Forever Young visits Belmont Park Tapeta track as preparations continue for G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup
- Forever Young visits Belmont Park Tapeta track as preparations continue for G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup
- Nitrogen breezes at Belmont Park for G2 Beldame
- Minaret Station targeting G1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic
Susumu Fujita’s Forever Young, the reigning Japanese Horse of the Year and Eclipse Award-winner as Champion Older Dirt Male, visited both the Tapeta track and main track Saturday morning as he continues preparations for the 108th running of the Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup, at Belmont Park.
Following a three-year project to transform Belmont Park into a world-class sports and entertainment destination, The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) will celebrate a new era on Friday, September 18, with a live racing program anchored by the Jockey Club Gold Cup. The 10-furlong route for 3-year-olds and up provides a “Win and You’re In” berth to the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic in October at Keeneland.
To help unveil the new Belmont Park to a national audience on September 18, FOX will present live coverage of the Jockey Club Gold Cup as part of its Belmont Park Returns telecast to air from 3-4:30 p.m. Eastern.
Trained by Yoshito Yahagi, Forever Young left his barn at 5:50 a.m. Eastern with assistant trainer Yuki Araki in the saddle and traveled through the tunnel to the Tapeta track in company with Shin Emperor.
The 5-year-old Real Steel horse went for a light hack once around the Tapeta track to warm up before both horses visited the main track. Both Forever Young and Shin Emperor cooled out with multiple laps along the treelined horse path adjacent to the main track before bath time and a pick of grass.
“We went to [Tapeta] first to trot and easy hacking and then we went to the main track for a normal canter one lap,” Araki said. “I think he's in very good condition now. Always, when he moves to America, he gets condition better and better and I find this morning he moved really well. I'm very happy and I think he's very happy, too.”
While the Jockey Club Gold Cup will be held on the dirt main track at Belmont Park, the newly-installed one-mile Tapeta track will be used as the exclusive surface for winter racing while also providing a year-round training option for horses stabled on the property. Additional training options for horsemen at Belmont include a one-mile dirt training track, as well as a covered jogging barn with a synthetic surface, and a quarter-mile Tapeta pony track.
Hiroshi Ando, racing manager for Susumu Fujita, said he has been impressed with the facilities at the new Belmont Park.
“This is amazing. Belmont Park is the best complex for training now in North America,” Ando said. “We have a lot of options with main track, training track, Tapeta track, small track.
“Main thing is Forever Young has settled in very well,” Ando continued. “He's calm now, relaxing. Whenever we want to take him out, it's easy now. Very professional.”
Forever Young is scheduled to breeze on Tuesday over the Belmont Park main track with jockey Ryusei Sakai in the irons.
“Tempo is important. It's not about time,” Araki said, regarding the planned workout.
Ando echoed this sentiment.
“It should be a half-mile to five-eighths, but you guys will be disappointed clock wise,” Ando said, with a laugh. “We won't give you a fancy time. We want to just feel the horse.”
Shin Emperor accompanied Forever Young on the trip from Japan with an eye towards the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic on September 26 here, but will bypass the race.
“We thought he's not ready to run. He has a bright future, and we don't want to run him [when we’re] not sure because our target is the Breeders' Cup Turf,” Ando said. “Obviously, we have to maintain him first and then let's see. We'll see day-by-day how he does. I want to see him happy out here."
Inaugurated in 1919, the Jockey Club Gold Cup has been won by a number of Hall of Fame horses, including Man o’ War [1920], Crusader [1926], Reigh Count [1928], Twenty Grand [1931], War Admiral [1938], Hill Prince [1950], Nashua [1955-56], Gallant Man [1957], Sword Dancer [1959], Buckpasser [1966], Damascus [1967], Arts and Letters [1969], Forego [1974], Exceller [1978], John Henry [1981], Easy Goer [1989], Cigar [1995], Slew o’ Gold [1984], Skip Away [1996-97], and Curlin [2008].
The Hall of Famer Kelso won the Jockey Club Gold Cup a record five straight years from 1960-64, while the Hall of Fame filly Shuvee beat males two years in a row [1970-71]. In addition, nine Kentucky Derby winners have won the prized event, including Triple Crown winning Hall of Famers Gallant Fox [1930], War Admiral [1937], Whirlaway [1942], Citation [1948] and Affirmed [1979].
Araki expressed his appreciation for the many greats that have graced Big Sandy.
