Pletcher preps probables for BSRF; Noble Indy, Vino Rosso breeze in the rain for G1 Belmont & more

by NYRA Press Office

• Pletcher preps probables for BSRF; Noble Indy, Vino Rosso breeze in the rain for G1 Belmont
• Barnes: Justify 'breathing fire,' Restoring Hope showing 'good energy'
• Belmont-bound Blended Citizen slated to work Saturday before first race
• Rain forces Gronkowski to spike Friday breeze; will look to work Saturday
• Tenfold gallops two miles, will work Saturday at Churchill
• Bravazo gets a walk day following Thursday breeze

Trainer Todd Pletcher was a busy man Friday morning, shuttling between Belmont Park's main track and training track as he fit in a number of scheduled works for next week's Belmont Stakes Racing Festival in between the raindrops.

The trainer called an audible for his two Belmont Stakes contenders, sending them to the training track, where they breezed five furlongs with new workout partners in preparation for their dates with Triple Crown hopeful Justify in the 150th edition of the Grade 1, $1.5 million Belmont Stakes, presented by NYRA Bets, on Saturday, June 9.

First off was Noble Indy, who, equipped with blinkers and in company with Hyndford, went 1:01.22 with Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano aboard. In the next set, Vino Rosso and the Grade 1 Stephen Foster-bound Patch were caught in 1:01.55 under fellow Hall of Famer John Velazquez.

"I thought they both worked very well," said Pletcher, who last year won his third Belmont Stakes with Tapwrit, joining Rags to Riches (2007) and Palace Malice (2013). "We got the type of [Belmont] work we were hoping for, kind of a long steady five-eighths with a big gallop-out. I got them both in around 1:42 for the mile which was what I was looking for. Both of them showed they were in good form."

Last week, the duo went a half-mile together in a bullet 47.04 in their first work since the Kentucky Derby.

"Last week on the main track, they worked together and went a little quicker than I wanted," said Pletcher. "I didn't want to do that again. Today I wanted a long, stamina building work.

"The thing I liked about both horses was the work on the main track [last week] was as good as I've seen them go," he added. "I wanted to go on the main track because of that this morning. I'm glad we got it in when we did. I think they showed last week they handled the main track very well and I hope that proves to be the case [in the Belmont]."

Pletcher, whose Madefromlucky and Materiality finished sixth and eighth, respectively, behind Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in the 2015 Belmont, said beating Justify would be a tall order for any of his Belmont rivals.

"I feel as good as I can feel," he said. "With the five weeks in between races, and that they've been here at Belmont since two days after the Derby, we're hoping that will give them a little bit of an edge. [But] I think, like all of us, we need Justify to wake up on the wrong side of the bed to have a chance."

Pletcher also sent out stakes winners Hard Study and Outplay, who breezed a half-mile in 48.69 on the main track for the Grade 2, $400,000 Brooklyn Invitational at 1 ½ miles; Grade 1 Humana Distaff runner-up Ivy Belle (49.11) and Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap winner Unbridled Mo (49.09) on the training track for the Grade 1, $750,000 Ogden Phipps; multiple stakes winner Blind Ambition in 48.89 on the training track for the Grade 2, $400,000 Jaipur Invitational; Grade 1 Man o' War victor Hi Happy in 48.89 for the Grade 1, $1 million Woodford Reserve Manhattan, and 2-year-old Outshine in 49.87 for the $150,000 Tremont in Friday, June 8.

"I thought they all went well and they appear to be in good form," said Pletcher.

Speaking of Belmont Stakes winners, last year's hero Tapwrit will be making his first start since the 2017 Travers on Sunday at Belmont Park in the eighth race, a 1 1/16-mile optional claimer. The 4-year-old has been training steadily since April, including three works at Belmont Park, most recently covering a half-mile in 49.80 on Tuesday.

"He's been training great," said Pletcher. "He hasn't run in a while but he's been training like he's good enough to run off the layoff. It's good to have him back and we're looking forward to getting a race into him. Hopefully this is the start of a successful campaign for him."

Pletcher said the Grade 2, $700,000 Suburban Handicap at 1 ¼ miles on July 7 could be under consideration for Tapwrit should he run well.

