Belmont Stakes 2022: Rich Strike picks up pace in gallop over sloppy track
ELMONT, N.Y. – It was the calm after the storm Friday morning at Belmont Park.
With the two dirt tracks at Belmont still pretty wet Friday morning following Thursday’s heavy afternoon rains, there was not much serious training going on in preparation for the Belmont Stakes on June 11. Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. postponed a scheduled Friday morning breeze for Preakness fifth-place finisher Skippylongstocking until Saturday.
Meanwhile, Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike had his second day galloping over a sloppy main track. Unlike Thursday, when exercise rider Gabriel Lagunes kept a firm hold of the reins, not letting Rich Strike do hardly anything, the horse was allowed to go at a faster clip Friday.
“Yesterday, he didn’t like going that slow. Today, he got to kind of do it his way,” said Eric Reed, trainer of Rich Strike. “We always just let him decide when he gets going, how fast he wants to go, and he’ll set his own pace. [Thursday], we couldn’t let him do it, first day back. You can see he made Gabriel rock in the saddle a few times to slow him down. That was good.”
Reed said he is anxious to get Rich Strike on a dry track here to get a better indication how he handles it.
“I was hoping by today I could,” Reed said. “Looks like it’ll need three or four days and that will put me to Monday or Tuesday probably to know how much he likes it and how he’s doing on it.
“I’d like to see two or three gallop days on it and just watch his attitude,” Reed added. “After two days if he goes out there on the third day and he’s wanting to roll then things are real good.”
Reed doesn’t plan a timed work for Rich Strike at Belmont, though he said he may blow him out through the lane a day or two before the race.
Most trainers are hoping the track dries out sufficiently for Saturday morning training. Trainer Todd Pletcher plans to work his pair of Belmont hopefuls, Mo Donegal and Nest; trainer Rodolphe Brisset plans to work Peter Pan Stakes winner We the People and Joseph will work Skippylongstocking.
In Kentucky, Kentucky Derby sixth-place finisher Barber Road and potential Belmont Stakes starter Howling Time, trained by Dale Romans, were scheduled to work Saturday morning at Churchill Downs.
Four-time Belmont winner D. Wayne Lukas will ship Sir Barton Stakes winner Ethereal Road in from Kentucky on Sunday.
Peter Pan runner-up Golden Glider, who galloped over the less-wet training track at Belmont on Friday, will likely work Sunday or Monday. Preakness third-place finisher Creative Minister is expected to have his final Belmont Stakes work Monday.
Meanwhile, Brigadier General, who was under consideration for the Belmont, will skip the race and point to either the Matt Winn at Churchill or the Ohio Derby at Thistledown, according to Terry Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds.
“We’re passing,” Finley said. “It was just a little too much for this colt right now.”
Entries will be taken and post positions drawn for the Belmont at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the Triple Crown lounge, a fairly new horsemen’s lounge, on the second-floor of the Belmont clubhouse.