Central Banker makes belated return in Belmont Sprint
ELMONT, N.Y. – Central Banker, who missed a scheduled start in the Met Mile due to a medication snafu, returns for his first start in two months among a deep field of nine in Saturday’s Belmont Sprint Championship at seven furlongs.
The Grade 3 sprint, formerly run as the James Marvin Stakes on opening day at Saratoga, has been relocated downstate and had its purse quadrupled to $400,000. It is carded as race 6, with post time set for 4:01 p.m. Eastern.
After rebounding from a sixth-place finish in the Carter Handicap to win the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes on the Kentucky Derby undercard, Central Banker was well regarded heading into the Met Mile. But he had to be scratched after being administered a legal medication used to alleviate joint pain, Legend, outside of the allowable time frame established by the New York State Gaming Commission.[bc_video_id:329091:]
Central Banker subsequently went back to Kentucky and posted three workouts before shipping to Saratoga for two more toward the end of June.
Trainer Al Stall Jr. noted that Central Banker broke from an outside post in the seven-furlong Churchill Downs and had an inside draw in the seven-furlong Carter. On Saturday, he breaks from post 2.
“He’s a fighter, and we know seven furlongs is a distance he really likes,” Stall said.
The distance was a question for Dads Caps heading into the Carter, but he was able to steal the race in broad daylight after shaking loose through a soft opening quarter-mile. He became the first Grade 1 winner for both trainer Rudy Rodriguez and jockey Luis Contreras.
“I told the jockey, ‘If you go 23, I think they’re going to have a hard time catching you,’ and he went 23 and change,” said Rodriguez, who won this race last year with Sage Valley.
Dads Caps gets a switch to Irad Ortiz Jr. and looks to rebound after breaking slowly en route to finishing fifth behind perfect-trip winner Palace in the True North.
Palace was claimed out of a maiden win for $20,000 by Linda Rice in October 2012, and the New York-bred has since won eight times, including three stakes. The True North was his first outing since running fourth in the General George at Laurel in February.
“He was barely fit enough to run, but he trained very well coming into the [True North],” said Rice. “The race looked like it had a lot of speed, and it set up well for him, and he really likes Belmont.”
Clearly Now and Declan’s Warrior, also graded stakes winners at seven furlongs, were fifth and eighth in the Met Mile.