Arnold has big day coming up

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Rusty Arnold will be a busy man on Sept. 7, with horses to run in stakes at Belmont Park and Kentucky Downs.

Arnold plans to run Concrete Rose at Belmont Park in the $750,000 Jockey Club Oaks, the third and final leg of the New York Racing Association’s Turf Trinity for 3-year-old fillies. At Kentucky Downs, he will have Leinster for the Grade 3, $700,000 Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint and Morticia for the Grade 3, $500,000 Ladies Sprint at 6 1/2 furlongs.

“It’s a very good problem to have. We’ll figure out how to work it out,” Arnold said.

Concrete Rose was allowed to have things her own way on the front end in Friday’s Saratoga Oaks, winning by 4 3/4 lengths for her fourth consecutive victory and sixth in seven starts. She earned a 92 Beyer Speed Figure. Concrete Rose also won the Belmont Oaks on July 6.

“It would be a horrible thing not to try all three of them,” Arnold said. “This is where we’re going unless something goes wrong. We don’t see it coming the way she came back.”

Leinster pulled a mild upset winning Saturday’s Grade 3 Troy by three-quarters of a length. Leinster, a half-brother to two-time Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Stormy Liberal, is now 3 for 3 in turf sprints.

Arnold said he ran Leinster in the Troy in part to try and get enough graded stakes earnings to get into the Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint.

“Once he went to sprinting on the turf, he turned into a different horse,” Arnold said.

Leinster earned a 108 Beyer Speed Figure for the Troy effort.