cait
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Post by cait on Jun 3, 2013 21:35:53 GMT -5
YES!!!
J - hope the odds go upward! can you say Sarava? lol
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Jun 4, 2013 0:51:05 GMT -5
For the Longshot Lover. Those latest works were good. McPeek Plans to Start Frac Daddy in Belmont Trainer Ken McPeek confirmed June 3 that Magic City Thoroughbred Partners' Frac Daddy will run in the June 8 Belmont Stakes (gr. I) at Belmont Park. McPeek said the Scat Daddy colt, who finished 16th in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) will fly to New York from Kentucky June 4 and be ridden in the third leg of the Triple Crown by jockey Alan Garcia. "Talking to Carter Stewart, the principal partner for Magic City, he's game, you know?" McPeek said. "We still believe this is a really, really good horse, but for whatever reason it hasn't happened for him. Sometimes you throw deep and it goes incomplete, but you can't score if you don't throw. (Stewart) is the ideal client to throw deep and we won the Travers (gr. I) for him last year (with dead-heat winner Golden Ticket)." Frac Daddy, who descends from the same female family as 1997 Delaware Handicap (gr. III) winner Power Play, has one win in seven career starts. He broke his maiden in his second start in November at Churchill Downs, and then finished second in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (gr. II). He finished second in this year's Arkansas Derby (gr. I). "I do believe the horse will run well," McPeek said of the plan to go in the Belmont. "I think the pace in the Belmont will suit him well, too. He drew outside in the Derby and couldn't get position, and I don't think he handled the slop. He's worked on a dry track a couple times recently and worked freaky good. I think he's got a big shot at it." In other Belmont news:• Trainer Todd Pletcher reported the morning of June 3 that all five of his Belmont Stakes hopefuls were "A-OK" following their breezes June 2. Pletcher will saddle WinStar Farm's Revolutionary, Dogwood Stable's Palace Malice, and Mike Repole's Overanalyze, Midnight Taboo, and Unlimited Budget in the 1 1/2-mile race. • Incognito, fifth in the Peter Pan Stakes (gr. II), also emerged from his Sunday workout in good shape, according to Art Magnuson, assistant to trainer Kiaran McLaughlin. • Trainer Dominick Schettino said he and owners Anthony and MaryEllen Bonomo will make a final decision on Always in a Tiz's status for the Belmont by the afternoon of June 4. Schettino and the Bonomos will choose either the Belmont Stakes or the $150,000 Easy Goer Stakes on the Belmont undercard. • As many as 15 horses could end up contesting the 2013 Belmont Stakes. • Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey said Kentucky Derby winner Orb was maintaining good form the morning after the colt breezed four furlongs, his final major work prior to the Belmont. "He came out of his work good, ate up good, walked this morning, seems to be fine," said McGaughey, who trains the son of Malibu Moon for Stuart S. Janney III and Phipps Stable. • D. Wayne Lukas' Belmont Stakes contenders Oxbow and Will Take Charge remain scheduled to arrive at Belmont Park via van Monday evening. • Monday morning rain prompted trainer Rudy Rodriguez to push back Vyjack's scheduled breeze to June 4. Instead, the gelding galloped 1 1/2 miles over the Belmont main track with Rodriguez aboard. "He jogged a bit and galloped the wrong way," said Rodriguez. "He was acting up a little bit and I didn't want him fighting me, so I opened him up a little bit. He seems good." Read more on BloodHorse.com: www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/78652/mcpeek-plans-to-start-frac-daddy-in-belmont#ixzz2VDwQiMQA
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Post by Evelyn on Jun 4, 2013 21:00:28 GMT -5
Hi Everyone! I've been out of town for work. I'm glad Frac D is entered but IF it rains, which is highly possible as per predictions,this is a different race. He didn't seem to like the mud at Churchill - sorry C. Oxbow might be able to swipe another LOL
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cait
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Post by cait on Jun 5, 2013 7:48:57 GMT -5
any shot? well, guess they all have a shot lol
Giant Finish tries to give owner what Big Brown could not deliver By David Grening ELMONT, N.Y. – After experiencing a giant failure in the Belmont Stakes five years ago, owner Andy Cohen is hoping for a Giant Finish to this year’s Triple Crown.
In 2008, Cohen was a minority owner of Big Brown, who after decisive victories in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, was the 1-5 favorite to win the Belmont and become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978.
