Rougir ready to rock New York
At 13h33, on June 7, 2022 • By BELMONT PARK
After making the competition blush in her seasonal debut, Rougir returns in Friday’s featured Grade 1, $750,000 New York, a 10-furlong inner turf test for older fillies and mares at Belmont Park.
Four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown will saddle four entrants – all owned fully or in part by Peter Brant – in Rougir, Flighty Lady, Bleecker Street and Virginia Joy – as the conditioner searches for a record-tying fourth New York win following past success with Dacita [2016], Fourstar Crook [2018] and the Brant-owned Homerique [2019].
A winner of last year’s Group 1 Prix de l’Opera on Arc Day at Longchamp, Rougir went on to finish seventh in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Del Mar for then-trainer Cedric Rossi before selling for nearly $3.4 million at Arqana’s December Breeding Stock Sale to Brant and Michael Tabor.
A winner from seven to 10 furlongs, the daughter of Territories was Group 1-placed as a 2-year-old before finishing a close fifth in the Group 1 Prix de Diane [French Oaks] and losing the Group 1 Prix Rothschild by a neck before her top-level triumph.
Sent to Brown over the winter, she took a while to come around, but impressed connections. She will be ridden once again by Flavien Prat from post 2.
