Mr Speaker takes Belmont Park feature

NEW YORK (AP) Mr Speaker raced to his first victory in over a year, beating Chamois by 2 1/2 lengths Wednesday in the $102,000 allowance feature on the turf at Belmont Park.

The 4-year-old trained by Shug McGaughey and ridden by Javier Castellano sat second to the pacesetting Chamois before rolling past that rival in deep stretch. The time was 1:42.74 for 1 1/16 miles over the course rated good.

It was the first victory for Mr Speaker since the $1.25 million Belmont Derby Invitational last July. He had run four times since, including a fifth-place finish last August in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga.

Mr Speaker paid $6.40, $3.50 and $3 as the 2-1 favorite.

Stablemates Chamois and Blacktype from the Christophe Clement barn finished 2-3.

Chamois returned $3.60 and $3.10 as the 5-2 second choice. Third in the betting at 4-1, Blacktype paid $3.20 to show.