Belmont Park: Stormy Len seeks elusive graded stakes win in Jamaica Handicap

[bc_video_id:306267:]ELMONT, N.Y. – The New York-based Stormy Len has shipped to Chicago twice and to Canada once in search of a graded stakes victory. There might be one with his name on it right in his own backyard.

Stormy Len returns to Belmont Park and the course where he scored his only turf victory when he meets 11 other 3-year-olds in the Grade 1, $500,000 Jamaica Handicap at Belmont Park. Thirteen horses were entered, but Five Iron, the winner of the Grade 3 Saranac at Saratoga, was cross-entered and will run in Saturday’s Hawthorne Derby.

Stormy Len, a son of Harlan’s Holiday, won a first-level allowance race here in June going 1 1/4 miles. The following month, his connections made a last-minute decision to run in the Grade 3 American Derby at Arlington, where he was third, beaten a head. He returned to New York and then shipped back to Chicago, where he finished second to Admiral Kitten – who’s also in this field – in the Grade 1 Secretariat.

Last month, Stormy Len shipped to Woodbine and took on older horses in the Grade 1 Northern Dancer, finishing third, beaten a length.

“They went the first half in [51.56 seconds], and the horse that was on the lead gave it up way too early,” David Donk, the trainer of Stormy Len, said of the Northern Dancer. “My horse was dragging [Garrett] Gomez to the lead by the three-quarter pole, and he never settled. He was in the bridle the whole way. At the three-sixteenths pole, I would have told you he’d have got beat eight or 10 lengths, but he stayed on running against older horses.”

Donk said he is a little concerned that 1 1/8 miles might be too short for Stormy Len, but he noted that at Belmont Park, with its wide, sweeping turns, running nine furlongs “is like a mile and a quarter.”

Alex Solis, who may have made a premature move on Stormy Len in the Secretariat, gets the mount back for Saturday.

Admiral Kitten ended a four-race streak of runner-up finishes with a victory in the Secretariat. His owner, Ken Ramsey, has entered a likely pacesetter, or rabbit, in Get in Line. He tried those same tactics last week in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic but finished second and third with Big Blue Kitten and Real Solution.

Trainer Todd Pletcher sends out the uncoupled entry of Notacatbutallama and Jack Milton in the Jamaica. Notacatbutallama is 3 for 4 at Belmont – all three wins coming in stakes – and is coming off a second-place finish to Five Iron in the Saranac.

Jack Milton, third in his last three stakes tries, will be making his sixth straight start over a different turf course but has run well everywhere he’s gone.

Pletcher said both horses would appreciate a bit of early pace.

War Dancer, who won the Grade 2 Virginia Derby, returns to turf after finishing sixth in the Grade 1 Travers on dirt.

Balance the Books and Mills, first and third in the Stroll Stakes at Saratoga, both are in with a chance at a price.