Two-time stakes winner Hello Beautiful is set to make her 3-year-old debut Monday at Laurel
Madaket Stables, Albert Frassetto, Mark Parkinson, K-Mac Stable and Magic City Stable’s Hello Beautiful, an impressive back-to-back stakes winner to conclude her juvenile campaign, is set to launch her highly anticipated 3-year-old season in Monday’s featured ninth race at Laurel Park.
Hello Beautiful, based at Laurel with trainer Brittany Russell, drew Post 6 in the open first-level allowance for fillies and mares 3 and up sprinting 5 ½ furlongs over the Dahlia turf course that attracted 16 entries, including four alternates.
Bred in Maryland by Ellen Charles of Hillwood Stables, Hello Beautiful was never worse than third in six starts at 2, three of them wins, capped by the Maryland Million Lassie and Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship in successive outings by 15 ½ combined lengths.
Her connections planned to take their time bringing her back as a 3-year-old, a situation that was extended when racing was put on pause in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Hello Beautiful has been working steadily for her return.
“Maybe it’s not the ideal spot, but it’s ok. We can get Hello Beautiful started in a turf race,” Russell said. “She has a good enough post position, so it is what it is at this point. It’s racing, so not everything is going to be perfect all the time, but she’s doing great so at least we’re walking over a happy filly.”
Hello Beautiful has raced well over Laurel’s turf course before, finishing second in a maiden special weight and optional claimer last summer, both at 5 ½ furlongs, the latter prior to her return to dirt in the Maryland Million.
“That’s kind of what I said to those guys. She can handle the turf,” Russell said. “Obviously the turf course is beautiful right now, so it’ll be a nice course for her to get over. It’s a nice spot to start back in. We have the a-other-than [condition]. We’re not looking for her best race on Monday, but I’m hoping that she runs big.”
Russell’s husband, jockey Sheldon Russell, has been aboard for all of Hello Beautiful’s races and will once again get the call. The swift daughter of Golden Lad has flashed her speed in each of the last four races and will have to contend with other early-running types such as More Or Less, Nine Martinis, Magical Luna and Flyingontheground.
“We popped her out of the gate last week, just to kind of get her mind back on business. We haven’t really known how to move forward, not really knowing what was happening with racing, and it’s tough,” Russell said. “I told Sheldon, ‘Don’t move. Just let her run out of there and let her stretch her legs,’ and it was really pretty. Visually, it was a beautiful work and at the three-eighths pole he said she was begging to do more.
“I think she’ll run good. From the post position, hopefully he can just sit off [the pace],” she added. “Obviously there’s going to be a lot of speed in there. It’s the same thing as always, it’s going to be up to them. If she breaks and she wants to just settle off something, she can do it. We’re just looking for a good building block.”
The other stakes winner in the field is Make Family First Stable’s Money Fromheaven, who captured the 2018 Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship but has been winless since. She ran just twice at 3 and has had three starts this year, finishing second in an open allowance last out March 6. She was third in her only previous turf start, an August 2018 maiden special weight at Laurel.
Russell said hopes remain high for Hello Beautiful as the ever-evolving racing landscape unfolds.
“With Hello Beautiful, the idea is to get some graded type on her and we just don’t know what our options really are quite yet,” she said. “Naturally, you’d like [her] to run off the screen and we can say, ‘Wow, where do we want to go next?’ but we’re all trying to stay level-headed and just hope for [a] good runs and let [her] come back good. Earlier this year I was saying it’s a long year, but now it seems like the year has gotten quite a bit shorter on us. It’s time to go. It’s time for everybody to step up.”
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