Champagne looks like replay of Hopeful

If today’s ninth race at Belmont Park looks familiar, it should.

Four and a half weeks after they hooked up in the Grade I Hopeful at Saratoga Race Course, the top four finishers go at it again in the $200,000 Champagne.

Vineyard Haven, Cribnote, Munnings and Break Water Edison comprise nearly half the field of 10 drawn for the one-mile Grade I race. The winner earns automatic entry to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Oct. 25 at Santa Anita.

Trained by Hall of Famer Bobby Frankel, who purchased the horse privately this summer and sold a share to Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre, Vineyard

Haven went gate to wire to upset the Hopeful at odds of 9-1.

Cribnote will wear blinkers for the first time after an eventful trip in the Hopeful. He broke from post eight, but was in contention before inexplicably bearing out badly past the quarter pole, yet still managed to finish second.

Kiaran McLaughlin, who captured his first Saratoga training title this summer, nominated

Girolamo and Charitable Man for the Champagne. Charitable Man won the Grade II Futurity in the mud at Belmont Sept. 13 and will train up to the BC Juvenile, while Girolamo looks to bounce back from a dull fourth in the Futurity.

“He is a big, strong developing colt that wants to run all day,” McLaughlin said this week on a national teleconference. “That is a plus, and that’s why we thought to run him back a mile in three weeks. He needs racing.

“He’s like a young teenage kid that is learning and growing. He is very talented and a beautiful mover with a great disposition. We think he’ll run much better [today] with a good trip.”

Even though a win would guarantee a spot in the starting gate at the Breeders’ Cup, McLaughlin isn’t sure that he’d wheel Girolamo back again in another three weeks.

“Not necessarily, because this is his third race in six weeks, and we’d be going cross-country to a foreign track,” he said. “It would be up to Sheikh Mohammed and his people whether we went, but at this time, I would say it’s doubtful. He may just stay here and wait for the Remsen or go to Dubai. We’ll see what they would like to do.”

The Grade II $200,000 Remsen will be run Nov. 29 at Aqueduct.

Also on tap at Belmont today are the Grade I $400,000 Frizette for 2-year-old fillies, and the Grade II $250,000 Jamaica Breeders’ Cup for 3-year-olds going 11⁄8 miles on the grass.

Trainer Tom Albertrani will send out both Gemswick Park and Royal Ballade in the Frizette off gate-to-wire open-length maiden wins Sept. 14 at Belmont. Grade II runner-up Persistently and Collegiate are also among the field of 10.

Graded winners Gio Ponti and Court Vision hook up again in the Jamaica. Gio Ponti beat Court

Vision by a nose in the Grade II Virginia Derby in mid-July.

ONE WIN AWAY

Pepper’s Pride goes after her 17th straight victory in a six-furlong allowance today at Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M.

Trained by Joel Marr for owner Joe Allen, Peppers Pride has won all 16 of her starts, sharing the record for consecutive wins with Triple Crown winner Citation, two-time Horse of the Year Cigar, Santa

Anita Derby winner Mister Frisky and sprinter Hallowed Dreams.

The 5-year-old Peppers Pride hasn’t raced since winning the Foutz Distaff Handicap at SunRay Park April 26.

CALLING IT QUITS

Evening Attire was retired from racing on Tuesday after a minor ankle injury was discovered in the hard-hitting, 10-year-old Grade I-winning gelding.

Trained by Pat Kelly and bred by Kelly’s father, retired Hall of Fame trainer T.J. Kelly, Evening Attire hit the board in 40 of 69

career starts. He won 15 races, nine of them graded stakes, including the 2002 Jockey Club Gold Cup, and banked $2,977,130.

Pat Kelly was the third of T.J. Kelly’s sons to train Evening Attire, following brothers Larry and Tim. Having turned from gray to nearly white with age, Evening Attire went out a winner; he captured the Greenwood Cup at Philadelphia Park in track record time on

July 19, automatically qualifying him for the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Marathon.

Evening Attire was scratched out of the Point Given Stakes at Monmouth Park last weekend after the injury was discovered. Where he will spend his retirement has not been decided.

RETURN TRIP?

With Frankel back in California, Mechanicville native Chad Brown got the thrill of a lifetime last fall when he saddled Ginger Punch for her victory in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Monmouth Park.

Frankel’s former assistant who went out on his own 11 months ago, Brown may be headed back to the Breeders’ Cup with Maram, a

2-year-old filly he trains for owner Karen Woods.

