Lookin At Lee is the lone horse will who make all three Triple Crown dances, a task whose difficulty was never more evident than when Classic Empire had to come out of the Belmont owing to an abscess in his right front foot.
Roca Rojo has a chance to make a statement on Saturday as she takes on Dickinson and Celestine in the Grade 1 Just a Game Stakes. The Irish-born mare won three of her first five starts in the U.S. last year, including the Grade 3 Athenia Stakes on the Belmont turf, and finished second by a nose to Miss Temple City in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes. She announced that she was poised to continue her ascent when rallying to win the Grade 2 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile on the Kentucky Derby undercard five weeks ago.
Twisted Tom will be the first horse to carry Cobra Farm's colors in the Belmont Stakes. However, the historic property, and the people currently behind it, have already played a role in some major moments in the history of the last and longest American classic.
There are a number of guaranteed wagering pools at Belmont Park this Friday and Saturday, and a pair of two-day daily doubles linking major stakes.
The two final works for this year's Belmont were turned in here early Tuesday morning, maintenance-type breezes by Senior Investment and Epicharis.
Epicharis, Hollywood Handsome, Meantime, and Twisted Tom are the “new shooters” Saturday in the Grade 1, $1.5 million Belmont Stakes. Each is making his first start in a Triple Crown race, against horses who have been battling it out in either the Kentucky Derby or Preakness, or both, as is the case with Lookin At Lee.
While he lost the favorite for the Met Mile when Connect was injured, Pompa Pompa Jr. will still have two runners in the race with Rally Cry and Tommy Macho, and will also be represented in Saturday's Grade 2, $400,000 Brooklyn Invitational with Send It In.
Classic Empire, who would have been the favorite in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, is out of the race owing to an abscess in his right front hoof, trainer Mark Casse said Wednesday at Belmont Park.
Reputations die hard, and Classic Empire’s exploits will cling to him indefinitely, but the fact of the matter is the bad boy appears to have transformed into a polite, dutiful youngster over the last couple months.
Trainer Rodrigo Ubillo will send out his overachieving, underrated New York-bred filly Highway Star against the mighty Songbird in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps on Saturday at Belmont Park.
