Neither Take These Chains nor Conquest Babayaga has ever lost while in the care of trainer Chad Brown. That is likely to change Thursday as Take These Chains and Conquest Babayaga were two of 11 horses entered Saturday for Thursday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Intercontinental Stakes.
A couple of new faces to this year’s Triple Crown, Meantime and Twisted Tom, put in their final works for the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, both working after the renovation break over a main track that seemed to have tightened up a bit following a brief shower that passed through shortly after 7:30 a.m.
Epicharis, the intriguing Japanese challenger in the Belmont Stakes, was released from quarantine shortly after 11:30 a.m. on Saturday and went straight to the training track at Belmont Park, where he had a private training session under the watchful eye of trainer Kiyoshi Hagiwara.
Gormley, the Santa Anita Derby winner who most recently was ninth in the Kentucky Derby, worked seven furlongs in 1:26.20 on Saturday at Santa Anita in preparation for a potential start in the Belmont Stakes in one week, but trainer John Shirreffs said he still needed to mull things over for the next couple of days before deciding whether to run.
Trainer Graham Motion said Saturday that he is inclined to run Irish War Cry in the Belmont Stakes after the horse worked to his liking earlier in the morning at the Fair Hill Training Center here but added that a decision would come after he consults with owner Isabelle de Tomaso.
Meantime and Twisted Tom, who figure to be two of the longer-priced horses in the 149th Belmont Stakes on June 10, put in their final workouts Saturday morning over Belmont’s main track for the third leg of the Triple Crown.
A pair of Belmont Stakes contenders, J Boys Echo and Multiplier, were sent through final prerace works for the 1 1/2-mile classic just minutes apart Saturday morning at their respective Kentucky bases.
Todd Pletcher-trained stablemates Patch and Tapwrit worked five furlongs together on Friday for the Belmont Stakes, with Tapwrit looking much the best
Classic Empire, the likely favorite for the Belmont Stakes next Saturday, breezed a half-mile in 50.40 seconds early Friday over a fast Churchill Downs surface.
Chad Brown was on a plane back to his barn at Belmont Park just hours after saddling his first classic winner, Preakness Stakes winner Cloud Computing. Meanwhile, Mike Ryan, whom Brown credited with discovering Cloud Computing, was hard at work back in Maryland, looking for the next star.
