Call To Mind takes Belmont Gold Cup for Queen Elizabeth II

ELMONT, NY – A couple of centuries and change ago, most of New York cheered when the British monarchy was booted back across the Atlantic. It was a different story Friday at Belmont Park when Call To Mind, carrying the purple and scarlet silks of Elizabeth II, queen of England, rushed under the finish line a one-length winner of the Grade 2, $400,000 Belmont Gold Cup.

Either a bunch of the railbirds yelling on the apron were closet royalists, or they had been part of the betting brigade that made Call To Mind the 9-5 favorite. He paid $5.60 to win, defeating one other English horse, a steed from France, and five Americans

Wearing Her Majesty’s silks was a native Venezuelan, Javier Castellano, who placed Call To Mind just behind pace-setting Postulation, attacked the leader with more than three furlongs still remaining, but was aboard a mount who had no trouble seeing out the Gold Cup’s two-mile trip.

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That was just as trainer William Haggas said earlier this week, calling two miles on fast ground – which Belmont definitely had Friday – the ideal race for this horse.

“He’s a Group 2 horse,” said the queen’s racing manager, John Warren. “There aren’t always Group 2's at home. In the program, it was the perfect race.”

Call To Mind hadn’t actually raced two miles until Friday, but last fall he’d been second to a good horse named Ice Breeze going 1 7/8 miles, and his solid third at York last out in the 1 3/4-mile Yorkshire Cup, won by another good stayer called Stradivarius, had convinced Haggas his colt would get the trip.

Haggas, a very successful trainer back home, has sent his horses on few trips to the U.S. and they always perform. Call To Mind was his first winner here, but from four starts he now has a win, a second, and two thirds.

Call To Mind is by Galileo out of Memory, by Danehill Dancer, and he now has won three times from nine starts. Four is a young age for a horse to be staying this far, and Call To Mind, while a Grade 2 type now, might eventually make his way to the highest level.

He was plenty good enough for the Gold Cup. Postulation, whose eventual fade to last was far, far below his best form, made an easy lead under Florent Geroux, pulled perhaps slightly too strongly through the early portions, went a mile in 1:40.49, and folded up like a cheap suit when Call To Mind jumped on him into the final turn. Three closers – Canessar, who would wind up second by a neck, Prince of Arran, who got third by three-quarters of a length over Rocketry – all tried to run at the winner but Call To Mind was of no mind to waver.

“You want to cover those European horses up a little and let them finish,” Castellano said. “I really liked the way he did it today.”

The last four home – Funny Kid, Nessy, Cooptado, and Postulation – finished well behind the top four. Run Time and Focus Group were early scratches. Winning time over firm turf was 3:16.78. That was a course record, which doesn’t mean a whole lot given the number of such races run at the distance.

The Queen stayed up late to watch her horse, a homebred, win the Gold Cup. She could sleep well knowing this American invasion, at least, had been successful.