Belmont Stakes 2021: Saez believes Derby bumping incident hindered Essential Quality
ELMONT, N.Y. – While there has been a lot of discussion how the start of the Kentucky Derby impacted the performance of expected pacesetter Rock Your World, jockey Luis Saez believes his horse, Essential Quality, was also adversely impacted by the bump between those two horses leaving the starting gate.
Essential Quality, the Kentucky Derby favorite, and Rock Your World bumped each other hard after the doors opened. While Saez was able to get Essential Quality within five lengths of the pace after a half-mile, he didn’t feel the horse was giving him a complete effort like he had in previous races.
“That hit he got from the start, that really bothered him,” Saez said. “After that happened he was a little bit scared, running away from horses. I think he was hurt. Still, he tried but he was not 100 percent after that.”
Essential Quality raced wide throughout and finished fourth, beaten one length by Medina Spirit. Trakus, a digital tracking system, measured that Essential Quality traveled 68 feet farther than did Medina Spirit.
“He was wide because he was getting out,” Saez said. “If he ran straight, I think he would have been all right. I don’t know if he would have won the race, but he would have been in the fight.”
Saez expects Essential Quality to be in the fight Saturday when he rides him in the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes, the third and final leg of the Triple Crown. On Tuesday, Essential Quality drew post 2 and was installed by New York Racing Association line-maker David Aragona as the 2-1 morning-line favorite in the eight-horse field.
The Derby was the first defeat for Essential Quality, who won his first five races, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, which capped a perfect 3-for-3 campaign that ended with an Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old.
The Belmont is run at 1 1/2 miles, a distance that none of these horses has run – and likely never will again – but one that Saez believes will suit Essential Quality.
“When I ride him, he gives me confidence because he wants to go more and more,” Saez said. “Longer for him is better. I think here is going to be better for him.”
Trainer Brad Cox said he didn’t see any physical issues with Essential Quality coming out of the Derby. Cox and the principals of Godolphin Racing decided quickly to skip the Preakness and point for the Belmont.
“After I watched him for four or five days, I was super impressed with how he looked physically,” Cox said. “He was tired, he had just run a mile and a quarter, but he really came around fast and looked like he started to blossom. I definitely think he’s moved forward from the Kentucky Derby, I really, really do.”
Essential Quality on Wednesday visited the main track for the first time, galloping a little more than 1 1/4 miles.
Essential Quality will be Godolphin Racing’s lone runner in the Belmont after Rebel’s Romance, the UAE Derby winner trained by Charlie Appleby, was not entered when he was discovered to have a hind leg infection.
Rombauer, the Preakness winner, drew post 3 and was installed as the 3-1 second choice. Rombauer, trained by Michael McCarthy, skipped the Kentucky Derby because owner John Fradkin didn’t think the race was a fit for his horse, and he was rewarded with an authoritative victory in the Preakness.
McCarthy, after watching Rombauer gallop Tuesday on the training track and Wednesday on the main track, sees a horse who “is holding his form, holding his weight, acting well, doing well,” he said.
John Velazquez rides Rombauer because Flavien Prat, who rode Rombauer in the Preakness, is riding Hot Rod Charlie in the Belmont. Prat rode Hot Rod Charlie to a third-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, and his agent, Brad Pegram, gave trainer Doug O’Neill a commitment two days later to ride him in the Belmont.
Hot Rod Charlie drew post 4 and was made the 7-2 third choice. While O’Neill would have rather drawn outside of expected pacesetter Rock Your World – who drew post 7 – the fact he has Prat overshadows that for him.
“We’d rather be in the one-hole with Prat than outside of Rock Your World with just about any other rider,” O’Neill said. “His confidence in Charlie, the connection they have together, and just the way he’s riding is out of this world.”
Rock Your World, who was never able to get involved in the Derby and finished 17th, drew post 7 in the Belmont and looks to be on the lead under Joel Rosario.
Known Agenda heads a three-tiered entry from the barn of trainer Todd Pletcher, a three-time Belmont Stakes winner. Known Agenda finished ninth in the Kentucky Derby after losing position when a horse shut him off about a furlong into the race.
Pletcher also runs Bourbonic, 13th in the Derby, and Overtook, third in the Peter Pan Stakes. Pletcher is equipping Overtook with blinkers for the first time since he ran third in a maiden race in November at Aqueduct.
France Go de Ina, seventh in the Preakness, worked five furlongs in 1:02.34 Wednesday morning over the Belmont main track, according to Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Welsch. He was kept four paths wide by exercise rider Masaki Takano, while completing his last three furlongs in 36.56 seconds.
Though rain was forecast for Thursday and there was the potential for a thunderstorm Friday, the forecast for Saturday calls for mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80s.