Tuesday, June 1, 2010

BELMONT PARK NOTES: Tuesday, June 1, 2010

**For video of Belmont Stakes hopeful Interactif and Jonathan Thomas, assistant to Todd Pletcher, please visit: http://www.belmontstakes.com/multimedia/2010-contenders/2010/06/01/interactif-and-jonathan-thomas/**

 

 

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

 

Contact: NYRA Press Office

(718) 659-2351

 

BELMONT PARK NOTES

 

  • Zito sticking to game plan for Belmont contenders Ice Box and Fly Down
  • Belmont hopeful Game On Dude to arrive Wednesday
  • Connections hopeful as Interactif returns to dirt in Belmont
  • Margolis arrives to oversee Stay Put's final Belmont preparations
  • Make Music for Me jogs; trainer visits Empire State Building
  • Owner hoping for solid pace for Dave in Dixie
  • An easy day for other Belmont contenders
  • Quality Road exits Met Mile in excellent order; Derby winner Super Saver resumes light training

 

ELMONT, N.Y. – With his 3-year-olds Ice Box and Fly Down facing 1 1/2-mile runs Saturday in the 142nd running of the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes, Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito saw no reason to deviate from the race preparation to which the two colts have grown accustomed.

 

So last Thursday, Robert LaPenta's Ice Box buzzed through four furlongs in 46.65 seconds, best work at the distance at Saratoga, and Richard Pell's Fly Down followed with a bullet 47.50 on Sunday on the main track at the Spa.

 

Ice Box had fired a bullet seven days before winning the Grade 1 Florida Derby in March and again seven days before his runner-up finish in the Kentucky Derby. Fly Down, meantime, turned in a bullet work at Churchill Downs on May 3, five days before winning the Grade 2 Dwyer at Belmont.

 

"Ice Box, we tried to duplicate the same training method as before the Derby," Zito said. "We sharpened him up before the Derby; we're doing the same thing before the Belmont and hoping it works. Fly Down had the same workout before the Dwyer. We put a lot of miles on them every morning, because it's in [their breeding] to go a distance of ground. Hopefully, they'll have that firepower in the end. It's not an exact science, as you can see. Those workouts, regardless of whatever, it's not how you get the horses to go a mile and a half, a mile and a quarter, a mile and an eighth – it's what they do every single day."

 

Zito said both runners will van down to Belmont Park Wednesday and arrive sometime in the middle of the afternoon.

 

*          *          *

 

Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert was happy to report that Belmont hopeful Game On Dude came out of Monday's work at Santa Anita in good shape.

 

"Yep, he's alive," said Baffert of the gelding, who was credited with a six-furlong move out of the gate in 1:12.40, handily.

 

Plans call for the son of Awesome Again to depart California about 6:30 a.m. Pacific Time, on a Tex Sutton flight that will stop in Kentucky en route to New York, arriving at Belmont Park by 4:30 p.m. Baffert also plans to be in New York by mid-afternoon.

 

"I'm looking forward to seeing what this horse will do going a distance of ground," said Baffert, who trains Game On Dude for Bernard Schiappa, The Lanni Family Trust, Mercedes Stables and Diamond Pride LLC. "We bought him for the classics, and he's making one of them. The whole key is having a horse that can go that far. And we'll know about the three-eighths pole how we're doing."

 

*          *          *

 

Interactif, the latest addition to the field for Saturday's Belmont Stakes, had an easy jog around the Belmont Park oval this morning at 6:30 a.m. Afterward, Jonathan Thomas, assistant to trainer Todd Pletcher, talked about the decision to go in the 1 ½ mile Belmont, which will mark Interactif's first start on conventional dirt since July 30 of last year.

 

"The past three weeks here, the way he's been breezing over the main track has been very impressive; he's been working as well as some of the stakes winners we've had over the past several weeks," said Thomas of Interactif, who broke his maiden at Monmouth last July 5 and next finished eighth in the Grade 2 Sanford at Saratoga in his only two starts on dirt.

 

Interactif, who is owned by Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, breezed a half-mile in 48.11 on May 15, six furlongs in 1:14.29 on May 22 and most recently went five furlongs in 1:00.42 on Saturday.  

 

"Obviously, some of the bigger grass races have prestige, but they're not the Belmont Stakes," Thomas added. "And while there are some very respectable horses running in the Belmont, there's nothing that you would duck at the moment. He's a very good horse and if he can transfer his grass form to the dirt, he'll be a serious contender."

 

*          *          *

 

Trainer Steve Margolis and his wife, Sue, arrived at Belmont Park early Tuesday morning to oversee the final preparations for Stay Put's run in Saturday's 1 ½ mile race. It was a homecoming of sorts for Margolis, who worked at the track for Hall of Fame trainer John Veitch, Howie Tesher and Stanley Hough before going out on his own.

 

Stay Put is the first Belmont contender for Margolis, who lived on Manhattan's Upper West Side as a child and moved out to Long Island when he was 12.

 

"We always thought he had a lot of potential," said Margolis. "During the whole course of the Fair Grounds meet, we were trying to get into the Kentucky Derby, but just didn't have enough earnings. When we saw his race on Derby Day [optional claimer win] we all sat down and thought about the Belmont.

