Francesca Le Donne Photo

Blended Citizen breezes five furlongs in public workout Saturday

by NYRA Press Office

Blended Citizen work at Belmont

The SayJay Racing, Greg Hall and Brooke Hubbard-owned Blended Citizen, winner of the Grade 3 Peter Pan on May 12, breezed a commanding five furlongs in 1:00.64 over the Belmont Park main track just before the first race on Saturday afternoon, his final serious move before his anticipated start in Saturday’s 150th running of the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes.

The two-time Grade 3 winner took to the track alongside a pony at 12:45 p.m. in a special time reserved for the Doug O’Neill trainee.

Under jockey Mike Luzzi, the Proud Citizen colt began from the half-mile pole and ran the first eighth of a mile in 12.65 seconds and the quarter in 24.25, hitting the wire in 47.93, before finishing in 1:00.64 under the wire. NYRA clockers caught Blended Citizen galloping out six furlongs in 1:17.58. The smooth-moving colt did all the work, said Luzzi.

“He covers a lot of ground. He’s a Cadillac,” Luzzi said. “Obviously we know he likes the track. I wish the best of luck to them next week.”

Assistant trainer Leandro Mora, who has been with O’Neill for 17 ½ years, arrived at Belmont late Friday afternoon from California to oversee the workout, and was pleased with the style and ease the multiple graded-stakes winner offered.

“What I like is how easily he did it,” Mora said. “It was nice, I’m very pleased. He wasn’t even making noise going by. I like how he went past the wire. That’s when you know you have a legit horse. I like what I saw.”

The afternoon workout is a tactic that O’Neill has used before, notably saddling Reddam Racing’s then-undefeated colt Nyquist for a public workout at Santa Anita Park for his final breeze before he won the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile by a half-length.

“We don’t school horses like some trainers,” said Mora. “If we work a horse prior or between races, or before the first race, we do it like a race, so they think they went through it, but they didn’t go through the hassle. They come back to the barn, they’ve gone through the workout, and it’s a whole psychological thing for them.”

Unplaced through three starts earlier in his career on dirt, the half-brother to Lookin At Lee was switched to turf, where he broke his maiden in his fifth start at Del Mar. It took a while for the long-striding colt to get to his first Grade 1 start next Saturday.

“This is a late-developing horse,” Mora said. “He was just a slow learner. We tried him on dirt, we thought he was just no good on dirt. So Doug put him on the grass and he won. [The owners] talked to Doug, and he said if you want to make it to the Kentucky Derby, let’s do it like Animal Kingdom did. Run around synthetic, and try to qualify, and enjoy the Derby.

“Once we didn’t get in, the owners brought up the [July 7 Grade 1 Belmont Derby Invitational] on the grass. Doug said, ‘What about the Peter Pan?’ and the owners said, ‘Let’s go.”

Blended Citizen, who placed third in the El Camino Real Derby in February at Golden Gate Fields, returned to win the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park the following month, before running fifth in the Grade 2 Blue Grass at Keeneland. Blended Citizen has earnings of $406,854, and will be ridden by jockey Kyle Frey, who has been aboard the colt for his last four starts.

Saturday was Miller time at San Luis Rey as Conquest Tsunami, Stormy Liberal, and Multiplier ready for New York assignments

Peter Miller confirmed Conquest Tsunami, Stormy Liberal, and Multiplier for the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival after the three runners turned in separate five-furlong workouts this morning at the San Luis Rey Training Center.

Conquest Tsunami and Stormy Liberal, respectively second and third in the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint on March 31 at Meydan Racecourse, are on target for the Grade 2, $400,000 Jaipur Invitational, while Multiplier, 10th in last year’s Belmont Stakes, will be returning to Belmont for Grade 1, $1 million Woodford Reserve Manhattan. Both races will be contested on the turf next Saturday and are for 4-year-olds and up.

“All three worked great and are back where we want them to be,” said Miller by phone. “Conquest Tsunami worked in 1:00 1/5 and galloped out six furlongs in 1:12 2/5. Stormy Liberal went in 1:01 2/5 and galloped out in 1:13. Those two went by themselves. I got Multiplier in 1:01 and change [officially in 1:01 1/5] and he galloped out in 1:13. He went in company because he’s a little lazy and I wanted to give him a target.”

Stormy Liberal, a 6-year-old gelding owned by Rockingham Ranch and David A. Bernsen, finished eighth in the 2017 Jaipur before returning five months later to post a 30-1 upset in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar. He was 11th in the Hong Kong Sprint before launching his 2018 campaign with seconds in the Grade 3 Daytona in February at Santa Anita and in the Al Quoz Sprint.

Conquest Tsunami began his career with trainer Mark Casse before joining the Miller barn last fall, escaping the San Luis Rey Fire, in Miller’s words, “relatively unscathed.” He easily won an optional claimer in January and the Grade 3 Daytona in February at Santa Anita before setting the pace and battling on well to finish third in the Al Quoz sprint.

“Conquest Tsunami is a very fast, speedy horse, while Stormy Liberal likes to come from a little off the pace,” said Miller. “They complement each other.”

Multiplier was transferred to Miller following his 3-year-old season, which included a victory in the Grade 3 Illinois Derby. He made three starts on dirt for Miller before making his turf debut last time out, taking an optional claimer by a nose May 13 at Santa Anita.

“His pedigree says grass as he is by The Factor, so we wanted to try him on that surface,” Miller said of Multiplier, who is owned by Wachtel Stable, George J. Kerr, and Gary Barber. “He ran a big race last time and he fits on the Ragozin Sheets, but he’ll have to step forward.”

