Constitution restarts career in Sunday allowance
ELMONT, N.Y. – An early-season star of the 3-year-old division, Constitution looks to get a head start on his 4-year-old campaign when he returns to the races in an $85,000 allowance race Sunday at Belmont Park.
During the winter at Gulfstream, Constitution won the first three starts of his career, including the Grade 1 Florida Derby, and was seemingly on his way to the Kentucky Derby when he sustained a cracked shin during training in April.
Constitution got time off at WinStar Farm, which along with Twin Creeks Racing owns the Tapit colt. He resumed training in July and hit the work tab at WinStar in August. He has had 10 breezes, including a five-furlong move in 1:00.29 at Belmont on Sept. 29.
“I think we’re where we want to be for this race,” trainer Todd Pletcher said Friday at Belmont. “We got some good works into him. Particularly his penultimate work was very solid, with a good gallop-out.”
Pletcher said he and Elliott Walden, president and chief executive of WinStar, discussed trying to get Constitution ready to run earlier with an eye toward the Breeders’ Cup but ultimately decided against that route.
“We talked about that if we pushed the envelope a little bit, we might have been able to rush into the Kelso or something like that, and possibly that could have set him up for the Breeders’ Cup [Dirt] Mile or possibly the Classic,” Pletcher said. “I think our main focus was to get a race or two into him at the end of the year and then focus on a 4-year-old campaign.”
Pletcher said a good performance Sunday would give Constitution the option of running in either the Grade 1, $500,000 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs on Nov. 28 or the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct on Nov. 29. As a Grade 1 winner, Constitution would be running for the winner’s share of $750,000 in the Cigar Mile.
Pletcher said the Grade 2, $200,000 Discovery at Aqueduct on Nov. 1 is probably too soon for Constitution.
Sunday’s 1 1/16-mile race is no easy spot. Trainer David Jacobson has entered both Spa City Fever, an 8-year-old gelding with 50 starts, and Praetereo, a 6-year-old with 36 starts, though only one may run with Cornelio Velasquez named on both. Dawly, 10 for 35 and coming off a win at Parx, is another contender.