Lady Eli Looking to Earn Trip to Breeders' Cup in Belmont Oaks

The undefeated Lady Eli is seeking to earn a ticket to the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (Grade 1) when she takes on 13 foes in the $1 million Belmont Oaks Invitational (Grade 1) on Saturday at Belmont Park.

The Belmont Oaks is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge "Win and You’re In” race with the winner earning an automatic and all-expenses-paid trip to the Filly & Mare Turf at Keeneland on Oct. 30.

The race along with the $500,000 Suburban (Grade 2) will be televised live on NBC at 5:00 p.m. ET, the third of 10 telecasts featuring Breeders’ Cup Challenge races. The Breeders’ Cup will be held for the first time at Keeneland on Oct. 30-31.

The Chad Brown-trained Lady Eli is undefeated in five career starts including winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (Grade 1) last fall at Santa Anita. The filly has won twice over the Belmont Park turf, winning the Ms. Grillo (Grade 3) last September and taking the Wonder Again in her most recent outing on May 31.

Garry Jones/Associated Press

Brown will be busy in the paddock for the Oaks, also saddling American Oaks (Grade 1) third-place finisher Consumer Credit and Penn Oaks winner Strict Compliance.

Brown won the inaugural running of the Oaks last year with Minorette and is confident he can repeat this year with Lady Eli.

"She's given us every indication in the morning that she's going to continue to run her 'A' race, but as she goes on the races are always going to get harder,” Brown said via breederscup.com. “I'd anticipate this being the most difficult race she's been in, but she seems like she's up for it. She continues to improve."

The Suburban features the handicap division, horses that likely will face off against Triple Crown winner American Pharoah this fall in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic (Grade 1).

The headliner in the Suburban is Tonalist, the 3-5 morning-line favorite. The Christophe Clement trainee won the Belmont Stakes (Grade 1) last year and has won four of his five starts over the Belmont Park main track.

His first loss over the surface was in his last start, where he ran second to Honor Code in the Met Mile (Grade 1).

Here is a look at predictions for the top three finishers in the Belmont Oaks:

Win:  Lady Eli is one of three in here sent out by trainer Chad Brown, and the undefeated filly looks very capable of keeping her winning streak alive. She was perfect in three starts last year, capping it off by winning the Breeders’ Cup Fillies Turf.

In her last start in the Wonder Again, she was bottled up behind foes in the stretch, and when clear, she rolled to the lead under very little encouragement from jockey Irad Ortiz to win by a half-length; the margin could have been much bigger. She makes her third start of the year, and she will move forward off her last win.

Place: Spanish Queen ships in from the west coast for the Richard Baltas barn. The filly has won three of her four starts with a second, last out taking the American Oaks at Santa Anita at today's 1 1/4-mile distance.

Her lone loss was in her stakes debut in the Providencia (Grade 3) back in April, where she finished gamely to miss by just a neck. The filly owns the top last out Beyer Speed Figure and is a logical threat to land in the exacta.

Show: Consumer Credit made a good late rally to finish third in the American Oaks, beaten 1 1/2 lengths for the top spot. She shipped west for the Brown barn off wins in four of her first seven starts including three stakes wins.

She has been sent off at 3-1 or less in seven of her eight starts and the 12-1 morning line looks generous in this spot.

Morning-line odds via Equibase.

Follow Michael Dempsey on Twitter @turfnsport.