Bayern will try to rebound in Met Mile

ELMONT, N.Y. – It isn’t often that a trainer could run the defending Breeders’ Cup Classic winner in a Grade 1 race and have it be only the second-most important race of his day.

Such is the case for trainer Bob Baffert, who two hours before he saddles American Pharoah in the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes – and a bid to win the Triple Crown – will send out Bayern in the $1.25 million Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park.

The Met Mile is one of five other Grade 1 races – and nine other stakes – on a 13-race card that begins at 11:35 a.m. Eastern. The Met Mile will go as race 9 on the program.

Bayern drew post 7 and was installed as the 7-2 second choice on the morning line of the New York Racing Association’s Eric Donovan. Bayern is coming off a last-place finish as the 4-5 favorite in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes on May 2, his first start of the year.

Twice previously Bayern has rebounded from a bad performance to win a major race. Last year, after finishing ninth in the Preakness, Bayern won the Grade 2 Woody Stephens here. He also won the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby after finishing last in the Travers at Saratoga.

Bayern meets a very tough group that includes last year’s Belmont Stakes winner, Tonalist, who is 4 for 4 in graded stakes at Belmont Park, and Private Zone, a two-time Grade 1 winner at Belmont and the winner of the Grade 1 Cigar Mile last fall at Aqueduct. Private Zone likely will have to use his speed from the rail. Tonalist, the 5-2 morning-line favorite, breaks from post 4.

Others entered include Wicked Strong, Honor Code, Tamarkuz, Bay of Plenty, Pants On Fire, Kobe’s Back, and Noble Moon.

Untapable 2-5 in Ogden Phipps

Untapable, last year’s champion 3-year-old filly, heads a field of six entered for the Grade 1, $1 million Ogden Phipps, which will go as race 5 (1:52 p.m.)

Stopchargingmaria, expected to be one of Untapable’s major rivals, was not entered after developing a temperature. Wedding Toast, the winner of the Grade 2 Ruffian, and Princess Violet, second to Untapable in the Grade 1 Mother Goose last year, become Untapable’s main challengers.

Untapable will break from post 4 under John Velazquez.

Finnegans Wake tops Manhattan

Twilight Eclipse was installed as the 7-2 morning-line favorite, but Finnegans Wake is likely the horse to beat in the Grade 1, $1 million Manhattan Stakes at 1 1/4 miles, the race immediately preceding the Belmont.

Finnegans Wake has won four of his last five starts. including a head victory in the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at 1 1/8 miles on Derby Day at Churchill Downs. He will break from post 3 under Victor Espinoza.

Twilight Eclipse, coming off his first Grade 1 victory in the Man o’ War, is drawn immediately to his inside. Other opponents include War Dancer, beaten a neck by Twilight Eclipse in the Man o’ War, and a trio of horses from Chad Brown’s barn – Big Blue Kitten, Hyper, and Slumber. Jack Milton, a Grade 1 winner at shorter distances, and General a Rod, attempting turf for the first time, go out for Todd Pletcher.

Jerkens pair tops Brooklyn

Trainer Jimmy Jerkens holds a pair of aces for Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Brooklyn in Travers winner V. E. Day and the ever-improving Effinex. Those two head a field of 13 entered for the 1 1/2-mile race.

V. E. Day won last year’s Travers at 1 1/4 miles and is going from turf to dirt for the third time in his career. The previous two times he’s done it, he won a maiden race at Belmont Park and the Curlin Stakes at Saratoga.

Effinex is 2 for 2 this year, including a three-quarter-length victory over Red Rifle in the Grade 3 Excelsior at 1 1/4 miles. Red Rifle is entered in this spot but was cross-entered in Friday’s $250,000 Belmont Gold Cup at two miles on turf. Red Rifle’s trainer, Pletcher, also entered Coach Inge and Micromanage in the Brooklyn.

In other stakes:

◗ Shook Up, the runner-up in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, drew post 8 and was made the morning-line favorite for the Grade 1 Acorn for 3-year-old fillies at a mile. The field includes Grade 1 winners Condo Commando and By the Moon as well as the undefeated New York-bred Bar of Gold.

◗ Coffee Clique will aim for her second consecutive victory in the Grade 1, $700,000 Just a Game Stakes against a field that includes Tepin, who defeated Coffee Clique in the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill, and Ball Dancing, the winner of the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland in her last start. Other top contenders in the field include multiple stakes winners Discreet Marq and Sandiva.

◗ Power Alert, the winner of the Grade 3 Twin Spires Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Oaks Day, and Ageless, the winner of the The Very One at Pimlico on Black-Eyed Susan Day, were supplemented to the field for the Grade 3, $300,000 Jaipur Invitational. The Jaipur drew a field of 13 and will go as race 4.

◗ The undefeated Competitive Edge heads a field of six entered in the Grade 2, $500,000 Woody Stephens at seven furlongs. Competitive Edge will break from post 3 under Velazquez and face stakes winners Cinco Charlie, March, and Ready for Rye as well as Two Weeks Off and Classy Class.

◗ The $150,000 Easy Goer, for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16-miles, drew only five, led by the Pletcher-trained Stanford, who was held out of the Kentucky Derby after finishing second, beaten a neck, in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby. Donworth, Japan, Nonna’s Boy, and Combat Diver complete the field for the Easy Goer, which goes as the first on the card.