Belmont Stakes Racing Festival Notes 5.26.18

by NYRA Press Office

• G1 Belmont hopeful Gronkowski puts in first work on Big Sandy
• G3 Peter Pan winner Blended Citizen sharp in Belmont breeze
• Justify makes 12-year-old a racing fan: 'I started feeling it was cool'
• Walsh hoping Proctor's Ledge lands first Grade 1 in Just a Game
• Vino Rosso, Noble Indy exit Friday work in good shape
• Hofburg earns day off following Friday breeze
• Clement readies runners for Belmont Stakes Racing Festival
• Routine gallops for Bravazo, Tenfold and Free Drop Billy

Phoenix Thoroughbred Limited's Gronkowski put in his first official work since arriving in the United States, breezing four furlongs in 47.99 seconds on Belmont Park's main track Saturday morning as he readies for the Grade 1, $1.5 million Belmont Stakes on Saturday, June 9.

Chad Brown, who took over training duties for the Lonhro colt from European-based trainer Jeremy Noseda, saw Gronkowski work in company with Engage, recording splits of 24 2/5 seconds; 47 4/5 and galloping out in 1:00 1/5, according to NYRA clockers.

"He breezed great. It was his first work for us," Brown said. "We gave him a couple of weeks to acclimate over here and get used to the main track, and it went better than expected."

Jockey Jose Ortiz rode Gronkowski wearing a black helmet, having him get a feel for Big Sandy as Gronkowski readies for first North American start after starting his career with four wins in six races running exclusively in Great Britain.

"He was very pleased," Brown said about Ortiz's reaction. "It just worked out today that he could come out and work him. He gave me some really good feedback that was positive and helpful for me."

Working immediately after the morning break for track renovations, Gronkowski stayed to the inside of Engage, a two-time stakes winner who won the 2017 Grade 3 Futurity. Gronkowski has won his last four races, including three to start his 3-year-old campaign, all contested at one mile.

Named for the New England Patriots All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski, the equine Gronkowski could make his first American start in the final leg of horseracing's Triple Crown, held over 1 ½ miles in the "Test of the Champion."

"Not having had the horse very long, I'm limited to what I can do and what kind of training regimen I can set up," Brown said. "Based on this unique situation, I set up a plan that I feel is fair to try and get him to the race if he's fit enough and good enough.

"It takes a special horse to get there, and based on what I saw today, he looked good out there," he added. "I'm excited to see what he does next weekend. He came to me in outstanding condition. He's a very sound and easy to transition into what we're doing here. The horse is smart and all class, he has [the] true signs of a really good racehorse."

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G3 Peter Pan winner Blended Citizen sharp in Belmont breeze

Trainer Doug O'Neill said he is happy with his multiple graded stakes winner and Belmont Stakes hopeful Blended Citizen, who offered his first workout since his 1 ½-length victory in the Grade 3 Peter Pan at Belmont Park on May 12. 

The Proud Citizen colt threw a speedy half-mile in 47.55 seconds over Belmont's main track Saturday morning with trainer Nick Esler in the irons. It was the first breeze in preparation towards a start in the Belmont Stakes on June 9.

The 3-year-old took to the track at 5:45 a.m., and was allowed to stand and take in the massive course before he went about his work regimen. O'Neill said the work was timed with splits of 12 3/5 and 25 for the first quarter, and galloped out five furlongs in 1:00 and six furlongs in 1:13.

The Belmont would be the 11th career start for Blended Citizen, who took his time early in his career after breaking his maiden in his fifth career start. It was the second consecutive try on turf after he rallied to close four wide to win by 1 ¼ lengths at Del Mar. He then closed out his 2-year-old season with a fourth-place finish in the December 29 Eddie Logan at Santa Anita.

The chestnut's sophomore year began on synthetic with a third place in the El Camino Real Derby over Golden Gate Fields' Tapeta course on February 17. His first attempt against graded stakes company followed in the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks on Polytrack at Turfway Park on March 17 when he debuted with blinkers and returned with rider Kyle Frey for the second consecutive time. That effort put him on the map as a contender on the Kentucky Derby trail after he prevailed to win by a neck after a long drive to the wire in the 1 1/8-mile prep race.

The change in surface and equipment was something O'Neill and his crew decided might be necessary going forward.

"He's always worked well on the dirt," O'Neill said via email. "I think the blinkers helped him focus and not run immaturely or spotty. The blinkers also helped the rider place him in his races easier [and have] more early speed away from the gate."

Following the Jeff Ruby, Blended Citizen remained in Kentucky and again stepped up in company in the Grade 2 Blue Grass at Keeneland. Although hindered and forced to alter his course in the stretch, Blended Citizen ran fifth behind reigning 2-Year-Old Champion Good Magic.

