Belmont Stakes Day Notes
Story by: NYRA Press Office
Source: NYRA.com
-Belmont hopeful Make Music for Me to breeze Sunday
-Spangled Star is Belmont-bound
-New Madrid will skip Belmont Stakes
-No Belmont starter for Pletcher, but plenty of runners on undercard
Make Music for Me, who rallied from last to finish fourth in the Kentucky Derby in his most recent start, is slated to work one mile Sunday morning at Belmont Park in preparation for the 142nd running of the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes on Saturday, June 5.
Trainer Alexis Barba will arrive Saturday morning to watch the Bernstein colt gallop, with the breeze scheduled to go off about 9 a.m. Sunday on the main track, according to assistant trainer and exercise rider Andy Durnin.
Make Music for Me, who is 1-2-1 from nine starts, arrived at Belmont Park on Monday and has taken nicely to his new surroundings, said Durnin.
“The first day he galloped over a hard, sealed, sloppy track and went well, and the last two last two days it’s been deep and sandy, and he’s getting across it really well, too,” said Durnin. “So far, knock wood, he’s gotten over anything he’s put his foot on. And it made sense to get here early so he can get a couple of nice breezes over the track and really get a feel for it.”
Owned by Ellen and Peter Johnson, Make Music for Me’s first victory came in his seventh start, an overnight stakes on the turf at Santa Anita on March 6 in his 3-year-old debut. As a 2-year-old, he was off the board once in six starts, finishing second to Preakness winner Lookin At Lucky in the Grade 2 Best Pal and the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity and third, beaten 1 ¼ lengths, behind him in the Grade 1 Cash Call Futurity.
“The way Lookin At Lucky ran in the Preakness does his form good as he finished close to him three times,” noted Durnin. “In the Derby, he wasn’t stopping at all. Eight wide cost him a bit of ground. Hopefully, there won’t be any distance limitations. He does relax, so I don’t think he’ll use himself up early.”
Joel Rosario, who was aboard in the Kentucky Derby, is scheduled to ride Make Music for Me in the 1 ½ mile Belmont.
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Spangled Star, third in the Grade 3 Withers at Aqueduct on April 24, will make his next start in the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes on June 5, owner Lawrence P. Roman confirmed on Thursday.
Trained by Rick Dutrow, Jr., Spangled Star broke his maiden by 4 ¼ lengths at Laurel in January in his seventh start, then was third in a February allowance race at the Maryland racing venue in his final effort prior to the Withers.
“He seems to be getting a little better with every start,” Roman said of the son of Distorted Humor. “He’s lightly-raced and he’s bred to go the distance. When I bought him, I had the Belmont Stakes in mind. For most people the Kentucky Derby is the race they want to win the most, but for me that race is the Belmont.”
Roman remains realistic when he assesses Spangled Star’s chances of winning the Belmont, which is the final and longest leg of the Triple Crown.
“No one in the field has gone a mile-and-a-half,” Roman said. “I expect him to be a long shot, but other long shots like Da’ Tara have won it in recent years.”
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Following a fifth-place finish in a first-level turf allowance on Thursday at Belmont Park, Shortleaf Stable’s New Madrid will skip the Belmont Stakes, trainer Tim Ice said Friday morning.
“He won’t run in the Belmont,” Ice said. “He needed to show me more yesterday than he did. The Arkansas Derby [on April 10] wasn’t so long ago that I think he needed the race or anything. He’ll run back in a dirt allowance race and we’ll see from there.”
New Madrid, a son of Rock Hard Ten, finished sixth in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby a month after breaking his maiden at third asking at Oaklawn Park.
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Trainer Todd Pletcher confirmed Friday that the filly Devil May Care, 10th in the Kentucky Derby, would not start in the Belmont Stakes and instead await the Grade 1, $250,000 Mother Goose Stakes on June 26.
Even without a starter in the Belmont, Pletcher has a cadre of stakes runners waiting in the wings. In addition to Quality Road’s expected start in the “Met Mile,” Pletcher also plans to saddle a pair of female sprinters in the Grade 2, $150,000 Vagrancy on May 29 in Hour Glass and Malibu Prayer.
Pletcher added that he is also prepping runners for a number of stakes on the Belmont Day undercard on Saturday, June 5.
Take the Points, winner of the Grade 1 Jamaica Handicap at Belmont Park in October, will likely start in the Grade 1, $400,000 Woodford Reserve Manhattan, while two-time graded stakes winner Phola is expected in the Grade 1 Just A Game, a mile turf race for fillies and mares.
Additionally, Pletcher said that Grade 2 Risen Star winner Discreetly Mine was being pointed toward the Grade 2, $250,000 Woody Stephens at seven furlongs. Pletcher could start three in the Grade 2 True North, a six-furlong race also worth $250,000, with Checklist making his third start off a layoff and Bribon looking to regroup after a fifth-place finish in the Grade 3 Westchester at Belmont on April 30. Pletcher added that Munnings was a possibility for the race following an 11th place finish in a sloppy edition of the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes on the Derby Day undercard.