Belmont Stakes 2021 clocker report: Rombauer, Pletcher trio beat the rain
BELMONT PARK
Weather: Sunny
Temp. 55
Track: Fast
By Mike Welsch
ELMONT, N.Y – A foreboding local forecast for potentially heavy rain beginning late Friday afternoon and continuing throughout the night forced many a trainer based at Belmont Park to alter their workout schedule for the weekend. That group included Michael McCarthy, who trains Preakness winner Rombauer, and his former boss Todd Pletcher, both of whom pushed final Belmont Stakes works up 24 hours to avoid the likelihood of a very wet track here Saturday.
Rombauer was the first of the four 3-year-olds under consideration for the Belmont Stakes to work here Friday, breezing a maintenance-like four furlongs in 50.08 seconds with his new jockey John Velazquez aboard. Rombauer cruised along easily while in company with the Jonathan Thomas-trained That Quality, posting a 25.25 opening split before readily pulling clear and showing good energy while hugging the rail on the gallop-out. He got five-eighths in 1:02.86 before easing up after three-quarters in 1:16.09. Rombauer seemed to handle Big Sandy well while giving horse and rider a chance to get acquainted a week out from the main event.
Pletcher’s Belmont trio of Known Agenda, Bourbonic, and Overtook were several minutes behind Rombauer. Known Agenda worked five furlongs in company with the graded stakes-winning 4-year-old Dr Post. Overtook and Bourbonic paired up shortly thereafter.
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Known Agenda has never been the type of horse to wow one in the morning. He worked well albeit not spectacularly prior to his victory in the Florida Derby, and showed more of the same leading up to his eventful trip in the Kentucky Derby. Friday’s drill, however, in which he and his mate wound up with a pair of unexpected targets in a team of Mark Hennig workers, may have been his best yet.
With Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, Known Agenda worked inside Dr Post, recent winner of the Grade 3 Westchester, and matched strides with him while well within himself. Known Agenda posted early splits of 24.60 and 35.96 to the top of the stretch. The Pletcher pair began to edge closer to the Hennig duo through midstretch, with Known Agenda holding a slight edge on his older mate at the wire, getting five eighths in 1:01.08. He galloped out extremely well, remaining on the rail to complete six furlongs in 1:13.90 before angling out and running down the Hennig leader into the clubhouse turn.
Overtook, working nearest the rail, broke slightly in front and maintained that advantage much of the way over the wider-running Bourbonic through a 23.50 quarter-mile and a 48.42 half-mile, with neither pushed for his best to the wire. Both were set down fairly aggressively to complete another full quarter-mile down the home straight and into the clubhouse turn, easing up after six furlongs in 1:13.67, with Overtook continuing to maintain a slight edge along the inside.
Both France Go de Ina and Rebel’s Romance were out for supposedly routine gallops earlier Friday. Nothing ever seems routine for France Go de Ina, who lost his rider at the end of a work at Pimlico before the Preakness. On Friday at Belmont, France Go de Ina wheeled in the vicinity of the finish line, once again losing his rider who, to his credit, was able to keep his feet as well as a firm grasp on the reins. Once the rider remounted, the remainder of France Go de Ina’s morning went off without a hitch, although he didn’t appear to be the smoothest of movers when spotted galloping by the wire several minutes later.
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Rebel’s Romance, accompanied by stablemate Desert Peace, jogged to the six-furlong pole before reversing directions and galloping an easy mile, never switching off his left lead down the stretch and into the clubhouse turn.