Belmont Stakes Racing Festival Notes 6.3.18

by NYRA Press Office

• Mott feeling 'very pleased' following Hofburg's breeze in company with Good Samaritan at Saratoga
• Free Drop Billy ‘perfect’ in sizzling final breeze for Belmont
• Justify trainer Baffert to throw out first pitch at Tuesday’s Mets game
• Kentucky Oaks heroine Monomoy Girl works sharp half-mile for G1 Acorn
• Geroux gets acquainted with G1 Met Mile contender Bolt d’Oro in Sunday breeze
• Brown pleased with Gronkowski’s progress toward G1 Belmont Stakes; sends out flurry of turf and dirt workers for BSRF
• Justify, Restoring Hope, Bravazo gallop while Tenfold gets day off
• Holy Helena puts in final breeze Sunday for Grade 2 New York
• McLaughlin reflects on playing second fiddle in Triple Crown victory
• Pletcher shooting for fourth win in Belmont Stakes

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott issued an upbeat bulletin Sunday morning following Hofburg’s five-furlong workout in company with Good Samaritan over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga Race Course, his final preparation for the Grade 1 $1.5 million Belmont Stakes, presented by NYRA Bets, on Saturday, June 9.

Ridden by Neil Poznansky and working outside of Good Samaritan, Hofburg completed the breeze in 1:01.03 before drawing away from his stablemate past the wire.

“We wanted to do a little bit more with Hofburg than with Good Samaritan,” said Mott. “We let them both work under the wire, then I wanted to make sure Hofburg had a good gallop out. Both horses went well, and I was very pleased. Hofburg couldn’t have worked better.”

Hofburg, a Juddmonte Farms homebred, broke his maiden in March at Gulfstream Park in his second start before finishing second, beaten three lengths by Audible, in the Grade 1 Florida Derby. He finished seventh by 8 3/4 lengths in the Kentucky Derby after steadying twice on the far turn.

“We loved him as a 2-year-old a year ago at this time, and we liked his chances going into the Kentucky Derby,” said Mott. “I know he wasn’t very seasoned and he had only three races going into it and there were probably a few people who were quite skeptical about us running him in the Derby off only three races, but I felt very confident in him and I think he ran a good race. He didn’t get the desired trip and he had a little traffic problem during the course of the running of the Derby. If you are going to run in the Kentucky Derby, that can happen if you are a closing kind of horse who has to come through traffic.”

Mott said he is hopeful that having five weeks between the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes will help Hofburg turn the tables on Justify. 

“Justify is a very good horse,” Mott said. “We have a lot of respect for him, he’s very talented, he’s got a lot of speed. His advantage, probably, is that he gets away from the gate good and shakes loose from the field. Whether that’s going to happen or not, I don’t know. He has a lot of natural speed.

“We’ve had good time to recover from the Derby, which probably makes it a bigger challenge for Justify. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. We didn’t hit the board in the Derby and didn’t see any big advantage to running in the Preakness. We just pointed for the Belmont. We have to do what’s best for us, and that’s what we did.”

Mott is seeking his second Belmont Stakes victory, having won the 2010 renewal with Drosselmeyer. 

“I have a lot of confidence in [Hofburg]” said Mott. “I feel very good about him. It’s no walk in the park. You got to go run around Belmont, a mile and a half. We don’t take the challenge lightly, but that’s what we’re here for.”

Mott said Hofburg will ship down to Belmont Park on Monday or Tuesday.

“I don’t think we have regressed any,” added Mott. “I think we have moved forward. The main thing is that he comes out of this work in good shape. We’ll get down to Belmont and get him familiar with his surroundings down there, and if that goes well we will be ready to go.”

Good Samaritan remains on target for the Grade 1, $1.2 million Runhappy Metropolitan Handicap as he seeks his fourth graded stakes victory and first in a Grade 1. The 4-year-old has made two starts this year, winning the Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap in March at the Fair Grounds and finishing third in the Grade 2 Alysheba on May 4 at Churchill Downs. The Metropolitan will be his first start at one mile on the dirt. 

