Blended Citizen works five furlongs on Belmont main track

ELMONT, N.Y. _ Blended Citizen will be the only one of the expected 11 or 12 starters in the Belmont Stakes with a previous start over the Belmont Park main track. On Saturday, he became the fourth - and probably final - prospective Belmont starter to get a workout over the main track as well.

Blended Citizen, who won the Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes here three weeks ago, breezed five furlongs in 1:00.88, according to Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Welsch. Blended Citizen, with Mike Luzzi aboard, worked at 12:50 p.m., 40 minutes before the first race on the Belmont card.

Blended Citizen broke off at the half-mile pole. Welsch caught him with splits of 12.47 seconds, 24.54, and 48.10 to the wire. He got his last eighth in 12.78 seconds.

“Very pleased,” said Leandro Mora, the longtime assistant to trainer Doug O’Neill. “He was not even making any noise going by on the gallop out. I like how he went past the wire, it was even better. I like what I saw, to be honest. Now we just got a few days to wait for the race and hope we have a good show, that’s all.”

Working prior to the start of a race card or even in between races is something O’Neill does occasionally before big races. He worked Nyquist prior to the first race at Keeneland eight days before he won the Kentucky Derby.

Mora said by doing this it simulates race conditions, including a visit to the paddock.

“It’s all psychological,” Mora said. “We’re not going to improve a horse [physically]. If we work on their brains a little bit to help them, that’s good for us. This is very old-school. Charlie Whittingham used to do it back in California, Bobby Frankel used to do it also. We try to take pieces from the old guys that are no longer here with us.”

Blended Citizen made his first three starts on dirt last summer and fall and showed little. He improved on turf, winning a maiden race on Nov. 24 at Del Mar. At 3, he finished third in the EL Camino Real Derby over the synthetic surface at Golden Gate and then won the Jeff Ruby Steaks over Turfway Park’s synthetic surface. A fifth-place finish in the Blue Grass Stakes left Blended Citizen on the outside looking in as far as the Kentucky Derby was concerned.

He was entered, but did not draw into the Derby field off the also-eligible list. After that, he was re-routed to the Peter Pan Stakes, a race he won here by 1 1/2 lengths, earning a career-best 90 Beyer Speed Figure.

“We thought he was no good on the dirt,” Mora said. “He was just a slow learner.”

Kyle Frey rode Blended Citizen in the Peter Pan and will ride him in the Belmont.

Earlier Saturday, Gronkowski worked five furlongs in 1:01.87 over the main track. On Friday, trainer Todd Pletcher had Vino Rosso and Noble Indy both work five furlongs over the training track. Vino Rosso, in company with Patch, went five furlongs in 1:01.58. Noble Indy, in company with Hyndford, went five furlongs in 1:01.33.