It wasn’t meant to be. After an awkward start and some bumping into the first turn, Big Brown was never in the race, eventually being eased by jockey Kent Desormeaux approaching the quarter pole while longshot Da’ Tara recorded a 38-1 upset.
“We were pretty confident going in,” said Cohen, who was part owner of Big Brown with IEAH Stables, Paul Pompa Jr., and others. “We weren’t expecting it to end the way it ended.”
Saturday, Cohen will try to get his Belmont Stakes with longshot Giant Finish, who finished 10th in the Kentucky Derby after being entered in the race at the last minute.
Giant Finish is trained by Tony Dutrow, the brother of Richard Dutrow Jr., who trained Big Brown.
“He doesn’t have the greatest turn of foot, but he seems he can go the same speed every quarter and keep running forever,” Cohen said of Giant Finish. “I think he fits in well in this race.”
Cohen, who races under the moniker Sunrise Stables, also is the breeder of Giant Finish as he is the managing partner of the stallion Frost Giant, who stands at Keane Stud.
In 2008, three weeks after Big Brown’s defeat in the Belmont Stakes, Frost Giant won the Suburban, then a Grade 1 race at 1 1/4 miles, at odds of 40-1.
“Frost Giant has got a great pedigree, and he was a great racehorse,” Cohen said. “He could have been a better racehorse if he wasn’t such a knucklehead.”
Cohen owned Frost Giant with many of the same people who owned Big Brown. Cohen, who retains about 10 percent interest in Big Brown, bought out his partners on Frost Giant.
In his first year at stud, Frost Giant set a progeny earnings record for a New York freshman sire when his progeny earned more than $750,000 on the track. His first crop included New York-bred stakes winners Kelli Got Frosty and West Hills Giant.
Those two and Giant Finish are three of nine horses owned by Cohen and a syndicate that includes former Big Brown partner Gary Tolchin.
Cohen no longer has any business dealings with IEAH, the once prominent stable that is all but out of the game.
“They’ve run into some financial problems. They’re not into the game as much as they were. I’m sort of doing my own thing now,” said Cohen, who has quit his job on Wall Street to concentrate solely on racing. “I’ve got a bunch of partners. Everybody’s having a real good time.”
Giant Finish, a grand-looking chestnut with a big white face, has not yet won a stakes but finished second in the John Battaglia and third in the Grade 3 Spiral, both on synthetic surfaces. Those performances and the high action Giant Finish displayed in a workout at Belmont Park on Tuesday morning suggest that his future may be on the turf.
DRF
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Post by Evelyn on Jun 5, 2013 21:00:26 GMT -5
From NYRA
Round 3 for Orb, Oxbow in Crowded Belmont Stakes By Jenny Kellner June 5,2013
When Kentucky Derby winner Orb and Preakness winner Oxbow square off in Saturday’s 145th running of the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park, they’ll have plenty of company.
A field of 14 was drawn Wednesday for the final jewel of racing’s Triple Crown, the biggest field for the 1 ½-mile race since 1996, when Editor’s Note defeated 13 rivals.
Televised by NBC (5-7 p.m.), with pre- and post-race coverage carried on the NBC Sports Network (3-5 p.m. and 7-7:30 p.m.), the Belmont will go postward at 6:36 p.m. as the 11th of 13 races on Saturday’s card. Supporting the “Test of the Champion” are the Grade 1, $500,000 Woodford Reserve Manhattan Handicap, the Grade 1, $500,000 Longines Just a Game, the Grade 2, $400,000 RTN True North Handicap and the Grade 2, $400,000 Woody Stephens presented by NYRA Rewards.
Bidding to become the first to complete the Derby-Belmont double since Thunder Gulch in 1995, Stuart S. Janney, III and the Phipps Stable’s Orb was installed as the 3-1 morning-line favorite, while Oxbow was listed at 5-1 on the morning line.
Trained by Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, Orb finished fourth in the Preakness on a day when “nothing went right.” Back at his home base of Belmont Park, Orb has been training forwardly and McGaughey is hoping a home field advantage will come into play for the horse and jockey Joel Rosario when they leave from post position 5.
“Any time you have a come-from-behind horse, you’d like to see a solid pace, but it’s really going to be up to the rider,” said McGaughey, who won the 1989 Belmont with Easy Goer. “In a 1 ½-mile race at Belmont, [the jockey] is really going to have to read the race, and I think that’s what separates the top riders from some of those that aren’t. If you turn down the backside at Belmont, it’s not like turning down the backside at Churchill Downs. You’ve got a long way to go, and big open space down through there, and you better be patient. If you’re not, it’s going to get to you.”
