Be Your Best primed for big effort in G2 Sands Point
At 11h22, on October 13, 2023 • By BELMONT@THE BIG A
Michael J. Ryan’s Grade 1-placed Irish homebred Be Your Best will look to return to winning form in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Sands Point, a nine-furlong inner turf route for sophomore fillies, at Belmont at the Big A.
Trained by Horacio De Paz, the Muhaarar bay returns to New York following a runner-up effort on August 19 in the nine-furlong Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks. Although cross-entered in Saturday’s Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland, De Paz said Be Your Best will race at Aqueduct.
Be Your Best has made four starts this year, all in graded company, including a close runner-up effort in June at Belmont Park in the Grade 2 Wonder Again won by a neck by Prerequisite, who is entered in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup. That effort was followed by a disappointing ninth-place finish less than one month later in the 10-furlong Grade 1 Fasig-Tipton Belmont Oaks Invitational.
“She ran a winning race that day, so it was good to see that effort,” De Paz said of the Wonder Again try. “We just came back too quick in the Belmont Oaks. She regressed and that told us she just needs more time between races, which showed when we went out to California.”
With more rain in the forecast this weekend, De Paz said his filly shouldn’t mind a little cut in the ground.
“She ran at Saratoga on good turf and she handled that,” De Paz said. “I think she’ll be OK.”
Manny Franco, aboard for the Wonder Again effort, has the call from post 4.
