Brown Sends Out Duo in Bid for Another Sands Point Win

As the calendar winds down on 3-year-old racing in 2026, 10 fillies will get a chance for graded stakes honors in restricted company when they square off in the $200,000 Sands Point Stakes (G3T) Oct. 23 at Belmont Park. For trainer Chad Brown, the 1 1/8-mile turf stakes for 3-year-old fillies has provided some valuable insight as to the distance capabilities of his distaff runners heading into the following year. Since 2017, Brown has won the Sands Point five times, including that 2017 edition with Uni (GB), who won the 2019 Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) and was voted that year's champion turf female. Brown will take aim at a seventh Sands Point win Friday with the duo of Klaravich Stables' Crossover Capital (FR) and Lawrence Goichman's New York-bred Silly Season. Crossover Capital, a daughter of Zarak (FR), should thrive at the 1 1/8-mile distance of the Sands Point. After posting allowance and maiden turf wins at 1 1/16 miles, she rallied wide from 10th and finished third in the Oct. 1 Winter Memories Stakes (G3T) at a mile. Silly Season will be making her stakes debut and first try in open company in her sixth career start after the daughter of Constitution won an Oct. 4 state-bred allowance race in her most recent start. "Crossover Capital should definitely like the distance," Brown said. "Silly Season also fits with the distance, but she will need to step up in this company." Robert Evans' Bless Her will also be hunting for her initial stakes win. The Twirling Candy filly was a distant second in the Sept. 9 Dueling Grounds Oaks Invitational Stakes (G3T) at Kentucky Downs in her last start and was fourth in the Saratoga Oaks (G2T) before that. Both of those races were at distances longer than the 1 1/8 miles of the Sands Point. "I thought she ran really well last time and that effort makes her competitive here. After that race, I actually hadn't planned on running her here. I was going to wait until the end of November, but that's a long time and she's just doing so well," trainer Graham Motion said. "My thing with Bless Her is she just needs distance. I don't want to run shorter than 1 1/8 miles. I think next year, 1 1/4 miles and farther will really help her." Trainer Phil Antonacci and owner Lindy Farms will try to rack up back-to-back Sands Point wins with Queen of Hawaii (IRE) after taking the 2025 edition with Ready for Candy. A group 3 winner in Ireland at 2, the daughter of Kingman (GB) made her United States debut when seventh in last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T). She was fifth most recently in the Winter Memories. Some international flavor will be provided by Stonestreet Stables' Vauntingly (IRE), who will be making her first U.S. start. A Night of Thunder (IRE) filly trained by Joseph O'Brien, she will be cutting back in distance in the Sands Point after racing 1 1/2 miles in her last two starts in minor European stakes. Her lone win in six starts came in a 1 3/8-mile race. The Sands Point attracted 13 entrants, with three landing on the also-eligible list, including That's How We Love from Antonacci and Lindy Farms. That Justify filly is cross-entered in Friday's Valley View Stakes (G2T) at Keeneland where she is in the main body of the field.