Preakness hero Shackleford set to arrive at Belmont Park early Monday morning- Derby winner Animal Kingdom doing “super” for Belmont Stakes; travel plans still undetermined
- Brilliant Speed on target for Belmont
- Mucho Macho Man has new shoes for the “Test of the Champion”
- Santiva moves closer to Belmont start
- Alternation to skip Belmont, targets Spa’s Jim Dandy and Travers
- Belmont travel plans set for Master of Hounds
- Gio Ponti breezes 5f in preparation for Woodford Reserve Manhattan
- G1 Acorn a possibility for It’s Tricky, McLaughlin pointing Trappe Shot for G2 True North presented by Emirates Airline
- Dual G1 winner Get Stormy turns in 6f turf work, next start undetermined
- Belmont Café to be closed for simulcasting on Belmont Stakes day
Trainer Dale Romans said Sunday that Preakness winner Shackleford is scheduled to arrive at Belmont Park early Monday morning after an overnight van ride from Churchill Downs.
“He’ll be there early, but I have to check with the van guy later on about exactly when,” Romans said.
Shackleford, a son of Forestry owned by Michael Lauffer, led the Kentucky Derby field into the stretch and held on well for fourth place behind Animal Kingdom. In the Preakness, he stalked pacesetter Flashpoint and held off the late-running Derby winner to prevail by a length.
Romans, who has not yet announced a decision on whether Shackleford will start in the 143rd running of the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes on June 11, owns two third-place finishes in the race from two starters – Nolan’s Cat in 2005 and First Dude in 2010.
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Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness runner-up Animal Kingdom is doing “super,” said trainer Graham Motion, and will resume galloping tomorrow morning in preparation for the Belmont Stakes.
“He jogged today and he was rather full of himself,” said Motion from the training center at Fair Hill, Md. “He’ll gallop tomorrow and have a week of galloping until he breezes next week.”
Motion is hoping to work the son of Leroidesanimaux next Monday, but has not decided whether it will be at Fair Hill or Belmont Park.
“I kind of want to see how the weather will be,” he said. “In an ideal world, I would like to breeze him next Monday, but I don’t want to ship and have to work him up there over a sloppy track.”
Also on Belmont Stakes day, Motion plans to run multiple graded stakes winner Gypsy’s Warning in the Grade 1 Foxwoods Just a Game, a one-mile turf race for fillies and mares. The winner of last fall’s Grade 1 Matriarch finished seventh over a yielding course in the Grade 2 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland on April 16 in her lone start of 2011.
Smart Bid, runner-up to Get Stormy in the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on May 7, remains under consideration for the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Manhattan Handicap on Belmont day, said Motion.
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Grade 1 Blue Grass winner Brilliant Speed will breeze again either Monday or Tuesday as he readies for a start in the Belmont Stakes, said trainer Tom Albertrani.
“He’ll breeze again any day now,” said Albertrani, who sent the Dynaformer colt out for a five-furlong work in 1:00.11 on May 23, his first breeze since finishing seventh in the Kentucky Derby. “He came out of the Derby fine, and came back with a good minute work, so everything looks to be going well since he ran.”
The Derby, in which Brilliant Speed finished 5 ½ lengths behind Animal Kingdom, was the colt’s first start on conventional dirt as a 3-year-old. At age 2, he was fourth to eventual Grade 1 Hopeful winner Boys At Tosconova in his debut at Belmont Park and then seventh behind Curlinello, eventual Illinois Derby winner Joe Vann and fellow Belmont Stakes aspirant Mucho Macho Man at Saratoga.
“He trains well over the dirt,” said Albertrani of the Live Oak Plantation homebred. “I guess that’s the only thing we still have to find out. Churchill Downs is a little bit different from the Belmont surface. I guess there’s always that little bit of doubt in the back of your mind whether he’ll take to it but I’d be pretty optimistic again. Going into the Derby, I felt good about his chances of handling the dirt, and I think he gets over it OK, so I’d be optimistic again.”
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Mucho Macho Man, sixth in the Preakness after losing a left front shoe, returned to the track Friday morning with a new pair of glue-on front shoes as he is readied for the Belmont Stakes.
“I think we have the shoe situation under control for good,” said Kathy Ritvo, who trains the 17-1 hands tall colt for Reeves Thoroughbred Racing. “There are still a lot of things we have to go through to get him to the Belmont, but right now, he looks great.”
The sixth-place Preakness finish was the first time Mucho Macho Man had finished off the board in 10 career starts. After running second behind To Honor and Serve in the Grade 2 Nashua and Grade 2 Remsen at Aqueduct last fall, the Macho Uno colt was fourth to Dialed In in the Grade 3 Holy Bull, victorious in the Grade 2 Risen Star, third in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby, and third in the Kentucky Derby.
“Even in finishing sixth, he was beaten only seven lengths and I am pretty sure he ran the race with three shoes,” said Ritvo of Mucho Macho Man, a June 15 foal. “I’m pretty sure he’s only going to get better.”
