Fire victim Belvoir Bay gets third stakes win of year

The five-year-old mare Belvoir Bay, who suffered injuries when the Lilac fire tore through a portion of the San Luis Rey Training Center in Bonsall in December, is undefeated in three starts this year and all of the victories have come in stakes races.

Belvoir Bay notched her most recent victory – and the richest of her career – in the $200,000 Monrovia Stakes at Santa Anita on Memorial Day, May 28, when she decisively defeated eight rivals.

The win in the Grade 2 Monrovia was preceded by triumphs in the $81,725 Mizdirection Stakes, March 25 and the $100,345 San Simeon Stakes, April 29. All three races were run at the distance of "about 6 1/2 furlongs" on Santa Anita's unique hillside turf course.

"She just came back better than ever," trainer Peter Miller said of Belvoir Bay, who sustained burns, cuts and contusions in the Lilac fire and spent nearly three weeks at an equine clinic in Bonsall. "She's just something else."

Belvoir Bay resumed training in February at Del Mar – the seaside racetrack took in the majority of the San Luis Rey-based horses displaced by the fire – and had eight official workouts before making her first post-fire start in the Mizdirection Stakes.

Belvoir Bay sat just off the early pace in the Mizdirection, charged through an opening along the rail entering the stretch, opened up a 1 1/2-length lead in the midstretch and ended up winning by a head under jockey Tyler Baze.

"She opened up (a lead in the stretch) and then just kind of hung on," Miller. "She was getting a little tired late (in the race)."

Miller entered Belvoir Bay against male runners in the San Simeon Stakes, and she dueled for the lead from the start before pulling away for a two-length victory under Baze.

"Her race in the San Simeon, when she beat the boys, was super," Miller said.

Baze, due to injury, was unable to ride Belvoir Bay in the Monrovia, so Miller enlisted the services of jockey Victor Espinoza, who is best known for winning the 2015 Triple Crown with American Pharoah. Espinoza placed Belvoir Bay in third, stalking the leaders, before asking her to split the frontrunners when an opening developed as the horses crossed over the dirt track while going from the hillside portion of the turf course to the stretch.

"I was tracking the leaders and was right in behind those horses, and I couldn't move out or in, so I just had to wait for a little gap between them," Espinoza said. "If I have a lot of horse it's easy to go through a hole that small."

Belvoir Bay charged between Algorhythmic and Mongolian Shopper and quickly took the lead. She crossed the wire 1 1/2 lengths clear of late-running Ancient Secret while clocking a time of 1:12.80.

"I didn't think she'd win that easy," Espinoza said.

"Her last race was probably her best yet," Miller said of Belvoir Bay's win in the Monrovia. "She got a great ride and ran a super race."

Belvoir Bay, bred in Great Britain and owned by Gary Barber and the Team Valor International partnership, earned $120,000 for the Monrovia win and has banked $228,000 in her three outings this year. Overall, the diminutive bay has banked $558,361 in 20 career starts while recording nine wins – seven in stakes – three seconds and two thirds.

"She's a little (mare) that just has a huge heart and a lot of talent," Miller said. "She's got a lot of attributes – her speed, her turn of foot – but I think her biggest attribute is her desire, her heart. She loves to run and really wants to win. She enjoys her job and is a really easy horse to train. She's a barn favorite."

Exercise rider Amber Chapman puts Belvoir Bay through her morning training at San Luis Rey and echoed Miller's comments.

"She's a tiny horse, but she's got a heart as big as she is," Chapman said. "She's very classy."

Horses are walked in the barn the days immediately following a race, and Chapman said Belvoir Bay quickly gets bored with that routine.

"She loves going to the track," Chapman said. "After a race she walks for a few days, and she's mad she has to stay in the barn. She loves training. I love her. She's definitely my favorite, favorite filly in the barn."

Miller said Belvoir Bay may be heading to Canada for her next race as she is being considered for the Grade 1 $250,000 Highlander Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto. Belvoir Bay would face male runners in the Highlander, a six-furlong turf race that is part of the Breeders' Cup "Win and You're In" program, which offers a fees-paid entry in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs, Nov. 3.