Belmont-bound Tenfold works five furlongs in 1:01 3/5 at Churchill

by NYRA Press Office

Tenfold at Churchill Downs 6.2.18

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen had said he wanted Winchell Thoroughbreds’ Tenfold to work five-eighths of a mile in 1:02 or a couple of ticks faster ahead of Saturday’s Grade 1 Belmont Stakes, and that’s exactly what the Preakness third-place finisher did with a five-furlong work in 1:01 3/5 on a sun-soaked Saturday morning at Churchill Downs.

Churchill clockers timed Tenfold in splits of 12 3/5 seconds for the first eighth-mile, 25 1/5 for the first quarter-mile, 37 1/5 for three-eighths and 49 2/5 for the half-mile, then put in a strong gallop-out of 1:15 for three-quarters of a mile and 1:28 4/5 for seven-eighths under exercise rider Angel Garcia.

“I thought Tenfold worked really nicely today,” said Asmussen, who won the 2016 Belmont with Creator. “He gets over the racetrack well, and we’re obviously very excited about his chances in the Belmont. The horse is in a really nice rhythm right now. I feel he’s 100 percent and really like his state of mind going into this. Nothing but respect for the field, but I think he’ll represent well.

"He’s always been very talented. He’s a lightly raced horse. He’s had four lifetime races now. I think his Preakness solidified his quality. The fact that he has continued to train well since has a lot of people talking about him that weren’t before. He went into the Preakness the longest shot on the board [at 26-1], and I don’t think that will happen in the Belmont.”

Asked about how the pace might impact Tenfold, the Hall of Fame trainer said, “I think we’re set up really well for Tenfold to run his race. What everybody else does is their business.”

Among those watching were owner-breeder Ron Winchell and his family’s long-time racing and bloodstock manager David Fiske. The Winchell operation, started by Ron’s father, the late donut magnate Verne Winchell, has produced top-caliber racehorses for decades. But Tenfold’s third by a total of three-quarters of a length in the Preakness was the closest the family has come in a Triple Crown race.

Tenfold is a son of the Asmussen-trained two-time Horse of the Year Curlin, who lost the 2007 Belmont by a head to the filly Rags to Riches, and the broodmare Temptress, who is a daughter of the Winchell-campaigned Tapit, now one of the leading stallions in the world, who has sired three of the past four Belmont winners.

“We went into the Preakness the longest shot on the board,” Winchell said of his colt, who came into the middle leg of the Triple Crown off two wins at Oaklawn Park and a fifth in the Arkansas Derby. “We felt a lot more confident than what everybody else felt. So it was a little bit of a vindication of how we felt, and seeing the result. Turning for home, I thought he had a pretty good chance at winning. He obviously finished third, finished up well, made us very optimistic going into the Belmont. His breeding hopefully will come into play, being by Curlin and out of a Tapit mare. So, we’ll see how that works out.

“We’d love to be a spoiler,” he said of Justify’s bid to become American racing’s 13th Triple Crown winner. “Obviously we’d love to see a Triple Crown winner from the perspective of somebody who loves horse racing, but you have to earn those positions. Triple Crown races are something for me, growing up, we were always kind of chasing Derbys, chasing classic races and never able to get one. So what would it mean? It’s huge. It’s something I’ve chased my whole life.”

Justify gallops; Louisville owners thanking their lucky Starlight

Triple Crown hopeful Justify galloped 1 1/2 miles in relaxed fashion Saturday at Churchill Downs under exercise rider Humberto Gomez. Even though Tenfold was working at the same time during Churchill’s special 7:30-7:40 time slot for Belmont Stakes horses, most of the attention was on the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner’s routine training exercise.

Also on the track were Preakness runner Bravazo, who jogged two miles, and Grade 1 winner Free Drop Billy, who galloped.

“He went good again. Every day has been a good training day for us,” said assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes, overseeing the training of Justify and Bob Baffert’s other Churchill horses while the Hall of Fame trainer is in California. “He was full of energy. Very happy. He goes over the track very nice. It’s nice and quiet out there. It’s good for us to train like that. It makes it much easier for us when there are just a few horses out there. He’s looking good. Today was his normal training. We didn’t do much [Friday] and came off a walk day and a jog day, so I expected him to be pretty happy. He was his professional self today.”

Barnes said Gary and Mary West’s Belmont contender Restoring Hope, who went out after Justify, also galloped 1 1/2 miles under Gomez. “Doing good, very good,” he said.

Both horses are scheduled to work Monday and fly to New York Wednesday.

Having Justify at Churchill Downs has been a thrill for the members of Starlight Racing who live in Louisville. Starlight owns 15 percent of Justify, whose other owners are WinStar Farm, China Horse Club and Head of Plains Partners. Until Justify, the last time a Louisville resident owned the Derby winner was H.C. Applegate with Old Rosebud in 1914. The Louisville owners frequently show up to watch Justify train, thanking their lucky Starlight for involvement with a horse going for the Triple Crown.

