No Show Sammy Jo targets breakthrough in Sheepshead Bay Stakes

No Show Sammy Jo gets a chance to turn repeated close calls into a graded win in Friday’s $175,000 Sheepshead Bay Stakes at Belmont at the Big A, where the 6-year-old British-bred mare will try the 1 3/8-mile turf trip that has repeatedly brought out her best. With Jorge Ruiz aboard at 122 pounds, Graham Motion is using the Grade 3 as the cleanest spot for his mare to finally cash in on a season that has already produced a solid stakes placing but no win.

The numbers tell the story. No Show Sammy Jo has earned $533,825 from 15 starts, with six wins and four seconds, and she already has $30,600 from two 2026 starts. She was off the board in January in the Grade 3 Christophe Clement, then came back with a half-length second in The Very One at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 28, where she rallied from sixth of eight and was beaten late by Just Basking in 2:11.31. For Newstead Stables LLC, the mare purchased for $214,611 from Book 1 of the 2021 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, the timing of this race matters: she is no longer being asked to prove she belongs, only to convert her consistency into a win.

That is why the Sheepshead Bay looks like more than a routine stop. NYRA says No Show Sammy Jo has finished second four times at Friday’s distance, including in the Grade 3 Long Island in each of the past two years, and her record suggests stamina is not the issue. She is by Lope de Vega out of Shomaria by Exceed And Excel, a pedigree that fits a long turf race, and Motion has already used her effectively in stakes company, including victories in the 2024 All Along at Laurel Park and the 2025 Via Borghese at Gulfstream Park. The pattern points to a mare who often runs well at a mile and three-eighths but has yet to put all the pieces together in 2026.

Friday’s field also brings a workable class test, with Lady Firefoot, Storm Miami (IRE), Unreasonable (IRE), Dona Clota (CHI), Kiamba (IRE), and main-track-only entrant Bernietakescharge (NY) entered. The race can move to the main track and may be downgraded if taken off the turf, but the turf version is the target, with the rail listed at 18 feet. Bellezza (IRE) set the recent standard by winning the 2025 renewal in 2:18.29 and paying $22.40, a reminder that this race rewards the mare who can sustain her run through the final furlong.

A Sheepshead Bay victory would do more than end the drought. It would confirm that No Show Sammy Jo’s best route is still the staying turf stakes and give Motion a springboard to better older-filly-and-mare spots later in the season.