**For video of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert and
Thursday, June 3, 2010
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- Newly arrived Game On Dude gallops
- First Dude gallops, schools in gate
- Emotions run deep with Uptowncharlybrown
- Maker has high hopes for Stately Victor
- Belmont a venture into the unknown for Dave in Dixie
- Margolis revisits New York roots with Stay Put
- Other
- Sadler high on Crisp for Betfair TVG Acorn
- Kinsale King preps for Royal Ascot during
ELMONT, N.Y. – Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito sent out his Belmont Stakes-bound duo of Ice Box and Fly Down for a short jog around the training track shortly after 7 a.m. this morning.
Afterward, Zito, who has two winners from 22
"It starts from the two-year-olds," he said. "We try to build up a lot of miles as they go … the way we train horses, the way our system is, is to try and get the horses to go long.
Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't work, but you still have to have the pedigree. You still have to have the player, in other words."
In addition to his victories in 2004 and 2008 with Birdstone and Da' Tara, Zito also has six seconds and three thirds in the
"
Ice Box, owned by Robert LaPenta, and Fly Down, owned by Richard Pell, are very different animals, said the trainer.
"Ice Box has a tremendous personality," said Zito. "He's a fiery little horse, but still cool under pressure. I've always believed in Ice Box from Day One. And Fly Down, what can I say about him? He's an amazing horse. He broke his maiden at famous Churchill Downs and he's gone on to do good things. A quality horse."
Asked to pick between the two, Zito smiled.
"I hope it's a dead heat," he said.
* * *
Bob Baffert sent out his
"I was looking at the race – it's sort of wide [open]," he said. "We're all within five lengths of each other. It's whoever can go the mile and a half, is what it's going to come down to.
"I actually brought my binoculars but I don't think I'm fit enough to hold them up for a mile and a half," he joked.
* * *
With his owner, Donald Dizney, looking on, First Dude had a lengthy gallop around the
With each passing day, trainer Dale Romans grows more assured he did the right thing by coming to
"I wanted to make sure he trained over this surface, which is deeper and sandier," said the trainer. "And it also gives him a chance to get used to the mile and a half oval."
* * *
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin knows there are a lot of deep and raw emotions tied to his Belmont Stakes entrant Uptowncharlybrown. Fifty-nine people share a piece of the chestnut son of Limehouse, and Robert Hutt, managing partner in Fantasy Lane Stable, was best friends with the colt's former trainer, Alan Seewald, who died suddenly April 12.
McLaughlin, who took over the training after Seewald died, was in the Terrace Dining Room when Hutt got up and spoke Wednesday at the Belmont Stakes post position draw breakfast and, voice breaking, expressed his hopes for Uptowncharlybrown to come through and win.
Back at his barn on the
"Alan was a friend of mine, too," McLaughlin said. "Not as close as some of these people, like Bob Hutt, who was his best friend, but we were friends when I was training regularly down at Monmouth. [Uptowncharlybrown] was probably the best horse [Alan Seewald] ever bought or raced.
"I probably feel a little more pressure, but we put pressure on ourselves every day. But there is a lot. It would be quite emotional if we end up in the winner's circle. It would be unbelievable, actually."
* * *
Belmont contender Stately Victor has two victories in his nine-race career, a 4½-length score on the turf last summer at Saratoga and his shocking 4¼-length triumph at odds of 40-1 in the Blue Grass Stakes on Keeneland's artificial track.
"He's run well on dirt, so far, but you'd like to get that win," the Ghostzapper colt's trainer, Michael Maker, said Thursday morning. He would like to see it come Saturday in the
Stately Victor has had his moments on dirt: He broke slowly in his debut, an off-the-turf seven-furlong race at
Stately Victor then opened his 2010 campaign forwardly placed in a 1 1/8th-mile dirt race at Gulfstream and tired behind eventual winner Drosselmeyer, who also is running in the
After two nondescript turf races, Stately Victor crashed onto the Triple Crown scene with his win in the Blue Grass. In the Kentucky Derby, he was 18 lengths back after a quarter-mile and pulled within three but was unable to overcome all the bumping and trouble of his trip.
"He didn't disgrace himself in the
"He couldn't look any better right now," he added, "and he's handled his weight after the
Maker knows exactly how he wants the 1½-mile "Test of the Champion" to unfold: "I see a fast pace; he's sitting in a perfect spot on the outside, six or seven lengths off the pace and widens in the stretch. I've had that dream a lot."
* * *
For trainer John Sadler and owner Ike Thrash, sending Dave in Dixie into the Belmont Stakes is a venture into the great unknown. This past winter, the Dixie Union colt was ranked among the best in
Dave in
Two races devoid of pace saw to that: First,
"Those two races, you've got to just throw them out," Thrash said. "In the Illinois Derby, there was about a 30 mph wind blowing in to their faces down the stretch, so nobody made up any ground. He was grinding away. They were merry-go-round races."
"We brought him home and freshened him up," said Sadler, who will arrive in
Sadler gave the colt about a month off after the Illinois Derby and then resumed his works: four furlongs, five furlongs, six furlongs and then a mile on May 27. Dave in Dixie came back from the last workout "and he didn't even blow," Sadler said, so the decision was made to try the
Still, Sadler does not know how good the horse is.
"It certainly is absolutely like that; you wish you knew," he said. "I always felt he could run two miles. I think I have a horse that's a natural at the distance, but there are a lot of things we don't know."
Thrash agreed: "We don't have enough to go on."
* * *
Trainer Steve Margolis schooled Stay Put in the paddock before the second race Thursday. He schooled the son of Broken Vow in the starting gate earlier in the morning.
The
Margolis' father and stepmother live in downtown
"I haven't been out to
"We know we're going to be a long shot," Margolis said of Stay Put, "but we're coming off a nice win on Derby Day. He's a real easy horse — looks around a little plays a little — but he's a kind horse."
Margolis' wife of two years, Susan Devereux, comes from a Thoroughbred training family. Her late father, Pat Devereux, trained a handicap horse named Royal Harmony that won the Lafayette Stakes at Keeneland three years in a row.
* * *
Interactif, a late addition to the Belmont field, had a "brilliant" 1½-mile gallop, trainer Todd Pletcher revealed … By telephone, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott reported that Drosselmeyer galloped and schooled in the gate at
* * *
Trainer John Sadler believes his 3-year-old El Corredor filly Crisp should not be overlooked in the Grade 1, $300,000 Betfair TVG Acorn on the
"If you study the results around the country, the
Crisp comes off a seventh-place finish behind Blind Luck, Evening Jewel and Acorn morning-line favorite Tidal Pool in the Kentucky Oaks.
"My filly was six wide at Churchill all the way around and couldn't get any kind of trip and got beat [8½] lengths. She came back home and trained very well, so we decided to go back out and take a shot at it. For me, it's a question of how the
* * *
With European-based jockey Kieren Fallon aboard, the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen winner Kinsale King breezed four furlongs in 48.55 this morning at
Kinsale King is trained by Carl O'Callaghan, who is based in
"Todd Pletcher's filly (
Kinsale King was ridden to victory in the Golden Shaheen by Garrett Gomez, who has other riding obligations on the day of the Golden Jubilee.
"I preferred to get the rider used to him, and he's only going to walk and jog in
Kinsale King and O'Callaghan arrived in
O'Callaghan admitted he didn't realize he would be in town for Saturday's Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes when he first made plans to train Kinsale King at
"It didn't even dawn on me," said O'Callaghan. "I totally forgot about it, but it's great to be in
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