Hoping that Oxbow will become the first to put together a Preakness-Belmont double since Afleet Alex in 2005 is Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who owns four Belmont victories, most recently with Commendable in 2000. With his front-running score three weeks ago at Pimlico, the Calumet Farm colt gave recently un-retired jockey Gary Stevens his ninth win in a Triple Crown race, while the 77-year-old Lukas now has a record 14 series victories.
“The old guys got it done,” Lukas said with a laugh. “I think we’re going to send a better-prepared horse, mentally, in the Belmont than we did in the Preakness. Whether he’s a faster horse or a winning horse remains to be seen.”
Lukas also will saddle Will Take Charge, most recently seventh in the Preakness.
Saturday’s race, however, is far more than a rubber match between the winners of the first two legs of the Triple Crown, which may partly account for the hefty field. Of the past 15 runnings of the Belmont, all but two – Afleet Alex in 2005 and Point Given in 2001 – have been taken by horses who won neither the Derby nor the Preakness.
After going 0-for-5 in this year’s Derby, trainer Todd Pletcher went to the sidelines for the Preakness and now has returned with another quintet, led by Derby third-place finisher Revolutionary, the 9-2 second choice on the morning line.
In addition to the WinStar Farm color-bearer, Pletcher, who won the 2007 Belmont with the filly Rags to Riches, will send out Dogwood Stable’s Palace Malice (15-1), and a trio from owner Mike Repole – the filly Unlimited Budget (8-1), Overanalyze (12-1) and Midnight Taboo (30-1).
“I’ve been coming to Belmont for 30 years, and the Belmont is the No. 1 race I want to win,” said Repole, a Queens, N.Y. native whose Stay Thirsty finished second by three-quarters of a length in the 2011 Belmont. “For some people it’s the Derby, but the Belmont is the race I want to win.”
Unlimited Budget will be ridden by Rosie Napravnik, who is looking to join Julie Krone, winner of the 1993 Belmont aboard Colonial Affair, and become the only women to ride the winner of a Triple Crown race. Fifth in the Derby aboard Mylute, who then was third in the Preakness, the 25-year-old Napravnik will have made history as the first female rider to compete in all three legs of the Triple Crown in the same year.
“Good karma,” said Pletcher of the pairing of Napravnik with the filly.
Trainer Tom Albertrani will be bringing a fresh horse to the fray in Freedom Child, runaway winner of the Grade 2 Peter Pan on May 11 at Belmont. Owned by West Point Thoroughbreds, St. Elias Stable and Spendthrift Farm, Freedom Child is 2-0-1 from four starts this year, having raced for purse money only after being compromised at the start and finishing 10th in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial.
The Malibu Moon ridgling returned to post a front-running, 13 ¼-length win over a sloppy track in the Peter Pan, which has produced a number of Belmont winners, most recently A.P. Indy in 1992.
“He’ll probably want to find himself clear into the first turn, whether he has to use himself a little bit into the turn like he did in the Peter Pan,” said trainer Tom Albertrani of Freedom Child, who drew post position 2. “He’ll just have to work his way on the inside there and see where he ends up.”
The host of long shots includes 30-1 Frac Daddy, trained by Ken McPeek for Magic City Thoroughbred Partners. In 2002, McPeek saddled 70-1 shot Sarava to upset the Belmont Stakes for a record $142.50 win payout; last year, he sent 33-1 Golden Ticket – also owned by Magic City – to a dead-heat for win in the Grade 1, $1 million Travers.
“We still believe this is a really, really good horse, but for whatever reason it hasn’t happened for him,” said McPeek of Frac Daddy, who was 16th in the Kentucky Derby last time out. “Sometimes you throw deep and it goes incomplete, but you can’t score if you don’t throw.”
The field also includes Golden Soul (10-1), Giant Finish (30-1) and Vyjack (20-1), all freshened since finishing second, 10th and 18th, respectively, in the Derby, and Incognito (20-1), a son of 1992 Belmont Stakes winner A.P. Indy who was fifth behind Freedom Child in the Peter Pan.
“I’m just happy there are 14 in there and I’m one of them” said Kiaran McLaughlin, who trains Incognito for Godolphin Racing. “He’s battle-tested, so we’ll hope for the best, and hope that his pedigree kicks in at the quarter-pole.”
