Justify, Restoring Hope, Bravazo gallop while Tenfold gets day off

by NYRA Press Office

Perfection is the norm with unbeaten Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Justify, who went out for another relaxed gallop Sunday morning at Churchill Downs the day before his final timed work heading into the 150th running of the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets. While Mike Smith rides 5-for-5 Justify in his races, jockey Martin Garcia is his frequent work rider.

“Another perfect day, galloped a mile and a half,” said assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes, overseeing trainer Bob Baffert’s small string at Churchill Downs. “Now it’s just up to getting Bob in here, Martin in here [for the work] and heading to New York.”

Baffert and Garcia were to fly from California to Louisville Sunday. Justify, along with Belmont Stakes-bound stablemate Restoring Hope, will fly to New York Wednesday. Restoring Hope also will work, but with Belmont Stakes jockey Florent Geroux in the saddle.

Restoring Hope, who went out earlier in the morning, had a similar training session to his famous stablemate, with both ridden by exercise rider Humberto Gomez. “All systems are go,” Barnes said.

Bravazo, the Preakness runner-up by a half-length, likewise galloped 1 1/2 miles at Churchill Downs under exercise rider Danielle Rosier. Bravazo and Met Mile-bound stablemate Warrior’s Club are to leave Churchill Downs at 3:30 Monday morning on the van drive to Belmont Park, a trek for which trainer D. Wayne Lukas will ride shotgun.

“He had another good day,” Lukas said of Bravazo, adding of his competition, “They all look good. That’s the problem.”

Lukas said he will be at Tuesday’s 5:30 p.m. post-position draw in the Foxwoods Club at Citi Field prior to the New York Mets game against the Baltimore Orioles.

Tenfold, third in the Preakness by a total of three-quarters of a length, had a scheduled walk day in the wake of Saturday’s five-furlong work in 1:01 3/5. Scott Blasi, who oversees trainer Steve Asmussen’s Churchill Downs operation, said Tenfold will gallop Monday before flying to New York on Tuesday.

Asmussen won four stakes on Pimlico’s Preakness weekend. While he won’t have the same numbers for Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, the stable will be well-represented.

Asmussen is running Bee Jersey in the Grade 1 Met Mile, and Pimlico’s Chick Lang winner Mitole in the Woody Stephens on Belmont Day, with Miss Preakness third-place finisher Buy Sell Hold running in Sunday’s $150,000 Jersey Girl at six furlongs. He’ll start off his New York stakes this week with Lady Apple in Thursday’s $150,000 Astoria for 2-year-old fillies and Churchill Downs maiden winner Sir Truebadour in Friday’s $150,000 Tremont for 2-year-olds.

Charles Fipke’s Bee Jersey is 4-for-5 in the United States, including a winn in Lone Star Park’s Grade 3 Steve Sexton Mile in his last start, after starting his career with four defeats in Dubai. The Sexton Mile launched Mor Spirit to victory in last year’s Met Mile.

“Another very talented horse out of the Fipke breeding program,” Asmussen said.

Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt’s Mitole has won four of his past five starts by a combined 32 1/4 lengths, with a second in Oaklawn’s Gazebo Stakes for which Asmussen says, “I got him beat. How that happened, I still do not know. He’s just a brilliantly fast horse.”