owned by Phillips Racing Partnership in partnership with Richard Santulli and Bobby Flay, Wonder Again was a four-time winner at Belmont Park, including victories in the Grade 1 Garden City in 2002, Grade 3 Noble Damsel in 2003 and Grade 2 New York in 2004 and retired with over $1.4 million in earnings.

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