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Barnes: Justify 'breathing fire,' Restoring Hope showing 'good energy'

Triple Crown hopeful Justify had a controlled 1 1/8-mile gallop Friday morning over a sealed Churchill Downs track in preparation of the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes, and assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes had his hands full leading the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner off the track with his pony.

"He's breathing fire, this horse is right now," said Barnes, who is overseeing Justify's training in Kentucky while Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert is in California. "We'll be happy to get a nice training day into him tomorrow, and he'll settle back down."

Barnes also took Justify, with exercise rider Humberto Gomez in the saddle, to the starting gate to stand.

"We chose today to be our gate day just because the track was a little on the firmer side," Barnes said of the track being packed down, or sealed, to keep the overnight rain from penetrating into the surface. "We didn't want to do too much with track conditions. With him working this coming week, we weren't really going to have a chance to get back up to the gate."

Among the crowd of spectators watching Justify was Elliott Walden, president and CEO of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner's co-owner WinStar Farm.

"He's really doing well," Walden said. "Couldn't be happier with the way he's doing. We've got eight days to go. Like Bob said when he worked the other day, it was almost like, 'Man, I wish it were this weekend and not next.' We're in a waiting game, just hoping every day goes as well as today."

Walden was a long-time trainer before he left for WinStar Farm. He knows as well as anyone the tight-knit nature of the industry where you might be competitors one day and teammates the next.

Now on the side of trying to have American racing's 13th Triple Crown winner, Walden trained Victory Gallop, whose dramatic nose victory in the 1998 Belmont Stakes thwarted the Triple Crown for the Baffert-trained Real Quiet. WinStar has won the Belmont Stakes twice before, with the Bill Mott-trained Drosselmeyer in 2010 and Steve Asmussen-trained Creator in 2016. Now those Hall of Fame horsemen will try to be the spoiler with Juddmonte Farms' Hofburg (Mott) and Winchell Thoroughbreds' Tenfold (Asmussen).

"That's the great thing about the horse business," Walden said. "It's a close-knit family. You're trying to compete against each other, trying to win. But you also have relationships with people so that even when you don't win, you feel OK about it. The backside is a close place. It's all connected."

Walden said he also watched Tenfold galloping two miles during the 7:30 a.m. training slot designated for Belmont Stakes horses. "Tenfold looks great," he said. "I was up at Saratoga last week and Hofburg looks well. It's going to be a great race.

"Winning the Derby, to me, I can't imagine it getting any better than that. But we'll see what the Triple Crown would feel like. It's still pretty calm. I think next week it will get turned up to another level. Because with the Derby there are 20 horses taking focus, probably five or six that you guys [in the media] focus on. When you come into a Triple Crown, I think 80 percent of the attention will be on Justify. So it will be pretty crazy next week. But I don't see it as any different than trying to win the Derby, I really don't."

Walden said Justify's talent is his biggest attribute for the Belmont.

"He's obviously the best of the generation, I think he's proven that," he said. "So I think it's his race to lose. Now having said that, there are plenty of great horses who have lost the Belmont. He's not cinch by any stretch of the imagination. But he's a horse with extreme talent, and I think that's his biggest attribute. He's a better horse than these horses right now. With that being said, the three weeks, how will that play into it? The mile and a half, how will that play into it? The great thing about the Triple Crown is there are always these variables. That's what makes horse racing great, and while there will be 10, 12 horses to load up against him to try to beat him. That's what it's all about."

Also galloping Friday at Churchill Downs, albeit right after Justify, was his Belmont Stakes-bound stablemate Restoring Hope, who stood in the other starting gate in the mile chute. Both horses are likely to work Monday, then flying to New York Wednesday.

"He's fresh, happy, very good energy," Barnes said of Restoring Hope, who was 12th in the Grade 3 Pat Day Mile after taking third in Aqueduct's Grade 2 Wood Memorial.

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Belmont-bound Blended Citizen slated to work Saturday before first race

Grade 3 Peter Pan winner Blended Citizen galloped 1 ½ miles around Belmont's main track Friday morning and is scheduled to turn in his final work Saturday afternoon at 12:50 p.m. before his start of the first race. Trainer Doug O'Neill said that decision was due to an abundance of wet weather in recent days as he hopes to get a breeze in over a fast main track.