After earning only 22 points on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard, Blended Citizen was an also-eligible in the "Run for the Roses," but failed to draw in that previous Friday when no defections were announced from the race. He instead worked a solid six furlongs in 1:16 at Churchill that morning, his last before his victory in the Peter Pan.

Blended Citizen has the chance to become the eighth horse to sweep the Peter Pan-Belmont Stakes double, joining Counterpoint (1951), Gallant Man (1957), Cavan (1958), Coastal (1979), Danzig Connection (1986), A.P. Indy (1992), and Tonalist (2017).

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Justify makes 12-year-old a racing fan: 'I started feeling it was cool'

Justify - 1 1/2 miles from becoming American horse racing's 13th Triple Crown winner if he can add the Belmont Stakes to his Kentucky Derby and Preakness - trains every morning at Churchill Downs before a crowd of fans watching from the track's grandstand with horsemen, media and others watching from the backstretch.

Horse racing loves a Triple Crown pursuit in part because of the new fans it can create. One such newbie won over by Justify is Louisville sixth-grader Trey Coomes, who Saturday morning not only saw a horse of any kind in the flesh for the first time in his 12 years, but enjoyed an up-close view of a history-making horse.

Trey is the son of longtime Louisville writer Mark Coomes, a huge horse-racing fan who had been chagrined that none of his three sons shared his passion. But that changed when unbeaten Justify won the Kentucky Derby - and it was solidified in the Preakness when Trey made a $20.10 profit (with bets placed by his father) by wheeling Justify on top of a $3 exacta while watching the race at a local restaurant.

"We watched the Preakness. Justify won and I started feeling it was cool," Trey said.

"He's already got the math down. He just started drilling me with questions. Next thing I know, we're watching replays of old races, American Pharoah's Triple Crown, Secretariat, obviously," Coomes said, asking his son, "What's the greatest call in horse-racing history?"

Trey: "He's moving like a tremendous machine!"

"I'm just interested to see if he becomes one of the few Triple Crown winners," he continued. "He seems like a cool horse, the best horse around right now. When [Dad] offered to take me here, I was like, 'yeah, heck yeah.' Honestly, I was excited just to see horses in the flesh."

Justify had another relaxed 1 1/2-mile gallop under exercise rider Humberto Gomez during the special 7:30 training slot that Churchill Downs restricts to Belmont Stakes candidates.

"Couldn't be happier with the way things are going," said assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes, overseeing Justify's training on the road while Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert is in California. "We did a little bit more today: We backed up to the eighth-pole, pulled up at the half, so he galloped a good mile and a half again. Bob just said take it easy with him, don't do too much. He's doing that very easily out there."

Baffert is expected to be in Louisville early next week.

Also at Churchill with Barnes is Gary and Mary West's possible Belmont starter Restoring Hope, who finished third in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial but then was 12th in the Grade 3 Pat Day Mile on the Derby undercard. Barnes said Restoring Hope earlier galloped 1 1/2 miles.

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Walsh hoping Proctor's Ledge lands first Grade 1 in Just a Game

Brendan Walsh's first winner as a trainer six years ago was owned by Patricia Moseley. Now he hopes to team with Moseley for his first Grade 1 victory with the 4-year-old filly Proctor's Ledge being pointed for the Grade 1, $700,000 Longines Just a Game for fillies and mares on the turf on the Belmont Stakes undercard. Walsh said he also is considering the Grade 2, $600,000 New York at 1 ¼ miles on Friday of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, but most likely will run in the one-mile Just a Game.

Last August, Proctor's Ledge swept Saratoga's Grade 3 Lake George, giving Walsh his first overall win at the Spa, and the Grade 2 Lake Placid before running poorly in Keeneland's Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup. In three starts at age 4, she was a close second in a very tough running of Tampa Bay Down's Grade 2 Hillsborough, was disappointing again at Keeneland in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley before taking the Longines Churchill Distaff Turf Mile on Kentucky Derby Day under Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez.

"It was fantastic," Walsh said of the Churchill victory. "They're the ones you want to win, especially on a day like that."

In spite of being based there, Proctor's Ledge's only bad starts have been at Keeneland. "I don't think she handles Keeneland, for whatever reason," Walsh said. "Keeneland seems to be her nemesis. I don't know why. She's running out of her own stall there, and she works well there. Last year maybe she'd gone over the top. But I have no idea why she ran the way she did there this spring."

The daughter of Ghostzapper tuned up for her Belmont debut by working a half-mile on turf at Keeneland in 47 4/5 seconds Friday. 

"She went well so it's all systems go," Walsh said at Churchill Downs. "We put her in the other race, the mile and a quarter, the day before. We'll have a look at that, too, but I think we'll go in the Just a Game."

Walsh said the Just a Game's mile distance suits Proctor's Ledge late kick.