“We’re anxious to try him at a flat mile,” said Mott. “The Met Mile probably is one of the toughest, most competitive races you can run in all year long. It’s also a race that, if you have luck and can win it, makes a horse a stallion prospect.”

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Free Drop Billy ‘perfect’ in sizzling final breeze for Belmont

Relatively out of the limelight, Albaugh Family Stable’s Free Drop Billy turned in another dazzling workout Sunday morning in advance of the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes. Swooping through the Churchill Downs stretch, Free Drop Billy was clocked working five furlongs in a strong 59 1/5 seconds, with splits of 11 3/5 seconds for an eighth-mile, 23 for the quarter-mile, 34 2/5 for three-eighths and 46 4/5 for the half-mile, then unleashing a powerful six-furlong gallop-out in 1:12 4/5.

“He worked really well today,” Romans said of Billy. “He did it all on his own and worked fast, galloped out strong and looks healthy and happy walking back. I wanted him to run along, stretch his lungs a little bit but [there was] no time that we had to have. But it looked perfect. He had a lot of horse, and he did it easy on his own. It was fast but under control.”

Even on a morning when he was the only Belmont Stakes horse working at Churchill Downs, Free Drop Billy was somewhat overshadowed by Kentucky Oaks heroine Monomoy Girl working for Saturday’s Grade 1 Acorn and Triple Crown aspirant Justify’s gallop.

Romans doesn’t take it personally if Free Drop Billy isn’t getting a lot of respect.

“Naw, he flopped in the Derby, we really don’t know why,” he said of Free Drop Billy’s 16th-place finish. “But I’ve seen him bounce back before. He didn’t run real well in the Breeders’ Cup and he came back and ran well all spring.” 

After winning Keeneland’s Grade 1 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity, Free Drop Billy struggled home ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar. In three Derby preps, he was second in Gulfstream Park’s Grade 2 Holy Bull won by eventual Florida Derby winner Audible and third in both Aqueduct’s Grade 3 Gotham and Keeneland’s Grade 2 Blue Grass, the latter the result of being moved up a position after being impeded by a horse.

“He’s training so well,” Romans said. “He’s always been consistent. Throw out the two races and he’s hit the board every time, and the mile and a half might be the difference-maker. You don’t know if the others will like it, and his pedigree says he should. But you don’t know until you try.”

Romans trained the only horse to defeat 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah as a 3-year-old when Keen Ice won Saratoga’s Grade 1 Travers. Keen Ice had finished behind American Pharoah in the Derby, Belmont and Haskell Invitational until pulling off the upset by three-quarters of a length. Now the trainer relishes potentially playing spoiler as his good friend Bob Baffert attempts to sweep the Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes for the second time in four years.

“I’d love to upset him in the Belmont,” he said. “The thing about the Travers was, it was surprising how many people cheered the horse and cheered us walking back. I thought they’d all be booing us when America’s horse got beat. It just shows you how smart racing fans are up in New York. I think they’ll be cheering a good performance, no matter who it is.” 

Romans said he’s still undecided whether to run Promises Fulfilled, Gulfstream Park’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth winner, in Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Woody Stephens presented by Mohegan Sun at seven furlongs or the $150,000 Easy Goer at 1 1/16 miles. He said he will study the prospective fields before making a decision.

Free Drop Billy and Promises Fulfilled are to fly to New York Wednesday. Robby Albarado has the Belmont Stakes mount.

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Justify trainer Baffert to throw out first pitch at Tuesday’s Mets game

Three years ago, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert had to wait until a Triple Crown was secured before he threw out a ceremonial first pitch, doing so at Dodger Stadium just three days after American Pharoah became the 12th Triple Crown winner.

On Tuesday, Baffert will get to take a major league mound again, continuing a busy week that will culminate with Justify going for racing immortality with his own Triple Crown bid in the 150th running of the Grade 1, $1.5 million Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets on Saturday, June 9.