Miller also will start Bobby Abu Dhabi in the Grade 2, $250,000 True North at 6 ½ furlongs on Friday. Bobby Abu Dhabi, a 4-year-old owned by Rockingham and Bernsen, was second to City of Light in the Grade 1 Triple Bend in March before posting his first graded stakes victory in the Grade 2 Kona Gold in April. The Macho Uno colt worked five furlongs in 59 2/5 seconds on Friday and is slated to have a blowout on Monday.

“[Bobby Abu Dhabi] has really matured for us the past few months,” said Miller. “He’s become a bigger, stronger version of the horse we had last year.”

Miller said all four of his Belmont Stakes Racing Festival horses will fly to New York on Tuesday.

Better, smarter Whitmore returns for another shot at G2 True North

Now a 5-year-old, Whitmore returns to Belmont Park for another appearance in the Grade 2 True North at 6 1/2 furlongs Friday. The chestnut gelding finished third in the race last year won by eventual champion sprinter Roy H.

Whitmore is co-owned by trainer Ron Moquett’s Southern Springs Stables, Robert LaPenta and Head of Plains Partners.

The chestnut son of Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Pleasantly Perfect is 10 for 19, with three seconds and two thirds, earning $1.5 million. But excluding his five races around two turns (including 19th in the 2016 Kentucky Derby), he’s 10 for 14 sprinting. In his last start, Whitmore was fourth after getting stuck in traffic at the eighth pole of the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes on Derby Day. That followed the two stakes victories at Oaklawn Park that started off his 2018 season after Whitmore finished eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar.

“He had a troubled trip, but he ran well,” Moquett said of the Derby Day race in the slop. “I felt like if we got any kind of trip we had a horse that could have won.”

Moquett said he’s put more focus on races such as the True North this year “with the intent of trying to get to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint [at Churchill Downs] in more familiar surroundings and with more of a fresh horse.”

While Whitmore is unbeaten in five sprint races at Oaklawn Park (where he also had a pair of respectable seconds in the 2016 Southwest and Rebel and third in the Arkansas Derby going longer distances), Moquett said, “He takes his track with him. Some of his most impressive races were at Keeneland and Pimlico. But I think if everything goes along like it has, we’ll see a better, more consistent representation.

“I think he’s better [than last year]. He’s smarter, or we’re learning little things about him all the time. He’s teaching us how he wants to be trained.”

Ricardo Santana, Jr. has the mount.

Lull breezes on main track for G1 Just a Game; Disco Partner could be joined by Pure Sensation in G2 Jaipur

Lull, last seen winning the Grade 3 Honey Fox in March, on Saturday completed her major preparations for the Grade 1, $700,000 Longines Just a Game by breezing five furlongs on the main track in 1:00.44.

The Longines Just a Game for fillies and mares will be contested next Saturday at one mile on the Widener turf course.

“She had a very good work today,” said trainer Christophe Clement. “She had been working weekly going five-eighths on the dirt. I have been keeping her on the dirt because she moves and trains very well on dirt. Jose Ortiz will be riding her, and I’m very excited to see her run a mile in a Grade 1.”

Lull earned her first graded stakes victory last October when she scored by 3 ¼ lengths in the Grade 3 Autumn Miss at Santa Anita. The Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider homebred finished an even fifth in the Grade 1 Matriarch in November at Del Mar before returning to form with a gate-to-wire victory in the Honey Fox on March 31 at Gulfstream Park. All three of those starts came at one mile.

The 4-year-old daughter of War Front also has victories in the 2016 Exacta Systems Juvenile Fillies at seven furlongs and 2017 Kentucky Downs Ladies Sprint at 6 ½ furlongs.

“Her best distance, probably, is around six, seven furlongs on the grass, but I’m sure she is plenty good enough to go a mile, especially the one-turn mile at Belmont, which is rather speed favoring,” said Clement. “It’s exciting. It’s a very good race. It’s fun. We’ll try.”

Clement said he likely will have two runners in the Grade 2 Jaipur Invitational. Disco Partner is slated to defend his title in the six-furlong turf sprint and could be joined by 2016 Jaipur winner Pure Sensation or White Flag.

Disco Partner set a world record for six furlongs on turf when he won the 2017 Jaipur in 1:05.67. He has won four straight over the Belmont grass, having also captured last year’s Elusive Quality, Forbidden Apple, and Belmont Turf Sprint. The 6-year-old was third in two most recent starts, the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint in November and the Grade 2 Shakertown on soft turf April 7 at Keeneland.

"He ran a good race over softer ground," said Clement. "We would have loved to win, but he actually ran well and he’s been training well. I won’t breeze him again; he will just gallop up to the race.”

Overall, Disco Partner is 7-2-0 in 11 starts over Belmont’s Widener and inner turf courses.

“The horse looks good, loves Belmont, and is doing well, so, let’s go,” added Clement.

Clement scratched Pure Sensation out of Saturday’s Pennsylvania Governor’s Cup at Penn National but isn't ready to fully commit the five-time graded stakes winner to the Jaipur. Most recently, the 7-year-old was second in an optional claimer in April at Gulfstream. Like Disco Partner, Pure Sensation carries the colors of his breeder, Patricia Generazio. White Flag, winner of the 2017 Allied Forces at Belmont, hasn't raced since finishing seventh in the Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship in November.

“Between White Flag and Pure Sensation I will run one of the two, most likely Pure Sensation,” said Clement. “[Pure Sensation] had one start [this year], got beat at Gulfstream. It was a nice race back. We always have a daily struggle because he’s a difficult horse to keep sound with his feet. As long as he’s doing well this week, I’m planning on running him.”