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Trainer Bill Mott had been thinking more about the $500,000 Ohio Derby on June 27 than next Saturday’s $1 million Belmont Stakes for Modernist before he watched him work on Sunday morning at Belmont Park.
Trainer Steve Asmussen has juggled his lineup for the Belmont Stakes, electing to run Pneumatic and the longshot Jungle Runner while pointing the Grade 1 winner Basin to the Blue Grass Stakes on July 11 at Keeneland.
There would be no lightning-fast workout this time. Tiz the Law, the presumptive favorite for Saturday’s $1 million Belmont Stakes, completed his serious preparations for the race by working a controlled half-mile in 50.42 seconds early Sunday morning at Belmont Park.
If Max Player improves as much in the afternoon as he has in the morning, he just might have a chance to pull an upset in next Saturday’s $1 million Belmont Stakes. For the second time in 10 days, Max Player put in a terrific workout over the Belmont Park main track, this time going six furlongs in 1:12.25 Saturday morning under exercise rider Oscar Gomez.
Pure Sensation won the Jaipur Stakes in 2016 when it was a Grade 3 stakes. Next Saturday, the now 9-year-old Pure Sensation will attempt to win the Jaipur in its second year as a Grade 1.
t's been 17 years, but the 2003 Acorn Stakes where Lady Tak got beat a head by Bird Town still irks trainer Steve Asmussen.
While trainer Steve Asmussen was to finalize his plans for the Belmont Stakes over the weekend, he is pretty set on whom he is going to run in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens, a seven-furlong race for 3-year-olds on the same card next Saturday.
Sole Volante may have punched his ticket into the Belmont Stakes after rallying to a three-quarter-length victory over longshot Jesus’ Team in Wednesday’s $55,000 allowance feature at Gulfstream Park.
The defection of Maxfield from the Triple Crown trail has prompted the connections of at least one significant 3-year-old to change plans. Gouverneur Morris will bypass the Belmont Stakes on June 20 and instead point to the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes on July 11 at Keeneland.
The defections of undefeated Grade 1 winners Charlatan and Maxfield from the June 20 Belmont Stakes had little impact on trainer Barclay Tagg, trainer of two-time Grade 1 winner and now incontrovertible Belmont Stakes favorite Tiz the Law.
