Belmont Stakes clocker: Rain forces Noble Indy, Vino Rosso to work on training track

Belmont Park
Friday, June 1
Weather: Rain
Training track: Good/muddy
Temperature: 68

ELMONT, N.Y. – Unfortunately, there will be no Audible in the starting lineup for Saturday’s Belmont Stakes. But there certainly were plenty of weather- and track-related audibles being called around Belmont Park on Friday when it came to the workout schedules for three of the principal players in the final leg of this year’s Triple Crown.

Fog obscured the local area when training began at 5:30 a.m. Friday. The hope was that it would lift over the main track by the time it re-opened at 8:45 following the renovation break, where and when trainer Todd Pletcher’s pair of Noble Indy and Vino Rosso and Chad Brown’s Gronkowski were all scheduled to have their final, serious Belmont Stakes works.

A light drizzle finally dispersed the fog at 7:30, but the drizzle turned into heavy showers shortly before 8:15, and word got out that the main track would be sealed to protect the course for the racing program later in the day. In response, Pletcher wasted little time getting Noble Indy and Vino Rosso over to a training track whose condition, like the weather, also was deteriorating rapidly at the time.

Unlike the previous week, when Noble Indy and Vino Rosso breezed in company, they parted ways Friday, working in separate teams, just minutes apart.

Noble Indy was the first to go, breaking off about 1 1/2 lengths behind his 3-year-old stablemate Hyndford. With Javier Castellano aboard, Noble Indy walked away from the five-eighths pole in 14.40 before picking up the pace steadily thereafter, shading 47 seconds for his final half while edging about a half-length in front going easily to the wire in 1:01.33. Castellano then began to urge Noble Indy to continue out strongly once through the wire, the Louisiana Derby winner responding by posting ensuing splits of 1:14.63 and 1:28.16 before finally easing up a mile in 1:41.82.

Although he looked very sharp working without blinkers alongside Vino Rosso one week earlier, Noble Indy had the hood back on for Friday’s session.

Vino Rosso, jockey John Velazquez up, followed right behind with a similarly orchestrated move from the five-furlong marker in company with the 4-year-old recent allowance winner Patch. Vino Rosso began a bit quicker than Noble Indy before ultimately registering a very similar five-furlong clocking in 1:01.58. He, too, held a slight edge at the wire, going easiest of the team, before being asked by Velazquez to go out another sharp quarter-mile into and around the bend, completing six furlongs in 1:15.19 and seven-eighths in 1:28.01, ultimately pulling up one mile in 1:42.09.

Assessing the two works from a time standpoint, under the conditions, is difficult, considering the training track had been chewed up extensively by dozens of workers before Noble Indy and Vino Rosso arrived and was downgraded to somewhere between good and muddy at that point due to all the rain. But it was easy to see both horses gave a good account of themselves, showing excellent energy when called upon to complete one full circuit of the mile oval, with all indications pointing to much-improved efforts over their somewhat disappointing showings behind Justify in the Kentucky Derby.

As for Gronkowski, he was originally scheduled to have his final Belmont prep Saturday. But with heavy rain forecasted for late Friday and into Saturday morning, Brown decided to move the breeze up a day only to eventually forego that plan once the main track became sealed and had been downgraded from fast to sloppy at the break.