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Jun 6, 2013 0:21:36 GMT -5
Rosie Napravnik, atop filly Unlimited Budget, will become first female jockey to compete in all three Triple Crown races in same year Unlimited Budget won the first four starts of her career before finishing third in the May 3 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. By Jerry Bossert / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Rosie Napravnik and Unlimited Budget will try to make history on Saturday, when the fillies take on the boys in the Belmont Stakes.
Late Monday afternoon, owner Mike Repole confirmed that Unlimited Budget will start in the Belmont Stakes, allowing Napravnik to become the first woman jockey to compete in all three Triple Crown races in one year.
The 25-year-old will ride the 3-year-old filly in the mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes.
“I think this is a year where the fillies are just as good as the colts,” Repole said. “The numbers (speed figures) and times look the same.”
Unlimited Budget won the first four starts of her career before finishing third in the May 3 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs.
When Midnight Lucky (5th in the Oaks) and Close Hatches (7th in the Oaks) both came back to run one-two in the May 27 Acorn Stakes at Belmont, that helped boost Repole’s confidence.
“Plus she’s a big filly,” said Repole, a graduate of St. Johns. “I don’t think you’ll be able to tell. When I bought her I thought she was colt. She doesn’t look like a filly and she’s built like a colt.”
Repole also confirmed that he will start longshot Midnight Taboo (Garrett Gomez will ride) in the race along with Unlimited Budget and Overanalyze, giving his trainer Todd Pletcher a record-setting five starters in the Belmont as he will also saddle Revolutionary and Palace Malice in the race for other owners.
Pletcher’s lone Belmont victory came with a filly in 2007 when Rags to Riches edged out Curlin in a photo finish.
Rags to Riches was by A.P. Indy, who won the 1992 Belmont and is a half-sister to Jazil, who won the 2006 Belmont Stakes.
Unlimited Budget is by Street Sense, who won the 2007 Kentucky Derby, but has a sprinter’s pedigree on the dam side out of Unlimited Pleasure.
“If she runs from the father side she’ll go two miles, if she runs to the dam side, she’ll go a mile,” joked Repole.
The purse of the Belmont Stakes is $1 million, with the winner’s share of $600,000.
Repole purchased his trio for $1,095,000 - Midnight Taboo for $240,000, Overanalyze for $380,000 and Unlimited Budget for $475,000.
“They only get one chance to run in this race and I think they all deserve it,” Repole said.
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Jun 6, 2013 12:16:27 GMT -5
Lamoreaux: Belmont Cause for Celebration, Not Despair by E. S. Bud Lamoreaux
The theories abound, they are limitless really, of the failure for the 35th year in a row to have a Triple Crown winner. They’re breeding for speed now — not endurance; the series has too short a time span; the fields are too big; no Thoroughbred has had the “required” three lucky trips.
Okay, those theories all make sense. Knowledgeable racing people — D. Wayne Lukas, “Dinny” Phipps, Steve Cauthen, Bob Baffert — have been heard. But please folks, let us not despair. We have a Belmont Stakes coming up Saturday that celebrates the fitness of the horse, the only time most of them will be asked to run a mile and a half on dirt.
And guess what? We may have the largest field since Caveat beat 14 others 30 years ago, with the Derby winner Orb, and the Preakness winner Oxbow expected to duke it out again. There are even visions of future duels, if both colts stay healthy as the year plays out. And since Orb’s owners the Janney/Phipps Stable breeds its own, could we possibly see him on the race track as a four-year-old? That would be huge.
So instead of despair, why not make this the year for a celebration of the Thoroughbred — the year when we look in awe as these finely-tuned animals give their all in the 145th running of the Belmont.
In rummaging through my archives for some suitable wordsmanship for such a celebration, I came upon some television essays from my old colleague at CBS News Heywood Hale Broun, he of the loud jackets, the merry mustache and the metaphorical flourishes as a fixture on the CBS Triple Crown telecasts.
Most of the words have disappeared into the netherworld due to the inability to archive some of these telecasts. But with these scripts, I do have a word-picture, not a picture and words. No Google, no Facebook, no Twitter, no U-Tube, just words. Think radio — use your imagination!
In an essay on the 1971 Belmont telecast, Broun wrote, “In his mixture of feathery action and fierce purpose, of delicacy and durability, the race horse is as gloriously improbable as the nightingale and the flying fish. Over a thousand pounds slams down on each fragile leg, on ankles which dancing girls might envy…
“Every part of a race horse reaches forward. He has been bred with a singleness of purpose…He thinks with his blood and if urged will run through the fiery mists of exhaustion…
“Demonstrably and expensively some horses run slower than others, but the fastest faders, denounced by seated humans as quitters, are still running hard. It is simply that the cold hands of weariness have squeezed the spring from their ankles and shortened the stride.
