2012 Belmont Stakes: Union Rags, Dullahan among those to have works postponed on Saturday

Barbara D. Livingston

Street Life trains at Belmont Park on Saturday. He had his work postponed because of the wet track.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Five of the 11 likely starters in next Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, including Dullahan and Union Rags, had their scheduled workouts postponed on Saturday due to heavy rains that moved up the East Coast and pelted Belmont Park Friday evening and into Saturday morning.

The Ken McPeek-trained duo of Atigun and Unstoppable U along with the Chad Brown-trained Street Life also had their works postponed on Saturday.  

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Dullahan was scheduled to work under his new jockey Javier Castellano during the special 15-minute training window reserved for Belmont starters after the renovation break. But the combination of the sloppy conditions and the fact the dogs (orange cones used to section off parts of the track) were set out approximately eight to nine feet from the inner rail were enough for trainer Dale Romans to postpone the breeze at least one more day.

“I waited until almost 8 a.m. before making the decision,” said Romans on Saturday. “But when they said they were going to keep the track floated and weren’t going to open it up, and that they were going to keep the dogs up, I felt it was best to wait at least another day. I have a window of three days, any time between now and Monday, to work him. If the track is good in the morning, he’ll work tomorrow.”

Romans said Dullahan will breeze an easy half-mile when he does work, giving Castellano his one and only opportunity to get acquainted with the horse prior to the Belmont.

“It’s a good time for Javier to get on him, although he’s a pretty straightforward horse and pretty easy to ride,” said Romans.
Union Rags, who like Dullahan skipped the Preakness to await the Belmont, was slated to work early Saturday at Fair Hill in Maryland with his new rider John Velazquez aboard. But with the bad weather having reached the Maryland area much earlier than New York, trainer Michael Matz made the decision to postpone the work on Friday, rescheduling for Sunday morning with Velazquez still slated to make the drive down from Belmont for the drill.

Brown said it was an easy decision to put off Street Life’s work another day due to the track conditions. Street Life, a son of Street Sense, finished a fast-closing third behind Mark Valeski in the Grade 2 Peter Pan in his first start over the Belmont strip on May 12 while equipped with blinkers for the first time.

“The track’s going to dry out, the weather is supposed to be good all this afternoon and tomorrow,” said Brown. “We sent him out at 8:30 this morning because the cones were out and the track a little narrow. I plan on working him five furlongs in company with a workmate on Sunday.”