"She liked running into that strong pace," he said. "The New York is $600,000, so it will come up tough as well. But she's won a Grade 2, so we really need to try to win a Grade 1. That seems the obvious next one for her... I'd love to win a Grade 1 with her. The owners are fantastic people. I actually had my very first winner for them, a filly named Sandcastle for Mrs. Moseley. She's had three or four horses with me ever since."

Moseley is the widow of former Suffolk Downs track owner James Moseley, who campaigned Proctor's Ledge's third dam Drumtop. A 17-time winner, Drumtop routinely competed against and beat the boys in marathon turf races. Drumtop's babies included useful racehorse and very good sire Topsider.

Proctor's Ledge is scheduled to fly to New York on June 6.

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Vino Rosso, Noble Indy exit Friday work in good shape

Belmont Stakes contenders Vino Rosso, a three-length winner of the Grade 2 Wood Memorial this spring, and Noble Indy, winner of the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby, exited Friday's breeze in good order and remain on target for the "Test of the Champion," said trainer Todd Pletcher on Saturday.

Working in company in their penultimate breeze for the 1 ½-mile classic on June 9, the pair covered four furlongs in 47.04 seconds, after which Pletcher said that Noble Indy would join the prospective list of runners set to challenge Triple Crown hopeful Justify in the Belmont. 

Noble Indy, a distant 17th in the Kentucky Derby last time out over a sloppy and sealed track, will be ridden in the race by Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano, who was aboard for Friday's work. Vino Rosso, who has been pointed to the Belmont following his ninth-place in the Derby, will retain the services of fellow Hall of Famer John Velazquez. 

Vino Rosso, purchased as a yearling for $410,000, is a chestnut colt by two-time champion Curlin, who finished a close second to Pletcher-trained Rags to Riches in the 2007 Belmont, and is out of the Street Cry mare Mythical Bride, a half-sister to 2014 Belmont runner-up Commissioner and 2013 Breeders' Cup Sprint runner-up Laugh Track.

With three wins from six career starts and $620,500 in earnings, the Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable color bearer hinted at his potential early with easy victories in his first two starts to end his juvenile campaign 2-for-2 following a 2 ¼-length optional claiming win in December at Tampa Bay Downs. His 3-year-old season, however, started out on the flat side in two stakes tries at Tampa Bay, finishing third in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis in February and a flat fourth in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby the following month.

Vino Rosso was finally able to put it all together in the April 7 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct Racetrack, where he settled early in sixth behind a fast pace and commenced a rally on the far turn to overhaul Enticed in the stretch en route to his first stakes win.

"That was the kind of Vino Rosso we had seen in the mornings all winter," Pletcher said of the Wood Memorial. "Before his debut, we were optimistic that he was potentially a nice colt. We liked the way he won his first out and his second out was such an easy race that maybe we got misled a little bit about his affinity for the Tampa surface. I think finally in the Tampa Derby, we figured out that maybe he just didn't like the surface there. Hopefully, we can look forward to the effort he had in the Wood and we'll see the good Vino Rosso show up."

Pletcher said the colt's connections were undeterred by Vino Rosso's Derby result, where he settled near the back of the pack and raced wide to put in a mild bid over the off track to finish 10 ½ lengths behind Justify, and remain cautiously optimistic about their horses chances in the Belmont.

"We've always felt like the mile and a half was going to suit him well," said Pletcher. "He's closely related to Commissioner, who ran a big race in the Belmont here. He's a son of Curlin, who also ran a big race in the Belmont, so it gives us optimism that he'll handle the distance. 

"I don't think his Derby was a bad race," he added. "It seemed he never really enjoyed the going and he wasn't beaten a horrible amount. I said afterwards that I don't think I've ever had a horse come back from a race with as much mud as he had in his eyes. We kept flushing them and flushing them, trying to clean them out for days, and mud just kept coming out. I thought in spite of that, he ran a steady race. He never could get any traction to make an impact."

Vino Rosso and Noble Indy are both scheduled to turn in their final works for the Belmont on Friday, weather-permitting, said Pletcher.

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Hofburg earns day off following Friday breeze

Following his Friday breeze, Belmont Stakes hopeful Hofburg earned a light day, being hand-walked in Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott's shedrow on Saturday.

"He looked good this morning," Mott said Saturday from his barn in Saratoga. "He had a good, solid work yesterday, so we gave him a day off from the track."

The Juddmonte Farms homebred will go back to galloping tomorrow, Mott said, and build up to his next breeze, which could come Friday, Saturday or Sunday depending on the weather in the Capital Region.

"Hopefully, one out of the three days, we'll get a good one," Mott said.

