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​Philly Eagles ready to soar in Chelsey Flower

by NYRA Press Office

Tracy Farmer’s Philly Eagles, who ran fourth in her North American debut for Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse in the Grade 2 Miss Grillo, will be in search of a less turbulent trip in Saturday’s $100,000 Chelsey Flower for juvenile fillies going 1 1/16 miles on Belmont Park’s Widener turf course.

The Chelsey Flower is one of four stakes on a packed Saturday card, including the Grade 3, $150,000 Turnback the Alarm Handicap at nine furlongs over Big Sandy for fillies and mares; the $200,000 Mohawk at 1 1/16-miles over turf for New York-breds 3-years-old and up; and the $100,000 Stewart Manor, a six-furlong turf sprint for juvenile fillies.

A maiden winner at Doncaster in June for her former trainer Alice Haynes, the Havana Gold bay made her North American debut with a solid fourth in the 1 1/16-mile Miss Grillo over firm Belmont turf October 2 where she was bumped at the break and checked.

“I really loved the effort she gave. It was a pretty stout group,” assistant trainer Shane Tripp said. “She's doing well and has acclimated well. I like where she's at now compared to Saratoga. I’m looking forward to leading her over.”

Dylan Davis have the return assignment from post 7.

Lady Milagro enters off a successful turf debut when she wired a 10-horse maiden-claiming field for a 1 1/4-length victory going the Chelsey Flower distance on October 7 at Belmont. Owned by Amanda Laderer and Dianette Rivas, Lady Milagro ran fifth in her debut on July 25 over the Saratoga main track before running fourth on the same surface on August 22.

Trainer Carlos Martin said the daughter of First Dude has earned the step up in class.

“She’s doing great. We didn’t want to wait for a condition allowance race,” Martin said. “It will likely be a salty field and it won’t be easy. But you can’t run it on paper. You have to run it on the racetrack. She’s doing well enough to merit consideration. 

“Last out, she did it the right way. I told Eric [Cancel] to just get into a nice, comfortable rhythm and she galloped along on the lead and had a lot left at the end, so I was excited about her turf debut.”

Julian Pimentel picks up the mount from post 8.

King of Prussia Stable’s Caironi, a gray daughter of Cairo Prince, earned a 73 Beyer Speed Figure for a neck score in her first-out graduation sprinting seven furlongs over firm Belmont turf on October 2.

Trained by Mike Miceli and bred in Kentucky by Brereton C. Jones, Caironi will exit post 5 under Kendrick Carmouche.

SF Racing’s Misthaven, trained by Joe Sharp, rallied to a 1 3/4-length score in her September 5 debut sprinting 6 1/2-furlongs at Kentucky Downs. She followed with a seventh-place finish – defeated just 2 1/4-lengths – in the 1 1/16-mile Grade 2 Jessamine on October 13 over good going at Keeneland.

By Candy Ride and out of the Forestry mare Celestial Woods, Misthaven, who add blinkers, is a half-sister to multiple graded-stakes winners Bobby’s Kitten and Camelot Kitten.

Frankie Pennington has the call from post 9.

A talented field also includes maiden winners Shad Nation [post 1, Paco Lopez], Kneesnhips [post 2, Jorge Vargas, Jr.], Ouraika [post 3, Manny Franco], Mischievous Kiss [post 4, Eric Cancel], and Evangeline Allons [post 6, Nik Juarez].

The Chelsey Flower is slated as Race 7 on Saturday’s 10-race card. First post is 12 p.m. Eastern.

America’s Day at the Races will present daily coverage and analysis of the fall meet at Belmont Park on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/tv-schedule. 

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