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The five-day Belmont Stakes Festival really kicks into high gear on Friday with the first of two consecutive 14-race programs at Saratoga. The card includes six graded stakes topped by the Grade 1 Acorn for 3-year-old fillies that features the local debut of the undefeated Kentucky Oaks winner Good Cheer.
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Mike Repole has looked deep down trainer Todd Pletcher's bench of 3-year-olds and has plucked Uncaged from it to run in the $2 million Belmont Stakes on June 7.
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Trainer Bill Mott said the decision to skip the Preakness with Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty doesn't put any more pressure on him to win the Belmont Stakes than otherwise already exists.
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American Flag, who won the 1925 Belmont Stakes, is from one of the most successful sirelines in that classic's history. A century after his Belmont victory, he is linked to this year's Kentucky Derby winner, Sovereignty, as well as a number of other prospects for the 2025 Belmont Stakes.
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Those who waited around in the cold and rain from the time the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga opened at 5:15 a.m. until Sovereignty finally made his appearance nearly four-and-a-half hours later were rewarded for their patience. The Kentucky Derby winner got the better of no less a workmate than Arthur's Ride after breezing a very impressive-looking five furlongs in 1:02.45 over a surface officially labeled “good” throughout the course of the morning.
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Rodriguez and Baeza both turned in serious workouts Friday morning at Santa Anita in preparation for scheduled starts in the $2 million Belmont Stakes at Saratoga on June 7.
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Gosger, a game second to Journalism in Saturday's Grade 1 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, will skip the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga on June 7 in favor of a major stakes for 3-year-olds in July.
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In Hill Road, winner of Saturday's Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes at Aqueduct, trainer Chad Brown will be bringing a relatively fresh horse to the June 7 Belmont Stakes at Saratoga. But Brown doesn't think that gives him any sort of advantage over horses like Kentucky Derby first- and third-place finishers Sovereignty and Baeza, who are skipping Saturday's Preakness to point to the Belmont.
Chad Brown may not be out of this year’s Triple Crown series after all. Though he didn’t have a starter in the Kentucky Derby and won’t have one in next Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, Brown may have found his Belmont Stakes horse in Hill Road, who came with a strong rally in the stretch under Flavien Prat to win Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes at Aqueduct by three-quarters of a length over McAfee.
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Baeza, who drew into the Kentucky Derby from the also-eligible list last week, returned to trainer John Shirreffs’s stable at Santa Anita on Tuesday evening.
