Belmont Notes

- Those two Empire Maker fillies both ran pretty well in the second. Mushka was three wide on the turn, and may have moved too soon. She opened up at the top of the stretch but tired significantly to third. Country Star closed well for second. The winner, Backstreet Rhythm, was 10-1 morning line making her grass debut after two fair efforts on dirt. She was bet to 7-2, and came from dead last to win. Don't you love stuff like that?

Two horses that raced, and did so poorly, just this past Saturday won on Thursday! Speed of Sound, who ran a miserable last on Saturday, took the first, the first of two for Contessa. And Godolphin's Astronomia won the feature. Anyone who may have bet her on Saturday, when she ran 8th at 7-2 stretching out to a mile, can't be happy to see that she paid $12.20 cutting back to six furlongs. Unless they had her of course. Last to first with a final 1/8th of 11.55, pretty nice.

Linda Rice ran first and second with her even money entry of Sextant and Sweet Bama Breeze, two-first timers in a maiden turf sprint; that's the 4th such winner of the year for this barn, which has gotten a big boost out of all the grass sprints being run here.

And Johnny V. turned to trainers other than Pletcher to get a couple of winners. He rode Monster Drive for Mott, and On Fire for Shug.