Maram earned automatic entry to the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf on Oct. 24 for her neck victory in Wednesday’s Grade III $164,200 Miss Grillo at Belmont, which was rescheduled from Sunday due to inclement weather.

A daughter of Sahm, Maram made her debut with a maiden claiming victory at Saratoga on Aug. 25.

“I ran her in the maiden claiming race at Saratoga because she’s got a marginal pedigree, and I thought I could get away with it,” Brown said. “She could have won a maiden special, but I was going to try to take an edge wherever I could at Saratoga.

“She’s done something that you like to see, in that she has grown and developed a lot since I got her in May. I’ll speak with the owner and if everything is good, we’ll look to the Breeders’ Cup. I don’t know about the Europeans, but she seems as good as anything here.”

MIXED EMOTIONS

As the trainer of Cigar, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott watched with great interest when Curlin broke Cigar’s career earnings

record by winning the Jockey Club Gold Cup Sept. 27.

Cigar had earned $9,999,815 in 33 lifetime starts when he was retired in 1996.

“There was a little gouge in my stomach maybe, just as he was crossing the finish line, but it didn’t last long,” Mott said. “It is the reality of the business and sports. If we think we can hold one of these records forever, we are kidding ourselves. There is no long-lasting sadness.

“It was only a matter of time before that was going to happen. I was just pleased to sit and watch a good horse run. It was good to see Curlin out on the racetrack rather than in the breeding shed. He is a good horse, and he probably deserves to have the money record. Cigar was able to hold it for 12 years. I am just happy to have been a part of it. I guess their names will be up there for a good while.”

WEEKEND STAKES

Keeneland serves up four graded stakes on the first Saturday of its

17-day fall meet: the Grade I $600,000 Shadwell Turf Mile, the Grade I $500,000 Lane’s End Breeders’ Futurity, the Grade III $300,000 Thoroughbred Club of America and the Grade III $100,000 Phoenix Breeders’ Cup.

A dozen older horses were entered for the Turf Mile, led by 8-year-old Shakis, back-to-back winner of the Bernard Baruch at Saratoga, while Canadian Grade I winner Rahy’s Attorney will run for the first time outside his native country. In the Futurity, Reynaldothewizard will attempt to rebound from a troubled trip in the Grade II Saratoga Special in August.

Both the TCA for females and the Phoenix for males put the spotlight on sprinters. Indyanne, who suffered her first career defeat in the Grade III Victory Ride at Saratoga Aug. 23, faces defending champ Wild Gams in the TCA, while the Phoenix — the oldest stakes race in America, being run for the 156th time — features Grade III winner Disfunction and Greeley’s Conquest, runner-up in the Grade I Forego at Saratoga last month.

Third in the $1 million Travers Aug. 23, Pyro will break on the far outside as the 7-2 program favorite in today’s Grade II $500,000 Indiana Derby for 3-year-olds at Hoosier Park. He is the lone graded-stakes winner in the field of 12, which also includes Big Apple Triple winner Tin Cup Chalice.

Laurel Park hosts the 23rd annual Maryland Million for state-breds and their offspring today. The 12-race card with nine six-figure stakes worth $1.68 million is led by the $300,000 Classic, which drew a field of five including defending champ Evil Storm. A winner of three of four starts in 2008, Five Steps is the 7-5 program favorite.

A pair of Canadian Grade I turf races are set for today at Woodbine: the $2 million Pattison Canadian

International, and the $1 million E.P. Taylor. Canada’s reigning Horse of the Year, Sealy Hill makes her final start at her hometown track in the E.P. Taylor, going up against trainer Jim Bond’s multiple graded winner Hostess.

California-breds take the stage at Santa Anita on Sunday, with 10 stakes worth $1.225 million led by the $250,000 California Cup Classic at 11⁄8 miles. Grade I winner

Romance Is Diana is among the eight horses entered.

Little Belle faces 10 older rivals in Sunday’s Grade I $500,000 Spinster at Keeneland, which shares top billing with the Grade III $200,000 Woodford Reserve Bourbon for

juvenile turfers. Little Belle won the Grade I Ashland at Keeneland in April. Bittel Road, winner of the With Anticipation at Saratoga

Aug. 29, tops the Bourbon field.

A strong field is expected for the 139th Grade II $150,000 Jerome Handicap for 3-year-olds at a mile Sunday at Belmont, including Cool Coal Man, Harlem Rocker, Visionaire, Tale of Ekati and You and I Forever.