TurfPublicists: SANDS POINT ADVANCE; for Monday, May 31, 2010

Friday, May 28, 2010

Contact: Jenny Kellner

(718) 659-2351

NEGLIGEE FACES SEVEN IN SANDS POINT

ELMONT, N.Y. – Grade 1 winner Negligee makes her second start on the turf Monday afternoon at Belmont Park as she faces seven other 3-year-old fillies in the 14^th running of the Grade 2, $150,000 Sands Point.

Owned by Sovereign Stable, the daughter of Northern Afleet was a closing second in her turf debut on April 29 in an overnight stakes at Churchill Downs. That race was her second start of the year; beaten less than two lengths in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, she came off a five-month layoff to run seventh in the Grade 1 Ashland after going wide, both over artificial surfaces.

“She’s doing really well,” said trainer John Terranova of Negligee, the 3-1 favorite in the Sands Point. “We’re looking forward to running her on Monday. She’s handled the turf with no problem. She was a little rank early on in her race [at Churchill Downs] but came running at the end. We are getting her back into top form.”

Negligee, with John Velazquez up, drew the outside post position 8 and will carry 117 pounds.

Highweight in the Sands Point is Brereton C. Jones’ Check the Label, who will carry 121 pounds including New York’s leading rider, Ramon Dominguez, as she breaks from post position 4.

Trained by Graham Motion, the Stormin Fever homebred has not been off the board since breaking her maiden last July, and comes into the Sands Point off a hard-fought victory in the Grade 3 Appalachian at Keeneland. Although she has run at six different tracks, the Sands Point will mark her Belmont debut.

Returning to turf is Chester and Mary Broman’s Khancord Kid, who won two of her three starts in Florida over the winter, including the Grade 3 Herecomesthebride, but who finished fifth after setting the pace in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan on Pimlico’s main track on May 14. Trainer John Kimmel will give Rajiv Maragh a leg up on the Lemon Drop Kid filly, who breaks from post position 5.

Coming off allowance wins and making their stakes debuts in the Sands Point are recent Crescenda, Ultimate Class, Hit It Rich and Strike It Rich, while rounding out the field is More Is Better, two-length winner of a maiden race on the turf at Belmont on May 2.

The field for the Grade 2 Sands Point:

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	Odds
1	Ultimate Class (KY)	J Castellano	117	G Weaver	15-1
2	More Is Better (FL)	C H Velasquez	117	B Tagg	12-1
3	Hit It Rich (KY)	K J Desormeaux	117	C R McGaughey III	4-1
4	Check the Label (KY)	R A Dominguez	121	H G Motion	7-2
5	Khancord Kid (NY)	R Maragh	120	J C Kimmel	8-1
6	Strike It Rich (KY)	C Hill	117	C Clement	5-1
7	Crescenda (FL)	E Coa	117	M K McDonald	6-1
8	Negligee (KY)	J R Velazquez	117	J P Terranova, II	3-1

-30-