'It's been hectic, but we're excited to work him," O'Neill said by phone. "Things have been going well. Hopefully everything goes well tomorrow, and then we're just going to train him lightly up to the big day."

That work will be his second at Belmont after he breezed four furlongs in 47.55 seconds over the main track last Saturday.

Blended Citizen has been stabled at John Hertler's Barn 17 since his 1 ½-length victory in the May 12 Peter Pan.

The two-time Grade 3 winner, who won the March 17 Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park before finishing fifth in the Grade 2 Blue Grass at Keeneland, was scratched as an also-eligible in the May 5 Kentucky Derby, and instead worked a six furlong breeze in 1:16 that morning at Churchill Downs before his victory the following Saturday at Belmont Park.

A victory in the Belmont Stakes, Blended Citizen's first Grade 1 start, would add him to the list of seven others who swept the Peter Pan and Belmont Stakes double: Counterpoint (1951), Gallant Man (1957), Cavan (1958), Coastal (1979), Danzig Connection (1986), A.P. Indy (1992), and Tonalist (2014).

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Rain forces Gronkowski to spike Friday breeze; will look to work Saturday

A driving morning rainstorm pushed back Belmont Stakes hopeful Gronkowski's work, with trainer Chad Brown saying the Lonhro colt could put in his final breeze before the "Test of the Champion" on Saturday.

"I was going to work and I waited until after the break, I wasn't comfortable going today," Brown said Friday morning. "It's just bad luck. I was moving it up a day anyway because there might be some rain. I prefer to work Saturday anyway, but I was prepared to work today."

Brown said Gronkowski could work on Belmont's main track after the mid-morning break.

"Preferably, tomorrow is a day I'd want him to work. I'm not going to hold myself to it, but probably [after the break]," he said.

Gronkowski has four wins in six starts - all in Great Britain - for Phoenix Thoroughbred Limited. In preparation for his first North American start, the namesake of New England Patriots All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski put in his first official workout at Belmont on May 26, going four furlongs in 47.99 seconds.

On Sunday, Brown will saddle multiple graded stakes winner Timeline in an allowance race that will also feature 2017 Belmont Stakes-winner Tapwrit in Race 8 with an approximate post time of 5:18 p.m.

Contested at 1 1/16 miles, the $85,000 race will feature Timeline making his second appearance since ending his 3-year-old campaign with a seventh-place finish in the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby.

Timeline started his career with four straight wins, including victories in the 2017 Grade 3 Peter Pan and Grade 3 Pegasus before running fifth in the Grade 1 Haskell at Monmouth Park.

In his return off a nearly seven-month layoff, Timeline ran third to Sunny Ridge and Pioneer Spirit in a one-mile allowance race on April 20 at Aqueduct Racetrack.

"I think he needed the race and thought he ran well in defeat. It was a very tough race," Brown said. "The distance looks fine. He got the race he needed."

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Tenfold gallops two miles, will work Saturday at Churchill

Tenfold, third by a total of three-quarters of a length in the Preakness in his fourth lifetime start, galloped two miles under exercise rider Angel Garcia. The son of two-time Horse of the Year Curlin is scheduled to work five-eighths of a mile Saturday morning at Churchill Downs and to fly to New York Tuesday.

"The horse galloped good," said Scott Blasi, the assistant trainer who oversees trainer Steve Asmussen's Churchill Downs operation. "I was really happy with him. He just looks like he's got a bloom to him. I really liked his gallop today a lot."

The Preakness was about the only thing that jockey Ricardo Santana did not win at Pimlico. During the two-day affair, the Churchill Downs-based Santana rode in 11 stakes, winning five with a second and three thirds, one being the Preakness on Tenfold. He also had a fourth and a fifth.

Four of his victories were with Asmussen horses, including the Chick Lang for 3-year-olds with Mitole, who is scheduled to run back Belmont Stakes Day in the Grade 2, $400,000 Woody Stephens, presented by Mohegan Sun.

