Belmont Stakes: Romans works Cherry Wine, Brody's Cause
ELMONT, N.Y. – To this point, Brody’s Cause and Cherry Wine have performed at their best in races where the pace was swift and they could sit back and make one run.
Dale Romans, who trains both horses, realizes that the pace in next Saturday’s $1.5 million Belmont Stakes will be markedly slower than what these horses have previously experienced, at least in their respective tries in Triple Crown races.
On Saturday at Belmont Park, Romans worked both horses with the purpose of sharpening them up in order to lay somewhat closer to the early pace.
Cherry Wine, the runner-up in the Preakness, went a traditional five furlongs in 1:00.25 while galloping out six furlongs in 1:12.99 under exercise rider Faustino Aguilar. He had a fairly swift run-up from the six-furlong pole to the five-furlong pole.
Brody’s Cause, a two-time Grade 1 winner who ran seventh in the Kentucky Derby, had an unorthodox move under jockey Luis Saez. Saez kept Brody’s Cause in the middle of the track and didn’t allow the horse to run until the quarter pole. He went three furlongs in 37.28 seconds, according to Daily Racing Form’s Mike Welsch, going from the wire to the 1 3/8-mile pole in under 12 seconds, with Saez asking him to finish.
“They’re going to have to lay closer,” Romans said. “We just want them sharp; they’re as fit as they can be. These horses that have been on the Triple Crown trail for so long, they’re all fit. All we wanted to do is sharpen them up and keep them happy.”
Cherry Wine was within six lengths of the pace when he won an off-the-turf maiden race last November at Churchill Downs. But in all four of his races this year, Cherry Wine was well off the pace, including in the Preakness, where he was 24 lengths off of the fastest first-quarter in that race’s 141-year history. Cherry Wine just got up for second by a nose over Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist but was 3 1/2 lengths behind Exaggerator.
Brody’s Cause won both the Breeders’ Futurity at age 2 and the Blue Grass this year from well off the pace. In the Kentucky Derby, he basically ran evenly before passing six horses in the stretch to finish seventh, 9 1/2 lengths behind Nyquist.
As far as Saturday’s workout was concerned, Romans said he instructed Saez to ease Brody’s Cause away from the five-furlong pole and “go the last eighth in 11 and change, and that’s what he did,” Romans said. “He started him a little too slow … but he finished strong, and he couldn’t pull him up. He looked good to me.”
• Exaggerator, the Preakness winner, galloped a mile in 1:56.98, going from the half-mile pole to the mile pole under exercise rider Peedy Landry. He went the last half-mile in 57.40 seconds.
“He’s gotten so much more mellow and so much more relaxed,” said Julie Clark, assistant trainer to Keith Desormeaux. “But then he does things right. His times are all still right, he’s eating more than ever. He’s doing everything right, but there’s still a part of me that’s like, ‘Why aren’t you all on your toes and sharp like you used to be?’ I’m just hoping it is maturing.”
Exaggerator is expected to walk Sunday, gallop Monday, and work Tuesday.
• Lani, who will join Exaggerator as the two horses to run in all three Triple Crown races, went the last half-mile of his three-mile gallop in 52.79 seconds on Saturday. He is expected to have an official workout Wednesday.
• Trainer Todd Pletcher’s duo of Destin and Stradivari jogged and visited the starting gate on the training track Saturday, one day after they both worked.
• Trojan Nation, best known for finishing second in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, worked five furlongs in 59.20 seconds on Saturday morning at Santa Anita prior to a scheduled start next Saturday in the Belmont Stakes. In his lone start since the Wood, Trojan Nation finished 16th of 20 in the Kentucky Derby. He is still a maiden.
• Trainer Dallas Stewart has confirmed both Forever d’Oro and Seeking the Soul as starters for the Belmont Stakes. Stewart has named Florent Geroux on Seeking the Soul and Jose Ortiz on Forever d’Oro. Both horses are coming off maiden wins May 29.
– additional reporting by Jay Privman and Marty McGee