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Victory Kingdom makes North American debut in $85K Smart N Fancy

by Ryan Martin

Team Valor International's homebred Victory Kingdom will make her first start in the Northern Hemisphere off a nine-month layoff against seven older fillies and mares in Thursday's eighth running of the $85,000 Smart N Fancy going 5 ½ furlongs over the Mellon turf at Saratoga Race Course.

Trained by Rodolphe Brisset, Victory Kingdom has not raced since November 16, where she was fourth beaten a head in the Group 3 Le Pine Summoned at Sandown Hillside Racecourse in her native Australia. Following a second out maiden victory in January 2019, she acquired black type with a third-place finish in the Group 3 Typhoon Tracy at Moonee Valley and a close second in the Group 2 Tab Kewney at Flemington.

Victory Kingdom boasts a royal pedigree, by 2011 Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom out of the Yankee Victor broodmare Victory Party, who is a half-sister to champion Beholder, champion-producing stallion Into Mischief and Grade 1-winning millionaire Mendelssohn.

Since joining Brisset's stable, she has recorded four breezes at Keeneland, most recently working five furlongs in 59.60 seconds.

"She has been training at Keeneland and I've had her for almost eight weeks," Brisset said. "She's been very easy to be around. She has been training forward. She's pretty easy mare to train and we like her."

Brisset said that he could try Victory Kingdom on dirt at some point.

"She's proven on the turf and we're coming back off a layoff," Brisset said. "As of now, we're keeping her on the green stuff. But with the way she moves and breezes on the dirt, I wouldn't mind trying it one day. Mr. [Barry] Irwin [of Team Valor] and I talked about it and she travels along on the dirt, so we may try it at some point."

Victory Kingdom displayed tactical versatility in Australia racing both forwardly placed and off the pace. Brisset said the running style she displays on Thursday will be left up to jockey Luis Saez.

"Looking back at her races in Australia, she has shown speed before, but she has also shown no speed. I'll let Luis see how she breaks and then go from there. She has shown both in Australia," Brisset said.

A win would give owner Team Valor a second straight triumph in the Smart N Fancy after sending out Oleksandra last year.

Victory Kingdom will break from post 8.

Athlone Racing's Rose Flower will attempt to give trainer Christophe Clement his eighth stakes victory of the meet.

The 4-year-old German-bred daughter of Dabirism was a distant sixth last out to Newspaperofrecord in the Grade 3 Intercontinental over a yielding Widener turf on June 6 at Belmont Park, which was her first start since December 7 where she was a late-closing third to fellow Smart N Fancy aspirant Saratoga Treasure.

Rose Flower was a stakes winner in France, taking the Prix Amandine at Maisons-Laffitte last July before moving to Clement's barn in North America. She won at second asking for her new connections defeating stakes winners I'llhandalthecash and Go Noni Go.

Rose Flower enters off a swift half-mile breeze over the Oklahoma training turf course in 48 seconds flat.

"She worked well the other day," Clement said. "She had not run for a long time but her last start was a very good race on paper. She's doing better now; she's training well and I'm excited to see her run."

Jockey Joel Rosario, a two-time winner of the Smart N Fancy, will be aboard Rose Flower from post 1.

Mary Abeel Sullivan Revocable Trust's Getmotherarose is the lone graded stakes winner in the field and will attempt to add a sixth lifetime win from post 3.

Trained by Tom Bush, the 4-year-old daughter of Get Stormy made the grade in her second start of the year, where she was an 11-1 upset winner of the Grade 3 Honey Fox on February 29 at Gulfstream Park. She will attempt to break a streak off four off-the-board finishes, the most recent of which was in the August 1 Caress at the Spa, where she was ninth beaten 6 ¼ lengths.

Jockey Jose Lezcano retains the mount.

Completing the field are Saratoga Treasure [post 2, Jose Ortiz], A Great Time [post 4, John Velazquez], Miss Gossip [post 5, Kendrick Carmouche], Introduced [post 6, Manny Franco], and Peaceful [post 7, Tyler Gaffalione].

The Smart N Fancy is slated as Race 7 on Thursday's nine-race card, which offers a first post of 1:10 p.m. Eastern. Saratoga Live will present daily television coverage of the 40-day summer meet on FOX Sports and MSG Networks. For the complete Saratoga Live broadcast schedule, and additional programming information, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule.

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