Hofburg has just four career starts on his ledger and will be looking for his first career stakes win. After breaking his maiden at second asking on March 3 at Gulfstream Park, the Tapit colt ran second to Audible in the Grade 1 Florida Derby on March 31 in his stakes debut, setting up a seventh-place finish in the Kentucky Derby on May 5.

On Friday, he breezed six furlongs on the Oklahoma training track, officially being clocked in 1:13.43.

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Clement readies runners for Belmont Stakes Racing Festival

Trainer Christophe Clement was in good spirits at his Belmont barn after watching multiple graded stakes winner Lull breeze five furlongs in 1:01.23 on the main track on Saturday morning in preparation for the Grade 1 Just a Game on June 9.

"She looked great, I thought," said Clement. "She worked well and I'm excited. The plan is to go for the Just a Game with Jose Ortiz. As of now, all systems go."

The 4-year-old War Front filly, owned by Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider, won her only one start of the year in the Grade 3 Honey Fox on March 31 at Gulfstream Park. 

Graded stakes winner Disco Partner, who last year set the world record for six furlongs on the turf in last year's addition of the Grade 2 Jaipur Invitational, will look to defend his title on Belmont Stakes Day, said Clement. 

Owned and bred by Patricia and Frank Generazio, the 6-year-old homebred son of Disco Rico took top honors in April as Champion Male Sprinter at the New York Thoroughbred Breeders Awards. He finished third in his lone start this year in the Grade 2 Shakertown on April 7 at Keeneland.

Clement reported that Stormy Victoria, who ran second in the License Fee at Belmont on April 29 after finishing fifth to Lull in the Honey Fox, would be pointed to the Grade 3, $200,000 Intercontinental to kick off the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival on Thursday, June 7.

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Routine gallops for Bravazo, Tenfold and Free Drop Billy

Bravazo engaged in a controlled gallop Saturday morning under exercise rider Danielle Rosier at Churchill Downs.

"The heat's picking up a little bit earlier in the morning now, so I want to be careful," said Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, a four-time Belmont Stakes winner with Preakness winner Tabasco Cat in 1994, Derby winner Thunder Gulch in 1995, Editor's Note in 1996 and Commendable in 2000. "I have to keep that energy level up."

Lukas said Bravazo, an oncoming second by a half-length in the Preakness Stakes after finishing sixth in the Kentucky Derby, is likely to have one timed workout before the Belmont Stakes. He said he has yet to decide on a date but the work will be at least 10 days after the Preakness, making Tuesday the earliest.

"I keep tweaking it every day I'm out there," Lukas said. "But I think I'll work him one time, but I'm going to go at least 10 days and then I'll pick a day. That's the minimum. I might go 11th day, 12th day, but I'd like a cool day on a nice track."

"They don't lose their fitness in three weeks, especially with the heat and everything," Lukas said of the timing from the Preakness to the Belmont. "But you may want to open their lungs a little bit. It depends on the horse. Like I don't know that I even worked Tabasco Cat after he won the Preakness. I think I just took him straight into the Belmont. Because he was light. I remember taking him out and grazing him and thinking, 'This horse has really lightened up on me.'"

Winchell Thoroughbreds' Tenfold, third by a total of three-quarters of a length in the Preakness in his fourth career start, started his 1 1/2-mile gallop in a lope under Angel Garcia and picked up the pace throughout.

"That's kind of the idea," said Scott Blasi, who oversees Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen's Churchill Downs operation. "We'll do a little more with him as the week goes on, probably just breeze him one time before the race."

Looking at a calendar and working back from the June 9 Belmont, Blasi said Tenfold could work five-eighths of a mile about a week out.

"I don't think we'll overdo it," he said. "The horse is plenty fit. He's come out of his race really well."

Tenfold's sire, the Asmussen-trained two-time Horse of the Year Curlin, also did not race at 2, finishing third in the 2007 Kentucky Derby in his fourth start, winning the Preakness and then losing the Belmont by a nose to Kentucky Oaks winner Rags to Riches. Tenfold won a maiden and allowance race at Oaklawn Park before finishing fifth in the Arkansas Derby, a race Curlin won. Tenfold's finish made the Preakness Stakes the goal.

"He's starting to wake up a little bit," Blasi said of Tenfold. "That was only his fourth lifetime start. I've seen a change in him since he came from Oaklawn, through the Preakness and until now. He's starting to show more personality, has a little more life to him, whereas before he was just very laid back. I just expect this horse to continue to improve as the year goes on. We were happy with his effort in the Preakness. I think he's just going to continue to develop."

Free Drop Billy, easily identified by the huge white blaze that covers much of his face, continued to gallop at Churchill Downs toward the end of training hours. Trainer Dale Romans said the Albaugh Family Stables-owned colt will work Sunday morning at the designated 7:30 time for Belmont Stakes horses. How he works will go a long way toward determining if Free Drop Billy runs in the Belmont, Romans said.