Belmont Stakes: Winner Arcangelo may now target Jim Dandy and/or Travers
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ELMONT, N.Y. - Arcangelo, the Belmont Stakes winner, will soon ship to Saratoga, where he will train this summer and where he potentially could run in races such as the Jim Dandy on July 29 and/or the Travers on Aug. 26, his connections said Sunday morning.
Trainer Jena Antonucci said she will be in no hurry to decide when to run Arcangelo, who beat champion 2-year-old Forte by 1 1/2 lengths in Saturday’s Belmont, and will let the horse dictate when he’s ready to go.
“If he’s good and right and happy, [whether] you get one of them, if you get two of them, if you get none of them, it’ll be up to him,” Antonucci said.
Antonucci said that Arcangelo came out of the Belmont a little tired, but otherwise in good order. Arcangelo was visited by his jockey Javier Castellano Sunday morning before he visited the round pen, where he stood, posed for photos before rolling once in the dirt.
“He’s going to be totally chill for the next week or so, let himself get back together,” Antonucci said. “It’s the first time we got him tired and so he needs that opportunity to let everything come back together.”
Antonucci, who had 392 texts on her phone as of Sunday morning, was still struggling to put into perspective the significance of being the first female trainer to win a Triple Crown race.
“Obviously an immense amount of gratitude for the horse, for [owner Jon Ebbert] and just the journey,” Antonucci said. “The journey’s been pretty wild. It’s hard to really put into words yet.”
Arcangelo, who earned a 102 Beyer Speed Figure for the Belmont win, has now won three consecutive races, including the Grade 3 Peter Pan here on May 13.
While Arcangelo and Antonucci’s four other horses at Belmont will ship to Saratoga, Antonucci will herself head to Florida, where she has more horses that she is preparing to get to the races later this year.
Ebbert, who had to put up $50,000 to run Arcangelo in the Belmont, said he worried right up until Sunday morning whether running Arcangelo in the Belmont was the right thing. When he saw Arcangelo came out of the race in good shape, he was relieved.
“Now that the horse is clean you know that, but if he wasn’t clean then you’re thinking the mile and a half is stupid,” Ebbert said.
Ebbert pointed out that Mo Donegal, last year’s Belmont Stakes winner, did not run again after the Belmont. However, Essential Quality, the 2021 Belmont winner, won both the Jim Dandy and Travers on his way to being voted 3-year-old champion.
Ebbert indicated the Travers is a race he’d like Arcangelo to make.
“You’re on the right path,” he said.
Forte and Tapit Trice, separated by a nose in finishing second and third behind Arcangelo, both came back in good order, according to their trainer, Todd Pletcher.
Both horses had wide trips in the Belmont, while Arcangelo did save ground all the way around. Forte, scratched out of the Kentucky Derby the morning of the race, was making his first start in 10 weeks.
“Not a whole lot we could have done differently considering the way the race unfolded,” Pletcher said. “We lost some ground. The winner cut the corner, which might have made the difference. Forte, to do that off 10 weeks, I thought was pretty impressive.”
The Travers is likely the goal for Forte and Tapit Trice with perhaps a start before then for both. One could go in the Grade 1 Haskell at Monmouth on July 22 or both could point to the Jim Dandy.
Speaking of Forte, Pletcher said “do you come back and run between now and the Travers? Probably. Do you have to? Probably not. We’ll let him guide the way.”
Pletcher said Tapit Trice would “probably” get a start before the Travers.
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