The 65-year-old is slated to throw out the first pitch before the New York Mets face the Baltimore Orioles in an interleague matchup at Citi Field at 7 p.m. The Mets home park in Flushing, Queens will be the site of the Belmont Stakes draw at 5:30 p.m., where the post positions for Justify and the other “Test of the Champion” contenders will be announced.

Baffert, who is based in California, wore a Dodgers jersey in 2015, bringing his son Bode to the mound with him as he threw to then-Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis before a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. As a right-hander, Baffert threw from the rubber and arced a high throw. He also threw out a first pitch in 2002, when War Emblem won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness before a loss in the Belmont Stakes.

Baffert is looking to join fellow Hall of Famer James “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons as the only trainers to win two Triple Crowns. Fitzsimmons trained Gallant Fox in 1930 and Omaha in 1935.

Last year, two Hall of Fame jockeys who ride extensively on the NYRA circuit, John Velazquez and Javier Castellano, both threw out respective ceremonial first pitches before the Mets played the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Belmont Stakes draw, from Citi Field’s Foxwoods Club, will be streamed live at nyra.com.

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Kentucky Oaks heroine Monomoy Girl works sharp half-mile for G1 Acorn

The 10-minute time slot that Churchill Downs has every morning for Belmont Stakes horses was opened up to another equine luminary Sunday, with Kentucky Oaks winner Monomoy Girl working a half-mile in 47 1/5 seconds with older stablemate Dazzling Gem as America’s leading 3-year-old filly prepares for Saturday’s Grade 1, $700,000 Acorn, presented by Nassau County IDA.

Churchill Downs clockers caught Monomoy Girl in splits of 12 2/5 seconds for the first eighth-mile, 24 for the quarter-mile and 36 for three-eighths. She was timed galloping out five furlongs in 59 4/5 and six furlongs in 1:12 3/5. With jockey Florent Geroux at Keeneland to work Met Mile contender Bolt d’Oro, exercise rider Mario Garcia was aboard for the work.

“I was really pleased with what we accomplished. She seemed to cool out fine,” said trainer Brad Cox, shooting for a third straight Grade 1 victory with Monomoy Girl, who gave him the first in his training career in Keeneland’s Ashland Stakes. “I wanted to keep her sharp. We’re shortening up to a mile. She had a really nice breeze last week, and she followed it up with a similar breeze this week. The only difference was that we broke off at the five-eighths pole last week and this week we broke off at the half. The times were very similar. She was breezing really well, in the bridle. I like everything about her. She certainly doesn’t seem like she’s regressed at all.”

Also in company with Dazzling Gem, Monomoy Girl worked before the races last Sunday, getting an official time of 59 2/5 for five furlongs and with a gallop-out time of 1:12 4/5 under Geroux.

Cox said working with another horse “just keeps her focused. We’ve only worked her once this year without company. It was her first work after the Rachel Alexandra. She worked fine, but she’s still a young horse. She’s 3, and I’m looking for honest works out of her. I know I’m going to get an honest work out of her with company. If I send her on her own, I could maybe not get as much out of her. I’d hate to not get what I was looking for as far as going into a race.

“Now is not the time to experiment. We got this far with her keeping her in company and keeping her sharp, and it worked out well.”

Monomoy Girl has won six of her seven starts, the only defeat coming by a neck in last fall’s Grade 2 Golden Rod at Churchill Downs. She is 3 for 3 this year, starting off with a victory in the Fair Grounds’ Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra. Cox never pushed the filly, starting her off in a maiden grass race at Indiana Downs, then a Churchill Downs turf allowance followed by the $80,000 Rags to Riches on dirt as a prep for the Golden Rod.

“Even after she won the first-level allowance race here in September, if someone had told me she’d win the Oaks, I’d probably have said, ‘Aw, I couldn’t really see that happening right now,’” Cox said. “But she did develop on the dirt. She really started moving forward and picking it up and showing she was a filly with a lot of quality. I think she’s improved a lot mentally since the Oaks. She seems to be real focused in her gallops and obviously her breezes. I’m really happy with where we are with her.”