 

"He's a long-striding colt, and it doesn't seem like the distance is a problem. Every time Jamie [Theriot] gets off, he says the horse never seems to get tired. It's just a question of whether he can step up to Grade 1 competition."

 

Stay Put, owned by Richard, Bertram and Elaine Klein, walked Tuesday morning and will gallop into the race.

 

*          *          *

 

Make Music for Me came out of Monday's work over the training track in fine form, reported trainer Alexis Barba, and will jog Wednesday morning and school in the gate and in the paddock both Thursday and Friday.

 

."He was happy this morning, eating grass," said the trainer of the Bernstein colt, owned by Ellen and Peter Johnson. "He's so funny when he's eating grass; he doesn't want to leave it. It's almost like you have to get a whip and smooch him back into the barn. He's fun, though; it's getting to be like a game."

 

Later Tuesday morning, Barba was part of a photo opportunity at the Empire State Building, which Friday night will be lit in the Belmont Park colors of green-and-white to mark the 142nd running of the Belmont Stakes. 

 

"What a treat!" she said. "It was fun to see the view. I'd been up before, but it was at night, and that's a lot different."

 

*          *          *

 

Owner Ike Thrash was full of confidence heading into the Preakness Stakes with his stretching-out sprinter Hurricane Ike, until the colt came down with a minor left hind leg injury. With his late-entered Belmont runner, Dave in Dixie, Thrash said, "This time, I have no idea."

 

What Thrash does know, however, is that he wants plenty of pace up front for his son of Dixie Union, trained in California by John Sadler. In the best effort of his career, the Grade 2 Robert Lewis at Santa Anita, Dave in Dixie closed into sharp fractions to finish second behind winner Caracortado. In his subsequent two starts, Dave in Dixie made no impact following a half-mile in 48 2/5 seconds set by eventual winner Sidney's Candy in the Grade 2 San Felipe and then was beaten badly when American Lion got away with a half in 49 1/5 on his way to a gate-to-wire victory in the Grade 3 Illinois Derby.

 

"I hope someone goes 47, 48," Thrash said. "We'll be sitting back there drinking a beer. Game on Dude has got good speed and Star Spangled will have to show speed. Every time there's a Triple Crown race and people say there's no pace, someone always loses their mind and goes out there."

 

*          *          *

 

Exercise rider Tammy Fox gave a thumbs-up and reported that Preakness runner-up First Dude had a "great" 1 ½-mile gallop over the main track at Belmont Park shortly after the break.

 

"He's felt the same ever since I've been getting on him," said Fox of First Dude, who will continue to gallop up to Saturday's race.

 

"He'll probably stand in the gate on Friday, and school in the paddock, but I don't know what time yet," said trainer Dale Romans of the massive colt, who carries the colors of owner/breeder Donald R. Dizney.

 

*          *          *

 

Fantasy Lane Stable's Belmont contender Uptowncharlybrown took to the track earlier than usual Tuesday to beat the heat.

 

"When it's hot, I like to get them out early, so he went to the track at 6:10 and galloped a mile and three-eighths or so," said trainer Kiaran McLaughlin.  "He'll gallop the next three days, or jog if it rains, but he's there now, he's ready."

 

*          *          *

 

Spangled Star could have one more official workout on Thursday in preparation for Saturday's Belmont Stakes, but a decision won't be made until sometime tomorrow.

 

"He's just been galloping every morning," said owner Larry Roman.

 

Trained by Rick Dutrow, Jr., Star Spangled has been breezing every six days, and his most recent drill was a 1:01 2/5 move at Aqueduct last Thursday.

 

*          *          *

 

Drosselmeyer, who has been wowing onlookers with his glistening copper coat, exited Monday morning's bullet work of 59.65 in "great" shape, said Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.

 

"He's wonderful," said Mott of the WinStar colt. "And he's still shiny."

 

The Distorted Humor colt, who worked with bar shoes on his front feet, will be reshod with regular shoes on the morning of the race, said Mott, and will school in the paddock either Wednesday or Thursday.

 

*          *          *

 

Trainer Mike Maker said his Blue Grass winner, Stately Victor, might appear on paper to be a one-run closer but is actually more of a galloper who needs to maintain a steady stride to be most effective.

 

"He doesn't have any gate speed," Maker said. "You kind of let him place himself and then let him grind it out, get in a nice rhythm and hopefully it's not interrupted. It's tough to get his momentum back."

 

Maker said Stately Victor, owned by Jack and Thomas Conway, walked after Monday's half-mile work in 49.93 in good order, and will gallop in the mornings for the remainder of the week and possibly school in the paddock.

 

*          *          *

 

Quality Road came out of his scintillating victory in Monday's Met Mile in "amazing" shape, said Jonathan Thomas, assistant to trainer Todd Pletcher.

 

"I've seen thousands of horses come back from races, and I've never see one come back like he did," said Thomas of Edward P. Evans' homebred. "He literally was cooled out by the time he walked out of the tunnel and back through the paddock."

 

Tuesday, the Elusive Quality colt was treated to special snacks of apples and peppermints after walking the shedrow and taking a short mid-morning nap.

 

"His performance was brilliant," said Thomas of Quality Road's victory in 1:33.11, which tied for the second-fastest Met Mile ever.

 

Thomas also reported that Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver has resumed light training, going out every other day.

 

"He came out of the Preakness in good shape," said Thomas.

 

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