Blowout Leads Brown Trifecta in Wild Applause

ELMONT, NY – Peter Brant’s Blowout led her two stablemates to the wire to give trainer Chad Brown the trifecta finish in Saturday’s $100,000 Wild Applause Stakes at Belmont Park.

Breaking from post 6 under Javier Castellano at 5/2 odds, Blowout sat just off of the early leader and fellow Brown trainee Seek and Destroy through opening fractions of :23.35 and :47.01. Midway through the far turn, Blowout began making up ground on her stablemate and hit the top of the stretch with a slight advantage.

Set down for the stretch drive, Blowout soon came under pressure from the third Brown runner, Nova Sol, but Blowout refused to yield and hit the wire with a 1/2-length advantage in a final time of 1:34.02 for the mile-long event over the good turf course.

“Last time, I tried to ride her different and I made a mistake and learned through the mistake,” Castellano said. “I think she’s the type of horse where you need to let her be where she wants to be and don’t fight it too much. I rated too much last time. I felt so guilty the way I rode the horse last time. It paid off today.”

Sent postward as the 3/2 favorite, Nova Sol was 2 1/2 lengths clear of Seek and Destroy, who was carrying high weight of 122 pounds, 8 more than either of her teammates. Feel Glorious and Pep completed the order of finish.

Wings of Dawn was scratched.

Blowout’s win was her first in a stakes effort after a pair of seconds in the Florida Oaks (G3) and the Memories Of Silver Stakes earlier this year. The British-bred 3-year-old daughter of Dansili, purchased as a weanling for $481,095, now sports a record of 4-2-2-0 with $116,600 earned.

“She looked good,” Brown said. “It was a bit of a tough trip last time (in the Memories Of Silver). Javier was just getting to know her and she’s not an easy horse to ride. She’s got a little bit of a light mouth and they jammed up the pace on the backside in her last race at Aqueduct. They really slowed it down in front of them. She came up on heels and clipped heels, so it was a rough trip, and he took the effort to get to know her and took advantage of a good post.”

Blowout returned $7.50 to win, $3.60 to place, and $2.60 to show. Nova Sol brought back $3.10 to place and $2.30 to show, while Seek and Destroy paid $2.60 to show.