Monomoy Girl is owned by Michael Dubb, Monomoy Stables, the Elkstone Group and Bethlehem Stables. She is scheduled to fly to New York Wednesday.

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Geroux gets acquainted with G1 Met Mile contender Bolt d’Oro in Sunday breeze

Two-time Grade 1 winner Bolt d’Oro worked a half-mile Sunday morning at Keeneland under multiple graded-stakes winning jockey Florent Geroux, who will be aboard for the first time in Saturday’s Grade 1 Runhappy Metropolitan Handicap.

Owned and trained by Mick Ruis, Bolt d’Oro completed the distance in 48.40 seconds to rank 18th of 56 horses over Keeneland’s main track. He has now worked twice in Kentucky following his 12th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, also going five furlongs in 57 seconds May 28.

“We just wanted to go a nice, easy half. We had our serious work last week and I thought it was a perfect work for him,” Ruis said. “He went as easy as you can go and he galloped out seven-eighths, and Florent said it was like nothing for him. The horse is fit and ready to go, so we’re excited.”

As a 3-year-old, Bolt d’Oro was assigned just 114 pounds against his older rivals in the Met Mile, a “Win and You’re In” event for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. It will be his first time against elders, and first race shorter than 1 1/16 miles since winning the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity at seven furlongs last September.

Geroux will be the fourth jockey to ride Bolt d’Oro, whose first four races came under Corey Nakatani who, like Ruis, is based in California. Hall of Famer Javier Castellano was up for a win via disqualification in the Grade 2 San Felipe and a runner-up finish behind Justify in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby. Justify will be attempting to become the 13th Triple Crown champion in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes.

Victor Espinoza rode Bolt d’Oro in the Kentucky Derby, where they chased a demanding pace set by the Bob Baffert-trained Justify before fading to the colt’s only off-the-board finish in seven career starts.

“I will ride Corey, but he couldn’t make the 114. He could maybe get down to 119, so I talked to him and he understood. That’s the weight they give 3-year-olds,” Ruis said. “I was also looking for someone that could work him here. [Geroux] was in Bob Baffert’s barn working Restoring Hope and Bob mentioned to me that he thought he’d be a good choice to ride the horse.

“Anybody can ride Bolt. The guy is push-button,” he added. “He’s amazing and his mind is amazing. If you ask him to go, he goes. If you ask him to stop, he stops. He’s just a really, really easy horse to ride.”

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Brown pleased with Gronkowski’s progress toward G1 Belmont Stakes; sends out flurry of turf and dirt workers for BSRF

Phoenix Thoroughbred Limited’s Gronkowski emerged from his workout Saturday in good order and is set to go in the 150th running of the Grade 1, $1.5 million Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets on June 9, trainer Chad Brown said.

“He looks sound and looks really good,” Brown said Sunday morning. “I was very pleased with how he exited the work. So, he’s a go for the Belmont.”

Gronkowski will be making his North American debut in the “Test of the Champion” after posting four wins and a runner-up finish in his first six career starts in Great Britain. The Lonhro colt was transferred to Brown from Jeremy Noseda last month and has breezed twice on Belmont’s main track, including Saturday’s five-furlong work in 1:01.87.

Sunday morning, Brown indicated he was pleased as well with the final serious moves by a number of BSRF contenders, among them Grade 1 winner Beach Patrol and the undefeated Chilean import Robert Bruce, who went five furlongs in a bullet 1:01.12 on the firm inner turf in preparation for the Grade 1, $1 million Woodford Reserve Manhattan.

“Beach Patrol looks to be more forwardly placed, while Robert Bruce comes from off the pace,” said Brown. “They’re both doing well.”

