Belmont: Jacobson enters three recent claims in sprint feature

Trainer David Jacobson holds a strong hand in Thursday’s feature at Belmont Park as he has entered the trio of Cease, Congressional Page, and Ravalo in the six-horse field.

The seven-furlong, second-level optional $62,500 claimer is carded as race 2. Rein King, Talk Therapy, and Tiz Yankee are eligible for the second-level allowance condition. The Jacobson-trained runners, all older geldings claimed at Saratoga for a combined $197,500, entered for the $62,500 claim price.

“Everyone’s active and wants to buy horses [at Saratoga] . . . and the best horses in the country are in those barns,” said Jacobson.

Congressional Page and Ravalo are coupled for Drawing Away Stable and Jacobson, and each has Junior Alvarado named, so only one will run.

Congressional Page has not started since Aug. 4, when he was haltered for $35,000 out of a runner-up finish at six furlongs. Although he began his 8-year-old season with back-to-back wins on the synthetic surface at Presque Isle Downs, Congressional Page has banked nearly $300,000 in 20 career starts on dirt.

Ravalo, at age 9 the senior member of the group, was claimed for $62,500 from a third-place finish in a turf sprint on Aug. 7. He earned back $44,400 of that with a last-to-first score on Sept. 25, the 18th victory of his career. Oddly enough, his only prior start on Belmont’s main track had come exactly four years earlier, when he won the Spooky Mulder overnight stakes.

Cease, a close second in last year’s Grade 2 Hawthorne Gold Cup, was claimed out of a third-place finish on July 29 for $100,000, but didn’t run again until Sept. 12, when he was compromised by a slow pace set by Bellamy Brew in a third-level allowance.

“I wanted to run him back at Saratoga, but it didn’t work out,” said Jacobson.

Rein King has been capable of some big efforts for John Terranova, including a 2009 maiden win the same day Ravalo won the Spooky Mulder, and a tough beat in the slop last fall, when he set the pace and missed in a photo while earning a 99 Beyer Figure.

Idle since early spring due to a foot issue, the speedy Rein King has trained steadily of late, and may be quick enough to outsprint Talk Therapy and Tiz Yankee for the early lead.