Bellafina likely to cut back after Kentucky Oaks defeat

Bellafina “broke a little slow” on her way to a fifth-place finish in the 2019 Kentucky Oaks, jockey Flavien Prat said, “but she always does.”

Connections didn’t walk away from a defeat as the favorite Friday at Churchill Downs blaming how the multiple Grade 1 winner ran, but rather how far she had to go.

“I think that it was the distance that did her in today,” trainer Simon Callaghan said after the 1 1/8-mile race. “I think she wants to run in one-turn races. We’ll give her a break now and refocus on one-turn races.”

Callaghan mentioned Saratoga’s Aug. 3 Test (G1) at seven furlongs as a possible target.

On Friday, the Kaleem Shah-owned daughter of Quality Road sat eighth of 14 a half mile into the race and positioned between horses entering the far turn.

“I thought I was in a good spot, but when it was time to fire, she just didn’t,” said Prat, noting that position lost out of the gate isn’t as much of an obstacle in California, where this season the filly started 3-for-3 in fields of five, five and four horses.

Beginning with a second-out win in Del Mar’s Sorrento Stakes (G2), Bellafina began a roll of six wins in eight races. Both of those defeats came at Churchill Downs, with the other a fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.