Allen Jerkens ships in to old stomping grounds

ELMONT, N.Y. – The decision by Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens to remain in Florida this spring has left a void on the Belmont Park backstretch. Though he personally will not be attending Saturday’s Belmont Stakes card, the 85-year-old Jerkens will have the chance to make his presence felt.

Jerkens has shipped in two female runners for two of the six Grade 1 races being run on Saturday’s rich program. Jerkens will be a huge longshot in the Grade 1, $1 million Ogden Phipps with the 5-year-old mare Classic Point, but he will have a realistic chance to win the Grade 1, $750,000 Acorn, for 3-year-old fillies, with House Rules.

On Tuesday, at Belmont, House Rules and Classic Point each put in workouts for their upcoming engagements. House Rules, who has not raced since running second in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Oaks on March 29, went five furlongs in 1:00.31 over the main track immediately after the renovation break. Earlier in the morning, Classic Point, winner of a second-level allowance last out, went six furlongs in 1:13.37, also over the main track.

House Rules, under Jorge Duarte, went her first three furlongs in 36.58 seconds and got her last quarter-mile in 23.73. She galloped out six furlongs in 1:13.75.

“I think she did it the right way, easy the first part and she finished really good and that’s what [Jerkens] wanted,” said Fernando Abreu, Jerkens’s assistant who traveled with the two horses. “They got to work good in order to run good on the big days against those tough fillies.”

Abreu said House Rules was training well enough in Florida since the Gulfstream Oaks that Jerkens briefly flirted with the idea of running in the Kentucky Oaks. That race was won convincingly by Untapable.

“We probably would have been second or third,” Abreu said. “That filly ran a big race.”

With Untapable bypassing the Acorn to await the 1 1/8-mile Mother Goose here on June 28, Abreu thinks House Rules should be competitive in the one-turn mile race.

Classic Point, a 5-year-old daughter of Flatter, is coming off a 5 1/4-length victory in a second-level allowance win at Gulfstream on April 26. In the Phipps, she will be a huge longshot against the likes of Beholder, Close Hatches, and Princess of Sylmar.

“We’re taking a shot, we’ll probably make one run; [hope] somebody will get tired and we can pick up a little piece or something,” Abreu said. “Those are three really good fillies.”

Abreu said it was “very weird” not being stabled at Belmont Park.

“You got to look for everything, people to help you, pony boys,” Abreu said. “If you’re stabled here you have everything right then and there. [Jerkens] missed it, too. First thing he said when he saw opening day on the TV, was ‘Man it feels weird not being in New York and seeing Belmont on TV.’ ”