“Right now, I feel like I’m still in a dream, that it’s not actually happening,” said Starlight member Anita Cauley. “God keeps rolling them out one after another. So, fingers crossed. People will say, ‘Oh you’re going to do it.’ I’m like, ‘Don’t say anything out loud.’ It’s hard to do. Any of these races are hard to get. But to try to get all three, whew.”

Ted Nixon and his 90-year-old father, Bo, got involved because Bo was so interested in his daughter-in-law’s fillies with the all-women StarLadies Racing. Mary Nixon told her husband that he and Bo should invest with the regular Starlight Racing group, founded by Louisvillian Jack Wolf.

Bo Nixon grew up on Long Island, has been a fan for 80 years and struck gold with his first horses. Bo and Ted are 5 for 5 as owners, with Starlight buying into Audible before he won the Florida Derby and in Justify after his maiden victory. While Bo didn’t go to Baltimore, he will be returning to his old roots for the Belmont.

“To be able to have a horse in a position to win the Triple Crown at the Belmont is nothing we ever dreamed of but is certainly a thrill of a lifetime,” said Ted Nixon. “We finally decide to buy into some horses and we lock into Justify and Audible. Dad is thrilled. At 90 years old, he’s heading up to the Belmont and looking forward to being there. It’s the Super Bowl, the Stanley Cup and the World Series all thrown into one.”

Another Starlight partner is Ed Glasscock, one of Louisville’s true power brokers and sportsmen, also being involved in the city’s Triple A baseball team and professional soccer franchise as well as a long-time horse owner. Glasscock’s son, Clint, was one of the Starlight partners that asked Wolf if they’d look into buying into a Derby prospect to go along with the yearlings they buy every year.

“Dream come true,” Ed Glasscock said. “Something very special that will never happen again, I’m sure.”

G1 Manhattan a go for One Go All Go

Trainer Scooter Dickey said that Rodney Paden’s One Go All Go will take another shot at earning a Grade 1 victory in Saturday’s Woodford Reserve Manhattan on turf after working five-eighths of a mile Thursday at Churchill Downs in 1:00 4/5 under jockey Chris Landeros.

“We wanted to feel he was still active and wanting to do it,” Dickey said of the work.

The 6-year-old Virginia-bred son of Fairbanks led all the way in Belmont Park’s Grade 1 Man o’ War on May 12 before grudgingly giving way in the final sixteenth mile to finish third by a length behind favored Hi Happy and a half-length behind Sadler’s Joy. One Go All Go was coming off a victory in Keeneland’s Grade 2 Dixiana Elkhorn, which followed a five-race sequence where he had four seconds and a fourth.

“He’ll give them hell every time,” Dickey said. “I’m just hoping those first two [Hi Happy and Sadler’s Joy] can’t catch him at a mile and a quarter like they did at a mile and three-eighths and a mile and a half. I hope it turns out that way.”

Of the tough Man o’ War defeat, he said, “It made him madder that those two could catch him.”

One Go All Go is to fly to New York on Wednesday.

Bravazo back to track after day off, jogging two miles

Preakness runner-up Bravazo resumed training by jogging two miles under Danielle Rosier after a walk day following Thursday’s mile work in 1:42 3/5 at Churchill Downs.

“I watched some of those others go, and my stomach’s aching a little bit,” joked trainer D. Wayne Lukas. “Boy, Tenfold galloped out pretty. I thought he looked terrific. I don’t know why I go out there and get a stomach ache, subject myself to that stuff, don’t sleep worrying about it. Good thing I don’t see them all.”

More seriously, he said, “The gray area is we’re going to change the game. We’re going to change the field, we’re going to change the configuration of the racetrack and change the distance. The distance, I think, is the big factor.

“None of us knows,” Lukas said of horses handling 1 1/2 miles. “I think Tenfold is going to waltz around there. I think Bravazo will. I think Hofburg will; Vino Rosso will go around there. I think there are horses that have it in their scope. But they’ve got to do it. You got to go out there and show it to somebody. He [Justify] has to do it, too. They all will run a mile and a half — some a little faster than others.”

Commendable in 2000 was the least probable of Lukas’ four Belmont Stakes winners, coming into the race with only a maiden victory and no finish in a stakes better than fourth.

But, said Lukas, “That was the one Belmont where I actually felt in my heart that I had the horse who could dictate the race and do what I wanted him to do, and the others would underestimate him.”

Lukas said one of the things that makes Justify so formidable is his ability to dictate the pace, forcing others to react to him, though obviously no one will underestimate him.

“He dominates the race,” Lukas said. “He’ll decide what the first half-mile is going to be, for sure. I think from the start to the quarter pole, I think Justify tells us what is going to go on. I think he’s going to do whatever he wants. He’s like the gorilla in the room. Where is he going to sit? Wherever he wants.

“After that, it may be a different story. It’s a great superfecta, with so many different scenarios. You can make a superfecta bet up and say, ‘Whoa, I can’t leave that one out.’"