Sheer Drama arrives at Belmont Park for Ogden Phipps
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Harold Queen's multiple Grade 1-winning homebred Sheer Drama arrived on the Belmont Park backstretch a few minutes after 9 a.m. Sunday morning following a 22-hour ride from Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.
Trained by David Fawkes, who chauffeurs the 6-year-old mare to her various engagements, Sheer Drama will make her next start in Saturday's Grade 1 Ogden Phipps, a designated "Win and You're In" race for the Breeders' Cup Distaff.
The 1 1/16-mile Ogden Phipps will be the 23rd career start and third at Belmont Park for Sheer Drama. She was fourth in a maiden special weight in July 2013 and second in the Belle Cherie Stakes that October in her stakes debut.
"The ship went perfect. It was excellent. She's dusty from the road, but she traveled great," Fawkes said. "She breezed the other day at home and went fantastic. She never carries a lot of flesh, that's just her. But, she came out of it great and everything is good. Her legs are great and everything's great."
Sheer Drama grazed for a while upon her arrival before being led into Barn 14. Fawkes said Belmont-based trainer Nick Esler, his former assistant, will be aboard when the Burning Roma mare goes to the track, possibly Monday morning.
"She may jog tomorrow. I'll have to see how she is in the morning. If she eats up and does everything right, I'll train her," Fawkes said. "She likes to get out. She likes to be outside and be with the horses."
Winner of the Grade 1 Delaware Handicap and Grade 1 Personal Ensign last year, Sheer Drama opened 2016 with a victory in the Grade 1 Madison April 9 at Keeneland. Most recently she was third behind Ogden Phipps-bound rival Curalina in the Grade 1 La Troienne, her third loss in as many tries at Churchill Downs.
"She's run three times and got beat three times. She's much better on a different surface. She just doesn't like it," Fawkes said. "She actually runs better [shipping] than she does staying. She stayed in Kentucky [after the Madison] and she was third. When she shipped in, she won. She shipped to Delaware and she won, she shipped to Saratoga and she won. She's good."
Also pointing to the Ogden Phipps are fellow Grade 1 winners Cavorting, Forever Unbridled and Stopchargingmaria and Grade 3 winner Carrumba.
"I'm kind of throwing her last race out a little bit. In a perfect world, if I could do it all over again I wouldn't have run in there, but how do you know unless you run?" Fawkes said. "[Curalina] ran a huge race. Maybe she'll bounce; who knows. A lot of times when they run big races like that they bounce off the layoff, and I think that was a little bit of what happened with [Sheer Drama]."
Source: NYRA Communications
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