Breezing a half-mile in advance of Friday’s Grade 2, $600,000 New York at 1 ¼ miles on the turf were Fourstar Crook (49.44) and Sistercharlie (49.52), while Pacific Wind went five furlongs in a bullet 1:00.10 for the Grade 1, $750,000 Ogden Phipps and A Raving Beauty rolled through five furlongs in 1:01.66 for the Grade 1, $700,000 Longines Just a Game.

“They’re all in good form,” said Brown, who also will saddle Call Provision in the Grade 2, $400,000 Belmont Gold Cup Invitational and Off Limits in the Just a Game.

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

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.”

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Holy Helena puts in final breeze Sunday for G2 New York

Stronach Stables’ multiple graded-stakes winning homebred filly Holy Helena breezed an easy half-mile Sunday morning over Belmont’s training track in anticipation of her scheduled start in Friday’s Grade 2, $400,000 New York for older females going 1 ¼ miles on the grass.

The dark bay or brown daughter of Ghostzapper and granddaughter of Holy Bull, both Hall of Famers, was timed in 49.45 seconds on a main track rated fast, ranking 20th of 77 horses at the distance.

It was the second work for 4-year-old Holy Helena since running her win streak to three straight in the Grade 2 Sheepshead Bay May 5 at Belmont. She turned in a sharp five-furlong drill in 1:01.19 on Belmont’s inner turf course Memorial Day, May 28.

Trainer Jimmy Jerkens had initially planned to breeze Holy Helena on Monday but decided to go earlier after looking at the forecast for early this week.

“We moved it up a day because of the rain coming,” Jerkens said. “She worked nice on the turf last Monday so we felt we needed to do a little more because that was pretty far away from the race. We wanted to do a little something, just to keep her up and running.”

Winner of last year’s Queen’s Plate, Canada’s version of the Kentucky Derby, the 2017 Sovereign Award champion 3-year-old filly was moved to the turf over the winter at Gulfstream Park. She posted a gutsy neck triumph in a one-mile optional claiming allowance February 4, then cruised to a 1 ¾-length victory in the Grade 3 The Very One at 1 3/16 miles March 3, her first graded score.

In the 1 3/8-mile Sheepshead Bay, Holy Helena raced near the back for the first eight furlongs before forging a short lead at the head of the stretch and going on to a half-length victory.

“Her first race on turf was an allowance and it was only a mile, but she was relentless until she got there,” Jerkens said. “This is going to be a lot tougher race than her last one … but she’s three-for-three on the turf and each succeeding race has had a little better quality horses in it and she’s been able to handle it. I hope she does the same this time.”

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McLaughlin reflects on playing second fiddle in Triple Crown victory

Though Justify winning the Triple Crown on Saturday would capture the imagination of racing fans and the general public alike, it won't necessarily engender warm and fuzzy feelings in the connections of the horses in his wake. Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin remembers vividly the feeling of nearly winning the Belmont Stakes, only to come up short to a Triple Crown winner.

McLaughlin's Frosted contested the 2015 Belmont Stakes and loomed the main danger to American Pharoah's Triple Crown bid, but proved no match to the eventual champ in the stretch. As it turns out, it's not so easy to switch off the deep affinity he feels for his horses and his desire to win and to appreciate a historic feat for the betterment of racing.

“You can look at it from the perspective of a racing fan, but at the eighth pole I didn't,” said McLaughlin. “I liked our chances turning for home, but we came along in the wrong year chasing American Pharoah around. Frosted ran great that day but we were second best.

“It was neat to be second in a Triple Crown year; I was happy to be a part of it, watching it. I was disappointed that we didn't win, but I was somewhat happy standing there and getting to see it. Once we weren't going to win I was applauding [American Pharoah] for winning it.”

McLaughlin and Frosted did eventually get their time in the sun on Belmont Stakes Day, it just happened to come a year later when the talented gray delivered the performance of a lifetime in the 2016 Met Mile, destroying a Grade 1 field by 14 ¼ lengths. The experience has made the veteran trainer grateful that the Met Mile was moved from its traditional home as the Memorial Day feature, as well as for the revamped Belmont Stakes undercard that now hosts nine supporting stakes races worth upward of $5 million.

