Belmont Park: Reload possible for Grade 2 True North

It appears as though Reload has found his niche as a sprinter.

On Thursday, Reload won a second-level allowance race by five lengths, running seven furlongs in 1:22.65 and earning a Beyer of 98.

It was Reload’s second straight win after losing eight of his first nine starts for the Phipps family and trainer Shug McGaughey. In April, he won a first-level allowance race over Keeneland’s synthetic surface by 6 3/4 lengths.

Reload’s transformation has caught McGaughey a little off-guard.

“Something’s happened; I don’t know what,” McGaughey said.

McGaughey said Reload, a son of Hard Spun, could run next in the Grade 2, $400,000 True North Handicap at six furlongs June 8.

McGaughey said he was pleased to see Reload take jockey Javier Castellano into an attending position early in Thursday’s race.

“I was happy he was putting him there,” McGaughey said. “I told him, ‘Don’t put him there.’ The jock said he had so much horse at the head of the stretch he had to let him go.”