Bricklin tests track in Long Branch with eye to the Haskell
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Bricklin came up short of Kentucky Derby contention when he finished fourth in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby last time out, but trainer Rodolphe Brisset is already looking ahead. The colt will cut back to a mile and 70 yards with a class edge in the $100,000 Long Branch Stakes on Sunday at Monmouth Park.
“He’s a good horse with tactical speed, can rate well, doesn’t have to be on the lead, but can go if they give it to him,” Brisset said. “He’s pretty easy to ride.”
In his 3-year-old debut at Oaklawn Park in January, Bricklin made a statement in a first-level allowance at a mile, peeling away to a 3 1/4-length victory with an 86 Beyer Speed Figure. Undeterred by a distant third in the $500,000 Sunland Derby, in which he was forced to stalk while wide, Brisset brought him back to Oaklawn as a 44-1 longshot in the Arkansas Derby.
Unproven at 1 1/8 miles, the colt scrapped for the early lead and briefly took over on the far turn, only to fade in the stretch. He finished 7 1/4 lengths behind Renegade, the Kentucky Derby runner-up.
“He was a little bit under that group of horses, and I think the mile and an eighth was maybe a little long for him too,” Brisset said. “If you look at it, it was a good race for him. He jumped forward and took the lead and just got tired at the eighth pole.”
Brisset said he wanted to ship Bricklin to Monmouth to see if he can handle the surface. If all goes well in the Long Branch, he has loose plans of preparing the Nyquist colt for the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell in July.
Brisset conceded that his outsider wasn’t quite ready for the distance test, but he did not rule out another try going longer in the future. The work to qualify for the Haskell starts here.
Clocker Special, Brisset’s other colt, will scratch in favor of an $80,000 conditioned claiming race at Churchill Downs, cutting the Long Branch field down to five runners.
Hedge Ratio will likely earn favoritism in his highly anticipated stakes debut for trainer Chad Brown. After a standard juvenile campaign and dull effort in February, the Speightstown colt stretched out to a mile in late March and won an $83,000 first-level allowance at Aqueduct. He earned a 100 Beyer Speed Figure, a remarkable improvement in his second start of the season.
Brown, who came up just short of another training title at Monmouth last year, has never won the Long Branch, but he will have the hot hand Sunday.
Red Zone Runner will ship to Monmouth after a rocky race in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial last time out. Coming off a 15 1/2-length victory in the $75,000 City of Brotherly Love at Parx Racing, the Hugo Padilla-trained colt was clearly uncomfortable at Aqueduct and faded to last by 43 1/2 lengths.
After the Wood, Padilla said Red Zone Runner was sound and blamed poor luck for his sharp regression against stronger company. Coming out of a bumping 12-horse field, he should have an easier time establishing himself on or near the lead against four rivals in New Jersey.
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