“I think the department has done a great job putting all these stakes on one day,” said McLaughlin. “The Met Mile being that day – all eyes and ears from around the world are watching the race. It boosts the performance of a Frosted or anybody winning the Met Mile. Everybody's watching. And the handle is huge because it's such a great race day.”

McLaughlin won't have any stakes runners on Belmont Stakes Day this year, but he will still be participating in the plethora of stakes that make up the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival when he sends out Westwood in the Grade 2, $250,000 True North on Friday.

“He's a nice horse and doing well,” said McLaughlin. “He won a nice stake at Belmont [the Runhappy] in May, so we're excited to see what he can do here.”

By Bernardini out of the great Hall of Famer Ashado, Westwood beat graded stakes winner Skyler's Scramjet to take the Runhappy, and will enlist the services of Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez in the True North, according to McLaughlin.

As for the Racing Festival's main event, this year McLaughlin has the luxury of being an unbiased observer. Though he's been impressed by Justify in the first two legs of the Triple Crown, he knows full well how difficult a feat it is to pull off.

“Three races in five weeks – that's why we haven't had many Triple Crown winners,” said the trainer. “I would think he's going to find it tough to win, even though he's going to be the odds-on favorite.”

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Pletcher shooting for fourth win in Belmont Stakes

Trainer Todd Pletcher, who owns three victories in the Belmont Stakes, would be joining some rarified company should either Vino Rosso or Noble Indy upset Triple Crown hopeful Justify in Saturday’s Grade 1, 1 ½-mile race, presented by NYRA Bets.

While James Rowe leads all trainers with eight Belmont victories from 1883-1913, followed by Sam Hildreth (7), Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons (6 including Triple Crown champions Gallant Fox and Omaha) and Woody Stephens (5 straight from 1982-86), Pletcher would become only the fourth trainer to win four editions of the 1 ½-mile race.

Others who have accomplished that feat include R.W. Walden, who did so in the 1800s; Max Hirsch, whose four wins ranged from 1928 to 1954, and Pletcher’s former employer, D. Wayne Lukas, whose fourth win in the Belmont came in 2000 with Commendable.

Pletcher, who won his first Belmont in 2007 with the filly Rags to Riches, added a second in 2013 with Palace Malice and a third last year with Tapwrit, saw a number of similarities between those winners and his current hopefuls.

“First of all, they both have pedigrees that fit this race,” said Pletcher of Noble Indy, winner of the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby, and Vino Rosso, who took the Grade 2 Wood Memorial. “In Rags to Riches’ case she was truly, truly bred for a mile and a half on the dirt. She was also a very strong-galloping horse that was very impressive to watch train on a daily basis. She had that natural stamina and ability to get into a rhythm and carry that pace over a distance of ground. Both of these horses had a pedigree to suggest they can handle it, with Noble Indy having [1992 Belmont winner] A.P. Indy influence on the top side, and Vino Rosso being closely related to Commissioner, who was unfortunately just beaten in the Belmont, on the bottom side.

“Both of them have that training style about them where they show good stamina in their gallops, good rhythms in their gallops and also have been successful at winning races at 1 1/8 miles already.”

Pletcher has long stated that Rags to Riches’ heart-pounding victory over Curlin remains his favorite win for many reasons – one of which is that it was his first Classic – but added that all three were very special.

The trainer added the narrow losses were memorable in their own way.

“We’ve got some tough beats, too,” he said. “Commissioner (headed by Tonalist in 2014) and Destin (second by a nose to Creator in 2016) were two of the toughest beats we’ve had in that period. We’ve had some other that weren’t so close. Stay Thirsty [second to Ruler On Ice in 2011] ran too good to lose and Dunkirk [runner-up to Summer Bird in 2009] ran great.

“It all makes you appreciate just how tough these Classics are to win.”