Analyze It the big dog in Pennine Ridge Stakes

ELMONT, N.Y. – Justify won’t be the only special, undefeated 3-year-old in action at Belmont Park over the next week.

Analyze It, who has won his first three races by a combined 15 3/4 lengths, puts his perfect record on the line Saturday in a salty renewal of the Grade 3, $200,000 Pennine Ridge Stakes. At 1 1/8 miles on turf, the race is the local stepping-stone to the $1.2 million Belmont Derby here on July 7.

A field of eight was entered for the Pennine Ridge, but Hawkish is expected to scratch to run in Saturday’s Grade 2, $500,000 Penn Mile at Penn National, according to trainer Jimmy Toner.

Analyze It, a son of Point of Entry trained by Chad Brown for owner William Lawrence, won his career debut last fall by 6 1/4 lengths at Belmont. Four weeks later, he won the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes at Del Mar by 4 1/4 lengths.

In his 3-year-old debut, he overcame post 11 to win the Grade 3 Transylvania by 5 1/4 lengths over yielding turf at Keeneland.

“He got the race he needed, has had plenty of time since,” Brown said this week. “The horse is doing really well. Hopefully, he takes another step forward. A mile and an eighth shouldn’t bother him.”

As he showed at Keeneland, soft turf shouldn’t bother Analyze It either. Showers were in the forecast Thursday through Saturday, so the turf is likely to be less than firm.

“He’s shown the ability to run on different types of ground,” Brown said. “He’s just all around a real special horse.”

The Pennine Ridge marks the return to turf for Catholic Boy, a son of More Than Ready who won his first two starts on grass, including the Grade 3 With Anticipation at Saratoga. He had some trouble when fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf before moving to dirt and winning the Grade 2 Remsen at Aqueduct.

Most recently, Catholic Boy finished fourth in the Grade 1 Florida Derby on March 31 and was found to have bled in the race.

“He’s moving great, he’s carrying good flesh,” trainer Jonathan Thomas said. “Obviously, with Analyze It, it’s not any kind of walkover. It’s going to show us where we stack up in the 3-year-old turf ranks.”

Untamed Domain, second on the BC Juvenile Turf, dead-heated for second in the Grade 2 American Turf last out. Channel Cat was sixth in that race but broke slowly and made up a ton of ground late.

KEY CONTENDERS

Analyze It, by Point of Entry
Last 3 Beyers: 98-93-90

◗ Has dominated all three of his races and looks to be getting better with added distance.

◗ Worked head and head with Grade 1 winner Beach Patrol in an extremely good five-furlong breeze in 1:01.40 on Monday.

Catholic Boy, by More Than Ready
Last 3 Beyers: 80-92-91

◗ Had a decent work in company with the New York-bred Kundray over the Belmont turf course here Monday.

Untamed Domain, by Animal Kingdom
Last 3 Beyers: 88-72-83

◗ Looks like he will relish the 1 1/8 miles, but may be compromised by an apparent lack of pace in this field.