Belmont Stakes: Frac Daddy to gun it from the rail
ELMONT, N.Y. – Those trainers looking for an honest pace in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes may have found themselves a new ally in Ken McPeek, who said he plans to have jockey Alan Garcia put Frac Daddy on the lead after getting the rail at Wednesday’s post position draw.
Frac Daddy finished 16th and was never a factor in the Kentucky Derby and was a last-minute addition to the Belmont field after training brilliantly over the past several weeks at Churchill Downs.
“He’s doing real well now,” McPeek said. “He’s been working bullet, bullet, bullet down there at Churchill. And we’re going to send him from the inside because he needs to be in the clear. He trains freaky good, but he’s got some mental holes in him if things don’t go his way. But he is talented. Don’t forget he beat Oxbow two starts back in the Arkansas Derby.”
Frac Daddy, who finished second at a 23-1 in the Arkansas Derby, arrived at Belmont on Tuesday and wasted little time getting a good feel for the racetrack, open-galloping 1 1/8 miles in 2:09 and change from the mile pole with a 25.52-second quarter-mile from the top of the lane to the wire thrown in for good measure.
“I told the boy to two-minute-lick him to the three-eighths, just go 15, 15, 15, then come home in 37 and change from there,” McPeek said. “It was a little unusual, but it didn’t hurt him , because he wants to do it. He’s a galloper, and he’ll love the mile and one-half because it’s a galloper’s race.”
McPeek knows a little something about winning the Belmont with a longshot. Eleven years ago, McPeek sent out the 70-1 Sarava to register the biggest upset in Belmont history and last year his Atigun finished third behind Union Rags at odds of 20-1.
Frac Daddy, who has won just once in seven starts and not since earning his diploma at Churchill Downs last November, is 30-1 in the morning line for the Belmont.