“This racecourse's history shows many Champion horses have run here. The Gold Cup is the next big race. There are many good trainers here and we are very honored to be here, standing here and training here. I'm very impressed with everything. The people are very warm and kind,” Araki said.
Ando also noted his appreciation for the warm welcome received by the Forever Young team.
“The American people, everybody, loves Forever Young. I feel a lot of respect for him from everyone, which we really appreciate,” Ando said. “Belmont Park people give good hospitality for us and everything we request they try their best for which we're really thankful. We have to do good for the Gold Cup because, like Yuki said, it's a great historic race. We are honored to join that and hope we are able to show everyone Forever Young with a great performance at Belmont.”
Entries for the Jockey Club Gold Cup are being taken today. For more information about the new Belmont Park, visit NewBelmont.com.
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Nitrogen breezes at Belmont Park for G2 Beldame
D. J. Stable’s reigning Champion 3-Year-Old Filly Nitrogen turned in a solo half-mile in 49 and 3/5 on Saturday over the main track at the new Belmont Park, her first local move since heading south from Saratoga Race Course earlier this month.
Trained by dual Hall of Famer Mark Casse, the 4-year-old daughter of Medaglia d’Oro stepped onto the track shortly after 8:30 and breezed solo under the watchful eye of assistant trainer Shane Tripp.
“I thought she went really good, and they said she broke off nice, I watched the work [on video] – she went easy in the middle, and then finished and galloped out good,” Casse said. “We weren’t looking for anything fancy. She got over it [well] and they said she had great energy when she got back to the barn, which is always what we are wanting.”
Casse noted that Nitrogen is targeting the local nine-furlong Grade 2, $250,000 Beldame on September 25 for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up rather than the Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup against males on September 18 as part of the first card of racing at the new and reimagined Belmont Park.
“We discussed all the different scenarios, and as much as the Jockey Club intrigues us, we started out the year with a goal, and that goal was to win the Breeders’ Cup,” Casse said. “We feel like our best path to that is the Beldame.”
Nitrogen will enter the Beldame off a valiant second to reigning Horse of the Year Sovereignty in the Grade 1 Whitney on August 8 at Saratoga. She was a 12 3/4-length winner of the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps presented by Ford in June at the Spa as the highlight of the 5-2-2-1 campaign she has compiled so far this year.
Moments after Nitrogen breezed, her dual Grade 1-placed stablemate Measure turned in a solo four-furlong work 47 and 2/5 in preparation for the Grade 1 Cotillion on September 19 at Parx Racing.
“She worked really good this morning and she’s going in the Cotillion,” Casse said.
Measure was last seen finishing a neck second to My Gun’s Loaded in the Grade 1 Alabama presented by Keeneland Sales on August 22 at Saratoga.
She holds a 7-1-3-1 record with just shy of $300,000 in total purse earnings.
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Minaret Station targeting G1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic
OXO Equine’s Kentucky homebred Minaret Station is likely to seek his first top-level score in the Grade 1, $500,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, a 1 1/2-mile turf test for 3-year-olds and up, on September 26 at Belmont Park.
Trained by Will Walden, the 4-year-old Instilled Regard bay was a half-length third in the Grade 2 Bowling Green presented by Emerald Ecovations in July at Saratoga Race Course ahead of a last-out three-quarter-length second to the mare Survie in the Grade 1 Christophe Clement Turf in August there.
“That’s the plan,” Walden said of the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic. “As long as everything stays on course with his works, that’s where we are going to go.”
Minaret Station had closed from deep in his three previous efforts, but tracked the pace from second position in the Clement Turf and nearly held off Survie, who rallied from last and also closed to win the Grade 2 Glens Falls two weeks earlier.
“That was a really good effort. Look at his running lines, he’s never run a bad effort,” Walden said. “He always shows up and he ran his tail off. It was just a matter of trying to figure out what he’s best at. We are trying to win a Grade 1 with him and last time, we thought he might have figured it out at the sixteenth pole, but that filly who beat him is awfully good. She could be a likely favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf so there’s no shame in that.”
Minaret Station is 8-3-2-2 overall with $628,256 in earnings.
“He’s lightly raced. He’s a super talented horse, shows up every day and goes to work,” Walden said. “So, hopefully, we’ll come up with the Joe Hirsch and it gets us back to Keeneland [for the Breeders' Cup].”
