The wrap-up of Belmont Park’s summer meet has been enhanced in recent years by the rescheduling and renaming of what was once known as the Garden City Stakes as part of a turf-centric closing weekend at Big Sandy.

The Fasig-Tipton Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes joins the Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes as the first legs of NYRA’s Turf Triple Series, which was launched in 2019 with this pair and follows up with two races at Saratoga Race Course in late summer and then two more back at Belmont Park (or, this year, Belmont at the Big A) in the fall.

Since its makeover, the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks has tended to draw the best 3-year-old turf fillies in North America and some talented foreign shippers to compete for a hefty purse and accompanying prestige, and this year’s race certainly fits the bill.

1. Mission of Joy (2-1): This filly enters having won four of her previous five starts, including two Grade 3 stakes, and in her only miss she clipped heels, altered course twice in the stretch, and still finished only a length out of first behind a front-running winner in a Grade 2. Look for rider Tyler Gaffalione to save ground from the inside post and keep her in touch with the leaders before angling out for a stretch drive. A leading win candidate.

JOCKEY: Tyler Gaffalione; TRAINER: Graham Motion

2. Strikingly Spun (15-1): Exits a good runner-up finish in a 1 3/8-mile allowance-optional claiming race at Belmont a month ago in which she stalked the leader, forged ahead in the stretch, but yielded late to lose by a neck to a filly coming from off the pace. This is a tough spot to make her stakes debut, though, and several other contenders have the same running style but are faster.

JOCKEY: Jose Ortiz; TRAINER: Joe Sharp

3. Speirling Beag (8-1): Irish-bred filly makes her North American debut after winning two of seven starts in Europe along with two thirds. She won a Group 3 stakes in Ireland last fall going 1 1/8 miles in a game effort over turf rated as soft, fending off a persistent challenger in the stretch run. This filly gets a boost if Belmont’s turf gets some moisture Saturday, although the forecast calls for only a 30% chance of rain.

JOCKEY: John Velazquez; TRAINER: Graham Motion

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4. Papilio (4-1): Since shipping to the U.S. from her native Ireland, this filly has won one of four starts with two runner-up finishes and a fourth-place effort in which she lost by only a length. She was blocked in the stretch but recovered to finish a length and a half behind Mission of Joy in her latest outing five weeks ago and her speed figures match up well with this field.

JOCKEY: Javier Castellano; TRAINER: Mark Casse

5. Prerequisite (5-1): The first of two entrants from the barn of top turf trainer Chad Brown enters off of a pace-setting win in a Grade 2 stakes over this inner turf course last month, when she gamely held off a challenge by Be Your Best to win by a neck. Before that race, she broke her maiden on the inner turf and employed stalking tactics to do so. She’s a threat to go gate-to-wire again under Irad Ortiz Jr., but this is a tougher field and the added distance may not suit her.

JOCKEY: Irad Ortiz Jr.; TRAINER: Chad Brown

6. Be Your Best (10-1): Irish-bred filly raced several lengths off of the pace in the abovementioned effort vs. Prerequisite, and swung wide for a sustained stretch rally that came up just short. That was a nice improvement off of a seventh-place finish to start her sophomore campaign in which she was 5 ¾ lengths behind Papilio in a one-mile, Grade 2 stakes at Keeneland. She’s an outsider as a win candidate but is certainly capable of spicing up the exotic payouts with a second or third.

JOCKEY: Luis Saez; TRAINER: Horacio DePaz

Aspray (Eclipse Sportswire)

7. Aspray (6-1): Undefeated filly has shown an eye-catching turn of foot in all three of her wins, including her stakes debut last out on the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes undercard at Pimlico. This well-bred Chad Brown trainee will try a mile and a quarter for the first time and also will race without Lasix (furosemide) for the first time, but on the positive side red-hot jockey Flavien Prat retains the mount. Should be closing like a rocket late.

JOCKEY: Flavien Prat; TRAINER: Chad Brown

8. Freydis the Red (15-1): Intriguing longshot (bred in France by a Japanese sire out of a German dam) has improved in her two races at 3, especially in her last when she broke her maiden in career start number six by weaving through the stretch at Churchill Downs and winning a 1 1/8-mile race going away. Her speed figures need to improve by 10-15 points in order to have any chance at winning this Grade 1.

JOCKEY: Junior Alvarado; TRAINER: Ken McPeek

9. Aspen Grove (8-1): Irish-bred filly by 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify travels stateside to test easier company after finishing last of 10 in the Irish One Thousand Guineas. She finished third in a Group 3 race prior to that and her only victory came last August. She may be overbet due to the “Euro shipper” appeal and has yet to race beyond a mile.

JOCKEY: Oisin Murphy; TRAINER: James Stack

THE PICK: Mission of Joy

LIVE LONGSHOT: Be Your Best

SUPERFECTA: 1-7-3-4