"A few days earlier, Steve told me we had a lot of good shots," Santana said. "All the horses were training amazing. Tenfold was training amazing. Mitole was training amazing. I've got a lot of confidence in Steve. He does a really good job with the horses, and they are always ready to go.

"I was really blessed, having two days winning stakes and the trainer and owners gave me an opportunity. I was really happy. I can't even believe I had that great week."

Tenfold was tracking Bravazo, then actually got the jump on that horse rounding out of the turn and going after Justify. Bravazo came swooping in late to edge Tenfold for second by a neck.

"The horse ran a really good race," Santana said. "Steve told me since the first day that the horse was special for him. We had a lot of confidence that he was going to run a good race. He was acting really professional. He took the dirt [in his face] pretty good. He's an amazing horse. He does everything right. We were in a great spot. I was a little worried how the track was, because it was pretty muddy. But the horse was like he didn't care.

"Turning for home, my horse gave me everything he had. He got a little tired. I think if he had run one more race, we had a pretty good chance to beat Justify. I think in the Belmont my horse is going to run a very tough race."

Santana believes the Belmont's 1 1/2 miles will suit Tenfold, who won his first two starts at 1 1/16 miles at Oaklawn Park.

"He's got a really long stride," he said. "He's a horse that the second you ask him, he goes for it. When I won his first race, he broke so sharp and was on the lead. I didn't even feel how fast I was going. I came back and saw the time (1:44 4/5) that we ran. The second time, I schooled him pretty good, put him behind two other horses, and he took the dirt pretty good. We beat a nice horse for Todd Pletcher. He ran a pretty good race in the Arkansas Derby for his third race. He was a baby still, and in the Preakness, he proved a lot."

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Bravazo gets a walk day following Thursday breeze

Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas' Belmont Stakes contender, Preakness runner-up Bravazo, got the day off from training Friday after working a mile in 1:42 3/5 on Thursday. 

One of the strange aspects of watching the Preakness amid the heavy fog is how Bravazo seems to disappear rounding out of the far turn and into the top of the stretch. Calumet Farm's horse is clearly seen in third tracking Justify and Good Magic while in front of Tenfold, then vanishes. Tenfold makes a big move to go after the leaders, and then Bravazo suddenly blasts out of the fog to nearly nab Justify. The official Equibase chart says Bravazo was third by a total of three lengths at the second point of call, then is fifth by five lengths behind Justify with an eighth-mile to go before losing by a half-length.

"I told Luis, 'If he's on the lead by himself, you've got to move early on him, you've got to try to run him down,'" said trainer D. Wayne Lukas, referring to jockey Luis Saez. "But if somebody is doing the heavy lifting and helping us, sit and wait. And wait. And then take a run. What happened, he said, is coming off the turn, both Good Magic and Justify got the first run and opened up another length on him. He said, 'I knew I had to get going.' He was just late starting. He had plenty of horse, he said. He said, 'If I had to do it over again, I'd have started about 20 yards earlier.' I told him, 'As long as they're pressuring him, just be patient.'"

"In that race, I think we could have beaten him, if everything was perfect," he said of Justify, whom he believes will be even more formidable in the Belmont. "But he still won the race, so be it. But I think as that one turned out, we had a chance to beat him. The next one will be a whole different deal. It just means you better put us in the superfecta."

More than 30 members of the Churchill Downs Racing Club are expected to be on hand when the Lukas-trained Warrior's Club runs the Grade 1, $1.2 million Runhappy Metropolitan Handicap on Belmont Stakes Day.

Warrior's Club has 200 owners who put up $500 apiece as Churchill Downs launched the Churchill Downs Racing Club two years ago. The club partnerships are designed so money goes toward purchasing the horse and paying expenses and trainer fees. No dividends are paid, with the partnership to dissolve when the money runs out. 

"A one-turn mile is right down his alley," Lukas said. "He's one of those wear-'em-down types. They could be lucky enough to have two in the Breeders' Cup, I'm telling you.... I just told the group that every owner in Kentucky, no matter how rich or how poor, would like to have the success they're having on a $50,000 horse turning out like Warrior's Club. Only in Hollywood do they make this stuff up."