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'Less stress and pressure' with Blended Citizen's outside post

by NYRA Press Office

Gary Hall, SayJay Racing and Brooke Hubbard's Belmont Stakes starter Blended Citizen will navigate the 1 ½ miles of Belmont Park's main track from the outside post 10 in Saturday's Grade 1, $1.5 million classic, and will be one of nine others looking to prevent Justify from becoming the 13th winner of the Triple Crown.

The colt galloped once around the main track early Wednesday morning, and will continue the same regimen until race day.

The Doug O'Neill-trained colt by Proud Citizen is the lone starter in the 150th Belmont Stakes who owns a start and a victory at Belmont after he won the May 12 Grade 3 Peter Pan by 1 ½ lengths.

The post-position draw was just another step closer to race day, and not a major concern for Team O'Neill according to assistant trainer Leandro Mora.

"Being outside helps, but it's a long race so you have plenty of time," Mora said. "It really doesn't matter much. It's not like the Kentucky Derby where everybody is fighting for position. We're happy. First of all, it's a 10-horse field, and he's going to be the last one to load. Usually there's less stress and pressure, and now Justify is on the inside, he got the number that nobody wanted to have. So, for us it's good."

The big brown Kentucky-bred was labeled a slow learner early on. After three starts on dirt where he was unplaced, he was tried on grass where he began to progress, but it wasn't until he debuted with blinkers in the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park that the colt turned the corner.

"Early on at Santa Anita my exercise rider was telling me that the horse was seeing a lot when he was training in the morning," said Mora. "We decided to put blinkers on in training. We brought him to Golden Gate, and I mentioned it to Doug. sI put blinkers on him, but I forgot to enter [the race] with blinkers, so the paddock judge took them off, and we still finished third. In the very next race, we remembered to enter with blinkers, and that's when he won the Jeff Ruby. He also had them in the Blue Grass, but that was a tough race. Now he's getting more and more mature, but we want to keep them on."

Riding a horse with Blended Citizen's style takes a jockey who can judge the pace as well as knowing when to send a long-striding horse according to Mora. Kyle Frey, who has been aboard the colt for his last four races and will ride in his first Belmont Stakes on Saturday, fits his horse perfectly.

"He got along with the horse really well, and he even admitted he should have been a little better in the Blue Grass," Mora said. "He got a little bit out of position, but that's horse racing. This horse doesn't have a good turn of foot, but he's a grinder, so a rider knowing the horse, he knows when he has to start making the move."