Baccelo likely to run in Temperence Hill
ELMONT, N.Y. – After Baccelo finished a close third behind Comfort in the Seattle Slew Stakes at Belmont Park on Sept. 10, trainer David Jacobson circled the Grade 2 Kelso on Oct. 8 here for the 6-year-old gelding.
And while he could still show up in the Kelso, it appears Baccelo will make a pit stop in Sunday’s $200,000 Temperence Hill Stakes at Belmont Park. Jacobson has been known to run horses twice in one week, but it is somewhat rare to run a horse 1 5/8 miles and then come back in a one-mile race.
“The more I look at the race, I might run him in there and then come back in the Kelso,” Jacobson said Friday. “At a mile and five-eighths, horses aren’t running hard, they’re galloping around there. A lot of these long-distance horses stay sounder than the really fast sprinters.”
Baccelo won the Grade 3 Iselin at Monmouth and, before that, an allowance race going 1 1/8 miles in the slop at Saratoga.
“He handled that mile and an eighth at Saratoga in the slop; that’s tough to do for any horse,” Jacobson said.
Irad Ortiz Jr. has the call on Baccelo, the 124-pound highweight, from post 3.
The Temperence Hill drew a field of eight, including Melmich, a Canadian-bred gelding by Wilko trained by Kevin Attard. Melmich won the Grade 3 Dominion Day at Woodbine in July at 1 1/4 miles. He has done virtually all of his running on synthetic surfaces.
Doyouknowsomething is coming off an allowance win at Belmont going 1 1/16 miles on Sept. 11. He won going 1 1/4 miles at Santa Anita earlier this year.
“Everybody’s got speed; it’s going to be a trip race,” said A.C. Avila, trainer of Doyouknowsomething. “My horse has to be asked in the beginning, but he can sit after that. Distance is no problem, he’s bred to go two miles.”
Javier Castellano rides Doyouknowsomething from post 4.
Scuba, second to Melmich in the Dominion Day, ran second behind Bradester in the Monmouth Cup, then took the Grade 3 Greenwood Cup at Parx Racing at 1 1/2 miles on the front end for trainer Brendan Walsh.
“He was really running hard at the finish in his last race, so I don’t think the distance will be a problem at all,” Walsh told the NYRA publicity staff. “If everything goes right, he should have a good chance.”
Completing the field are Extinct Charm, a 3-year-old who ran second in the New York Derby and Albany Stakes, Old Time Hockey, and Indycott.
The Temperence Hill goes as race 8 on the nine-race program.