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Kentucky Derby sixth-place finisher Santiva took another step toward a start in the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes with a 1:00.60 five-furlong breeze at Churchill Downs on Saturday.
“[The workout] went super and I’m really happy with how he’s doing now,” said Eddie Kenneally, who trains the son of Giant’s Causeway for Tom R. Walters.
Kenneally said he’ll make a final decision on when Santiva will ship to New York after the colt turns in his final workout at Churchill Downs next Saturday.
“We’ll breeze him next week, and we’ll go from there,” said Kenneally.
Santiva, who broke his maiden when he defeated Astrology in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill in November, prepped for the Kentucky Derby with a second in the Grade 2 Risen Star at the Fair Grounds in February and a ninth in the Grade 1 Blue Grass over Keeneland’s Polytrack in April.
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Pin Oak Stable’s Alternation, winner of the Grade 2 Peter Pan at Belmont on May 14, is no longer under consideration for the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes, trainer Donnie Von Hemel announced Sunday morning.
“We just decided to not come to the Belmont,” said Von Hemel. “We thought we should give him a bit of a breather and point him towards races like the Jim Dandy and Travers.”
Both mainstays of the Saratoga Race Course stakes schedule, the Grade 2, 1 1/8-mile Jim Dandy will be contested on July 30 and the Grade 1, 1 ¼-mile Travers will be held August 27.
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Mrs. John Magnier’s Master of Hounds, most recently fifth in the Kentucky Derby, is scheduled to ship from Europe to New York on June 7 for the Belmont Stakes, clearing quarantine on June 9.
Second in the Grade 2 UAE Derby in his only other start as a 3-year-old, the Aidan O’Brien-trained son of Kingmambo was sixth as the favorite in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Churchill Downs and third in the Grade 1 Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster, having broken his maiden in his fourth start in Ireland.
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Gio Ponti, the reigning Eclipse champion as top turf male, breezed five furlongs on the turf this morning as he prepares for the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Manhattan Handicap on Belmont Stakes day.
“Gio Ponti is on course for the Manhattan,” trainer Christophe Clement proclaimed. “He will work again next weekend. I am very happy with the way he went.”
The nation’s top turf male in 2009 and 2010 and top older male in 2009, Gio Ponti covered the five furlongs in 1:01.12 around the dogs over a firm turf course. It was his third work since finishing fifth, beaten less than two lengths in the Dubai World Cup on March 26 in his only start of 2011.
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Darley Stable’s It’s Tricky, impressive winner of the Busher at Aqueduct in February and unraced since a fourth-place effort in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks on April 2 turned in a half-mile breeze at Belmont on Sunday morning. Caught by the clockers in 50.05, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said the daughter of Mineshaft was under consideration for either the Grade 1 Acorn on June 11, or the Grade 1 Mother Goose on June 25.
“Well, it’s tricky,” McLaughlin quipped. “The races are only two weeks apart this year and we have to decide which is a better spot for her. She’s already a stakes winner, but we’d love to be Grade 1 placed, or a Grade 1 winner.”
On the worktab Saturday for McLaughlin was Mill House’s Trappe Shot, winner of his 4-year-old debut in the six-furlong Waldoboro overnight stakes at Belmont on May 11 and pointing for the Grade 2 True North presented by Emirates Airline at the same distance on Belmont Stakes day. The son of Tapit, who last year finished second in the Grade 1 Haskell at Monmouth Park on August 1 before running ninth in the Grade 1 Travers at Saratoga Race Course later in the month, was clocked for a half-mile in 49.93.
“He worked well yesterday, he’ll have one more work next week and he should be ready to go,” McLaughlin said.
The trainer added that turf runner Riviera Cocktail, most recently fifth in the Grade 3 Fort Marcy on May 7, would likely run next in the Grade 3 Poker, one mile over the Belmont grass on June 10. The 5-year-old son of Giant’s Causeway worked five-eighths (1:03.11) on the turf Sunday morning.
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Dual Grade 1 winner Get Stormy turned in a six furlong (1:14.14) turf work under jockey Ramon Dominguez at Belmont Park Sunday morning, but plans for the Sullimar Stable representative remain undetermined.
“He’s doing great, I just have to figure out where to run him,” said trainer Tom Bush as he grazed Get Stormy outside of his Belmont barn later in the morning.
The 5-year-old son of Stormy Atlantic was a front-running winner of the Grade 1, 1 1/8-mile Woodford Reserve Turf Classic on the Kentucky Derby undercard in his most recent start, and is under consideration for the Grade 1, $400,000 Woodford Reserve Manhattan Handicap, 1 ¼ miles on turf on the Belmont Stakes undercard.
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The Belmont Café, Belmont Park’s simulcasting center, will not be in operation on Belmont Stakes day, Saturday, June 11. The area will be open that Friday evening until 11 p.m. and will resume its regular hours, 11 a.m. until approximately 7 p.m., on Sunday.
Aqueduct’s simulcasting center will operate on its regular schedule all Belmont stakes weekend, from 11:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and from 11:30 a.m. to approximately 7:00 p.m. Sunday.