Justify, Restoring Hope resuming training with jog around the track

by NYRA Press Office

Kentucky Derby and Preakness hero Justify, who could give trainer Bob Baffert a second Triple Crown winner three years after pulling off the feat with American Pharoah, returned to the racetrack after the routine day off that followed his half-mile work in 46 4/5 seconds Tuesday. Accompanied by assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes aboard his pony Sunny, Justify jogged once around the mile track under exercise rider Humberto Gomez.

“He had a very good jog day,” Barnes said. “He stayed with the pony the whole way. Very strong, very happy. Couldn’t be happier.”

Restoring Hope, third in Aqueduct’s Grade 2 Wood Memorial before finishing 12th in the Grade 3 Pat Day Mile on the Derby undercard, had an identical training session in jogging a mile. “Very good,” Barnes said.

Trainer Bob Baffert is expected back from California this weekend, with Justify likely to have his final workout on Monday before flying to New York on Wednesday, June 6.

Just what Romans wants: Uneventful mornings for Free Drop Billy

Free Drop Billy had an uneventful morning galloping 1 5/8 miles under Juan Segundo during Churchill Downs’ 7:30-7:40 a.m. slot restricted to Belmont Stakes horses — and that’s the way trainer Dale Romans wants it.

“Very uneventful,” Romans said. “He did what he was supposed to do, and he did it the way he’s supposed to do it. That’s all I’m asking for.”

He called preparing a horse for the Belmont Stakes “a balancing act.”

“Very few people know how to prepare a horse for a mile and a half,” he said. “You only do it once a year. I’ve kind of learned to back off a bit more, like [D. Wayne Lukas] is talking about, not pushing them over the hump.”

While genetics come into play at the longest distances most of these horses will ever race, Romans said of training regimen, “you have to help them a little bit, but you just don’t want to get into that spot of overdoing it.”

Also at Churchill, Winchell Thoroughbreds’ Tenfold, who finished third by a total of three-quarters of a length in the Preakness in his fourth career start, had a typical 1 1/2-mile gallop under exercise rider Angel Garcia.

“He’ll go two miles tomorrow and breeze on Saturday,” said Scott Blasi, who oversees the Churchill Downs operation for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, the 2016 Belmont Stakes winner with Creator. “The horse is doing great. His weight’s good; he’s putting on weight. We hopefully will get a good race in him.

“He has a lot of personality to him right now, a lot of life. I like what I see so far.”

Hofburg ‘relaxed,’ ‘well within himself’ in Thursday gallop

Juddmonte Farm’s Belmont Stakes probable Hofburg has continued to train well at Bill Mott’s Saratoga base, said the Hall of Fame trainer. Hofburg, second in the Grade 1 Florida Derby in his stakes debut and seventh in the Kentucky Derby last time out, galloped 1 5/8 miles over the Oklahoma training track Thursday morning.

“He looked really good. He was relaxed, which is a good thing, well within himself,” said Mott. “So far, we feel pretty good about him.”

With rain forecasted in the Saratoga Springs area Thursday evening into Friday morning, Mott is weighing his options when to breeze the chestnut Tapit colt this weekend. Hofburg worked last Friday, going six furlongs in 1:13.43 in company.

“He’s going into this race nicely,” Mott said. “Of course, we need to breeze again and make the move down to Belmont. We hope the ship goes good and he adapts well down there. But it seems like when we move him , he falls into the routine pretty well. He’s pretty good about everything.”

California-based D’Amato has trio of Grade 1 contenders for BSRF

Trainer Phil D’Amato doesn’t often make the trek from California to New York, with only a handful of stakes starters over the past few years. His record, though, has been solid, with two victories, one second and one fourth in six races, including Coppa’s win in Grade 3 Victory Ride and Obviously’s triumph in the Grade 3 Poker, both in 2016.

On Belmont Stakes Day, Saturday, June 9, the 42-year-old D’Amato is hoping to improve on that record when he saddles Grade 1 winner Fault in the Grade 1, $750,000 Ogden Phipps, Grade 1 winner Ransom the Moon in the Grade 1, $1.2 million Runhappy Met Mile and graded stakes winner Spectator in the Grade 1, $700,000 Acorn, presented by Nassau County IDA.

Fault, a 4-year-old Blame filly, has reeled off three straight graded stakes wins (and earned $420,000) since being transferred to D’Amato’s barn over the winter, taking the Grade 2 Buena Vista on the Santa Anita turf, followed by a pair of victories on the dirt: a last-to-first win the Grade 1 Santa Margarita at 1 1/8 miles and a similar score in the Grade 3 Adoration at 1 1/16 miles.

“From Day 1 when we got her she trained like a horse who would love the dirt, not like a grass horse who just trains all right on dirt,” said D’Amato, a former assistant to Mike Mitchell in California. “She proved she’s legit on dirt when she won the Santa Margarita [by 6 ½ lengths] and then when she won the Adoration, it reinforced that.”

A “Win and You’re In” race for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, the Ogden Phipps is contested at 1 1/16 miles, albeit around one turn, and is expected to attract, among others, last year’s Acorn winner, Abel Tasman, Grade 1 Humana Distaff winner American Gal, Grade 2 Ruffian winner Pacific Wind, and Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap winner Unbridled Mo.

D'Amato, however, is confident in his filly's ability.

“She has that big run, and the big sweeping turns at Belmont should suit her,” said D’Amato of Fault, who will have Giovanni Franco in the irons. “It would be nice to get another Grade 1 win on the dirt.”

As well, the prestige of the Met Mile made the race difficult to pass up for Ransom the Moon, beaten favorite in the Grade 2, 6 1/2-furlong Kona Gold in his 2018 debut. The 6-year-old son of Malibu Moon complied a 6-3-1 record in 2017 for D’Amato, including wins in the Kona Gold and the Grade 1 Bing Crosby at six furlongs. The one-mile Metropolitan will be his first start at the distance since a third-place finish on the Woodbine turf in 2016.

“He’s got tactical speed and Flavien [Prat] knows him well,” said the trainer. “It’s a great race and certainly worth taking a swing at.”

Spectator has been no worse than third in five career starts, with victories in a maiden race, an optional claimer and the Grade 2 Sorrento as well as a third in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante to close out her 2-year-old campaign. Last time out, the Jimmy Creed filly was second to Midnight Bisou in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks at 1 1/16 miles.

“She’s graded-stakes placed around two turns,” said D’Amato. “She got a little late the last sixteenth [in the Oaks], and again I think the mile and the one-turn race in the Acorn might play to her advantage.”

D’Amato said Javier Castellano, aboard in the Oaks, will ride in the Acorn. All three are scheduled to arrive at Belmont Park on Tuesday.