Always Carina tries to stay perfect in Saturday’s Grade 2 Mother Goose
By the New York Hot List Staff // Friday, June 25, 2021
The Chad Brown trained 3-year-old filly Always Carina will attempt to stay unbeaten in the $250,000 Grade 2 Mother Goose at Belmont Park on Saturday. The daughter of Malibu Moon, who won her first two starts by a combined 13 ¾ lengths, will stretch out to the one-turn distance of a 1 1/16 miles.
With regular jockey Jose Ortiz going out of town to ride, the leading rider in California Flavien Prat will come east to ride the 1-1 morning line favorite in this field of five sophomore fillies.
Always Carina is owned and was bred by Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky. She is the second foal out of Miss Always Ready who produced the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) winner Structor.
“The dam was a really attractive and athletic filly purchased at the Keeneland April 2-year-old sale and showed quite a bit of talent, but had an injury that ended her career,” said Doug Cauthen, vice chairman of Three Chimneys. “But whenever these well-bred good-looking fillies show talent, even if you don’t get the black type, I’ve seen – and continue to see – a lot of success from those types of mares.
In the Mother Goose, Always Carina will face stakes company for the first time in a field that includes three winners at that level, two of them won graded stakes.
“It’s a super race,” said Cauthen. “I think it’s a good stepping stone as far as distance and now we’ll see if she can handle the step up in class because it’s clearly going to be a challenging race. We think she has talent and she deserves the chance to be in there.”
Here are the Hot List picks for the Mother Goose:
The $250,000 Mother Goose (G2), Belmont Park, Saturday, Race 8.
(2) Always Carina (A) won her first two races by open lengths at odds of .95-1 in her debut on a muddy track at Aqueduct on April 11 and then she stretched out to a mile to win an allowance at Belmont by almost 10-lengths as the .45-1 favorite. She will add another half-furlong of distance and have to step-up to face stakes winners for the first time. (3) Clairiere was at the top of the 3-year-old division after she won her first race of the year in the Rachel Alexandra (G2) at Fair Grounds for Steve Asmussen and Stonestreet Stables. Subsequently, she was second in the Fair Grounds Oaks (G2) and fourth in the Kentucky Oaks (G1). This field is smaller and easier than her recent two races. (1) Make Mischief has far more experience, with 11 career starts, than the other fillies in this field. Most recently, she was third in the Acorn (G1) at Belmont and third in the Eight Belles (G2) at Churchill Downs. (5) Illiogami is the winner of both of her starts this year – a maiden victory at Keeneland and then an allowance at Churchill Downs.
Analysis of the other NY Hot List races and the Special Saturday Pick 3 are available free of charge at this website.