“Winners carry to the end the confident forwardness which does not consider defeat, but winners and losers alike retain the classic beauty which is the ornament of complete commitment.”
For the most part, Woodie Broun, who made his first wager at Saratoga before he was a teenager, was a sentimentalist about racing. Secretariat became his idol after winning the Belmont 40 years ago. A picture of the big red horse found its way into his wallet. So, it follows that Woodie was old school when it came to accolades needing to be earned.
“Sociologists speculate,” he wrote in the New York Times,, “that since we have no kings and queens in America, no monarchs and their attendant train of hereditary nobility, we delight in the transitory aristocracy of celebrity. There is hardly a profession that does not have its hall of fame and it is a deprived home that does not have a silver or gold plastic trophy denoting championship. MIne, a man holding a laurel chaplet, is for winning a jingle singing contest.
“It is logical therefore that racing, presumed to have been created for the amusement of kings when Etruscan rulers laid out the first race track in about the seventh century B.C., give or take a year — a legend which is hard to confirm since there are no acknowledged Etruscans to confirm it — should be the game which is chary about handing out crowns.”
“They’re running another Belmont soon,” Broun wrote in the New York Times 20 years after Secretariat’s Triple Crown, “and as the ordinary horses strive for this crown, some of us will see a white-bridled big red ghost with a little blue-and-white man on his back. When the real horses hit the far turn, he will be halfway down the stretch and we will be glad, as we always are, to see him again.”
E.S “Bud” Lamoreaux III is a creator and former executive producer of CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt. He won four Eclipse Awards for national television excellence.
Paulick Report
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Post by shooter29 on Jun 6, 2013 21:42:50 GMT -5
Giant Finish definitely has a shot. But then again, I thought the same thing in the Derby. But, this is the Belmont and freaky things happen. We'll see.
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Post by Evelyn on Jun 7, 2013 7:11:52 GMT -5
Belmont Stakes Notes - June 6, 2013 By NYRA Press Office
•Orb continues to instill confidence in McGaughey •For Lukas, fortune favors the bold •Pletcher’s five Belmont Stakes entrants have routine gallops •Vyjack returns to track after breeze •McLaughlin happy with Incognito •G2 Peter Pan winner Freedom Child generating ‘buzz’ •Golden Soul has strong gallop •McPeek gives Frac Daddy ‘Belmont gallop’ •Giant Finish “doing fine” after Tuesday breeze Kentucky Derby winner Orb had a strong 1 3/8-mile gallop Thursday morning at Belmont Park, and Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey said he sees “no negatives” as the colt heads into Saturday’s 145th running of the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes as the 3-1 favorite to rebound from his fourth-place finish in the Preakness.
“He’s traveling really well over the track,” McGaughey said of Orb. “I haven’t lost confidence in him at all.”
McGaughey, who was “quietly confident” heading into the Derby and “more uptight” as the Preakness approached, said he’s been enjoying the buildup to the rubber match with Preakness winner Oxbow, trained by fellow Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas.
“You get a guy like Wayne, he makes it fun,” said McGaughey. “He’s complimentary as well as competitive. I’m the same way; I’m competitive, I want to beat him. Wayne’s a remarkable guy. To still be at the top of the profession as long as he’s been there, all the changes he’s brought to the thoroughbred industry … he’s got a real admirer in me.”
In addition to the Preakness winner, Orb must also contend with 12 others, including a quintet of horses from trainer Todd Pletcher that comprises 35.714 percent of the field.
“I look at [Pletcher’s horses] individually,” said McGaughey. “I think Overanalyze and Revolutionary are both horses we’re going to be worried about. Overanalyze ran a really good race in the Arkansas Derby, and Revolutionary has had a very good spring and ran well in the Derby. I’m going to look at them a little harder than the others [Palace Malice, Unlimited Budget and Midnight Taboo]. What I will look at all of them for is where they’re going to fit in for the pace scenario. I’ve got a pretty good idea, but we’ll see what happens.”
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After sending out Preakness winner Oxbow and Grade 2 Rebel winner Will Take Charge out for routine gallops Wednesday morning, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas talked about his two Belmont horses. While Oxbow has the second jewel of the Triple Crown on his resume, it was Will Take Charge, eighth in the Derby and seventh in the Preakness, whom Lukas talked up.
