Camelot Kitten looks to continue winning form in Pennine Ridge

The Chad Brown-trained Camelot Kitten will look to build on an impressive graded stakes victory in his last start as the bay colt highlights a field of 10 in the Grade 3, $200,000 Pennine Ridge for 3-year-olds on the inner turf Saturday at Belmont Park.

Camelot Kitten, owned by Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey, posted his first career graded stakes victory on May 7 with a win in the Grade 2, $300,000 American Turf Stakes at Churchill Downs. After winning at 1 1/16-miles, the son of 2004 Eclipse Award-winning champion grass horse Kitten's Joy will now take aim at the 1 1/8-miles.

"He came out of the last race well and has been training good," Brown said. "He gives me the impression he'll be able to handle the extra distance."

Camelot Kitten will leave from post position 2 with Irad Ortiz in the irons. Brown will also saddle two other entrants in the field: Call Provision, who will leave from post position 7 under jockey Jose Ortiz, and Converge, who drew post position 8. Junior Alvarado will have the mount.

"It's a solid field," Brown said. "I think all three of my horses fit well and all three are training great."

Trainer Todd Pletcher also has multiple entries, including Azar out of post position 4. Azar finished sixth in the American Turf Stakes, just 5 ¼ lengths behind Camelot Kitten. Azar has finished in the money in three of his five career graded stakes starts, including a victory in the Grade 2 With Anticipation Stakes in September at Saratoga Race Course. Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez, who has ridden Azar in all but one of his career starts, will be in the irons again.

The Pletcher-trained Kismet's Heels will be looking for a maiden-breaking victory and will leave out of post position 3. Kismet's Heels' only previous graded stakes start came with an eighth-place showing in the Grade 3 Palm Beach in February at Gulfstream Park.

"They both fit in this race well and training is going fine," Pletcher assistant Bryon Hughes said. "It's a field of really [solid] horses. It's a good group and should be a really good race."

The Brian Lynch-trained Hammers Vision will leave from the inside post position. The bay colt, owned by Terry Hamilton, has breezed twice at Belmont Park since a second-place showing in a May 7 allowance race, clocking a four-furlong breeze of 50.06 seconds on May 29.

Highland Sky, leaving from post position 5, registered a victory by a neck in the non-graded Woodhaven Stakes last out on April 23 at Aqueduct Racetrack. The colt, trained by Barclay Tagg, will start in a graded stakes for the first time since a sixth-place showing in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf race on October 30 at Keeneland.

Noble Quality drew the outside post position for his first career graded stakes start. After a maiden-breaking victory last August at Delaware Break, the Christophe Clement-trained bay colt won an allowance race and finished third in the listed English Channel.

Sydney Belzberg's Dressed in Hermes will give the Pennine Ridge four starters who participated in the American Turf Stakes, including Converge, who finished sixth. The Janet Armstrong-trained Dressed in Hermes finished seventh in that race and will look to bounce back leaving from post position 6 with Eric Cancel in the irons.