Godolphin weighs Music Note's options

SARATOGA SPRINGS — All systems are go for Music Note and Little Belle to make their next start at Saratoga Race Course.

The only remaining question is where they’ll run. While Little Belle is confirmed for the Grade I Alabama on Saturday, Music Note — who would be the overwhelming Alabama favorite — still hasn’t been ruled out of taking on males in the $1 million Travers a week later.

Rick Mettee, North American manager for owner Godolphin Racing, spoke with trainer Saeed bin Suroor after both 3-year-old fillies worked Sunday morning.

“We’re proceeding as if both fillies are running in the Alabama,” Mettee said. “He told me just to train both of them like they’re going in the Alabama, [but] I think they want to think about things.”

Both fillies worked at the former Greentree estate, a private 108-acre property behind the main track that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum bought from Bob and Janice McNair in 2007.

After the purchase, the one-mile dirt track was converted to the synthetic Polytrack surface. Mettee said Music Note, a multiple Grade I winner of her last four starts by nearly 29 combined lengths, breezed five furlongs in 1:022⁄5.

Nominated to the Travers, Music Note would be the first filly to run since champion Davona Dale was fourth in 1979. Seven fillies have won it, but not since Lady Rotha in 1915.

“I think the guys over there certainly want to think about it, and see what happens over the next week,” Mettee said. “They’re expecting 12 for the Travers. Even if you’re not looking at Big Brown, [it’s] a

12-horse field against males going a mile and a quarter, and maybe with slop thrown in to boot.”

A less-than-stellar 3-year-old crop outside of Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Haskell winner Big Brown could also factor into the thinking.

“Last year, when you had Street Sense, Hard Spun, Any Given Saturday; those were proven mile-and-a-quarter horses, and you knew it was going to be a tough race,” Mettee said. “This year, if you were going to try it, you’ve got colts that don’t appear to be as fast on paper as those horses were. On the other hand, if you get a 12-horse field thrown in there, it’s not going to be easy.”

Little Belle is also a Grade I winner, taking the Ashland over Keeneland’s Polytrack in April. She was second in the Kentucky Oaks to Alabama-bound filly Proud Spell, and the Coaching Club American Oaks to Music Note, who won by 11 lengths. Mettee clocked Little Belle in 1:004⁄5.

“She tends not to be as good a work filly as Music Note, but she went real well on the poly,” he said. “That was probably the best piece of work she’s done since she came over to Godolphin.”

DANCING ALONG

Recent stakes winner Mambo in Seattle remains on track for the Travers. Trained by Neil Howard, Mambo in Seattle breezed six furlongs in 1:13.03 Sunday on the main track, the fastest of six horses at the distance. Jockey Robby Albarado was up for the work.

“Robby and I talked about it,” Howard said. “We just wanted a nice work, nothing earth-shattering, but smart. He did it real nice, and he finished up in 11 and change for the last eighth. You wouldn’t have asked for him to go much better than he did.”

A 3-year-old Kingmambo colt, Mambo in Seattle is 3-for-5 this year, with one second. He will take a three-race winning streak into the Travers, to be run for the 139th time on Aug. 23.

“Whenever you’re talking a race of that magnitude, you never take it lightly,” Howard said. “That’s what we’re pointing to right now. If he keeps going the way he is right now, that’s the plan.”

Mambo in Seattle tuned up for the Travers with a win at Saratoga in the $91,000 Henry Walton, run at 11⁄8 miles on July 27 on the undercard of the Jim Dandy, Saratoga’s traditional hometown Travers prep.

“He’s fit, and he’s just come off a good race,” Howard said. “He’s a very straightforward horse. He usually goes right about his business.”

Howard used a similar pattern to bring Grasshopper into the Travers last year, where he nearly upset Derby winner Street Sense, finishing second.

HOSTESS STAYS HERE

Trainer Jim Bond has no reservations about racing his 5-year-old mare, Hostess, against males.

She’s the only female horse among the 14 invited to the Grade I $500,000 Sword Dancer next Saturday, and as long as the turf course comes up firm, Bond has every intention of giving her a crack at it.

Hostess won the Grade III

Orchid Handicap at Gulfstream Park, but hasn’t won anything else in over a year, so she’ll benefit from some weight allowance according to the race conditions.

Bond didn’t want to run Hostess, a daughter of Chester House who has been beaten by Mauralakana in her last two starts, in the Grade I Beverly D. at Arlington Park on Saturday because it was a mile and a sixteenth; she’s better suited to a mile and a half, but those races are difficult to find on the schedule.

Mauralakana made the Beverly D. her third straight stakes victory.

AROUND THE TRACK

u Trainer Chad Brown, a

Mechanicville native, picked up his third win of the meet in the ninth race with 2-5 favorite Spanky

Fischbein ($2.90). Brown, 29, also has one second in eight starts.

u Jockey Robby Albarado was replaced on Foreverness in the West Point Handicap after being thrown when Tasha’s Star reared in the starting gate of the previous race. Tasha’s Star was scratched, but Albarado returned to ride his final two mounts.

u Today's feature race is the fourth, the $80,000 Troy, a

51⁄2-furlong grass sprint. Hellvelyn, a Group 2 stakes winner in England making her North American debut for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, is the 5-2 program favorite, if the race stays on turf. Winner of the John Morrissey here on July 31, Ferocious Fires was entered for the main track only.