Irish War Cry, 10th in the Kentucky Derby, is expected to return to the work tab this weekend at the Fair Hill training center in Maryland, and trainer Graham Motion said Wednesday he has not ruled out running the horse in the 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes.
There will be no Triple Crown bid in the Belmont Stakes, and it's likely the race won't have the Kentucky Derby or Preakness winner. But what it will have is the unluckiest horse in this year's Triple Crown, Classic Empire, as well as international intrigue with the Japanese invader Epicharis.
Timeline, who remained undefeated from three starts with a 3 1/2-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Peter Pan, has the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on July 30 as his main summer target, trainer Chad Brown said Sunday morning.
Timeline gave his connections a reason to be excited about the future with a solid 3 1/2-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes at sloppy Belmont Park. That future, however, is not likely to include the Belmont Stakes on June 10.
Gormley and Irap, graded stakes winners in April but unplaced in the Kentucky Derby, are candidates for the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes on June 10, their trainers said Friday.
Timeline and Take Your Guns are two of six 3-year-olds entered to run in the Grade 3, $200,000 Peter Pan, the traditional local prep for the Belmont, the third leg of the Triple Crown, which will be run June 10.
Epicharis, the Japanese-bred 3-year-old who would have been eligible to run in Saturday's Kentucky Derby, was confirmed as a starter for the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes on June 10, it was announced late Tuesday night.
Irad Ortiz Jr., 23, won his first American classic on Saturday, giving Creator a flawless ride to win the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes. Ortiz rallied Creator from 10th position to nip Destin by a nose in the final stride. A day later, Ortiz was still living in the moment.
A Peruvian-bred horse has never won a Grade 1 event in the United States, but the South American nation has made a major impact on some of the Northern Hemisphere's biggest events through outstanding broodmares. The latest example came when Creator, out of Peruvian champion Morena, nosed out Destin to win the Belmont Stakes.
The three Triple Crown races were won by three different horses, each of whom won another major Grade 1 race earlier in the year. Their similar résumés through the first six months of the year mean that Creator, Exaggerator, and Nyquist all seemingly will go into the second half of the year with an equal chance to wrest the title as champion 3-year-old male, unlike last year, when that title and Horse of the Year were signed, sealed, and delivered as soon as American Pharoah swept the Triple Crown.