“I look at the circumstances and read what I’ve got in front of me,” said Lukas. “If I see any brilliance in the horse at any point in time, and it’s been dormant for a race or two, or the surface doesn’t suit the horse, or something, as long as I know it’s there and I’m not living in a fantasy land, I’m there. [Will Take Charge] won the Rebel. He’s a dangerous horse in this race, too. The configuration of the track ought to help him, with those long, sweeping turns. He’s a long-striding colt.”
By contract, Oxbow is a compact runner who when comfortable develops and maintains a high cruising speed.
“It probably doesn’t compliment his style,” Lukas said of the huge Belmont oval, but he’s such a tough horse and a fighter; he keeps coming back.”
Lukas’ reputation for winning with horses that seem improbable is well-known; his previous Triple Crown victory prior to the Preakness was with 18-1 Commendable in the 2000 Belmont Stakes.
“I think Wayne Lukas, who a lot of people have to look up to, is a guy that has no fear whatsoever,” said Ken McPeek, who will saddle longshot Frac Daddy in the Belmont. “[Oxbow] has two bad races on his page, and then he comes back and wins the Preakness because he’s tenacious and he keeps coming back and he doesn’t have any fear. It’s not about high percentages, or me; it’s about taking a chance and rolling the dice.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Todd Pletcher’s five Belmont Stakes contenders took to the main track on Thursday, with all five galloping various distances.
Overanalyze and Revolutionary galloped one mile, Palace Malice and Unlimited Budget traveled 1 ¼ miles, and Midnight Taboo went 1 ½ miles.
“It’s just a feel for what they need,” said Pletcher of how he selects the gallop distances. “It’s one of the things we do every morning; we decide based on how much they put into it, how much weight they carry and how much they are eating.”
Pletcher, who will become the first trainer in the modern era to send out five horses in a single running of the Belmont Stakes, said he considers many factors when determining whether a horse is worthy of competing in the 1 ½-mile race.
“First and foremost, you need a horse of enough quality to go long, and they need to have the pedigree and running style that suggest they’ll get the distance,” said Pletcher, who trains Overanalyze, Unlimited Budget, and Midnight Taboo for Mike Repole, Revolutionary for WinStar Farm, and Palace Malice for Dogwood Stable.
With more than a third of the Belmont Stakes entrants in his barn, Pletcher appears to be well hedged for any possible pace scenario on Saturday.
“Palace Malice will be laying close, Revolutionary will be laying back, and we have three who will be laying somewhere in the middle,” said Pletcher. “From that standpoint, they all complement each others’ running styles. You always worry when you have more than one horse in the race that you have two front-running, headstrong horses, but in this case I think everyone works well together.”
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Multiple graded stakes winner Vyjack returned to the track Thursday morning for the first time following his final pre-Belmont Stakes breeze in 59.04 on Tuesday.
Trainer Rudy Rodriguez had Vyjack out shortly after the main track opened at 5:30 a.m., as has been his custom this week.
“The horse jogged very good this morning,” Rodriguez said. “He was happy; he was bouncing around. It looks like he bounced good out of the work.”
Vyjack will break from post 11 under new rider Julien Leparoux in the Belmont, his first race since finishing 18th of 19 in the Kentucky Derby on May 4.
“So far, so good,” Rodriguez said. “He’s been eating very good, he’s very strong, and he’s healthy. He’s walking like he’s very proud of himself.”
Also on Thursday, Rodriguez breezed Sage Valley three furlongs in 37.49 on the main track. Sage Valley is among the field of seven for Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 RTN True North Handicap.
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Post by Evelyn on Jun 8, 2013 17:01:06 GMT -5
Racinggal called a few minutes ago. She said the track seems to be playing fairly. They arrived late as planned but still had a long wait for security but her purse and tote bag passed LOL
The weather's OK - better than expected. The crowd is also much larger than she thought. Her friend's daughter-in-law brought a tablet so they are all betting thru online accounts!
They did walk around the back just to see the sights. It's crowded. There's music, kids, parties and people seem to be enjoying the day. (the back is large and nice)
When they leave, they're heading outbound not back to the city. She'll be staying at her friend's home and will catch up tomorrow.
She wishes everyone Good Luck for the Belmont. She also said forget the odds and don't throw out Orb or Oxbow. And yes - she's going to try to catch a look at Mr. Lukas LOL
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