Cozmic One will try to improve in second career start

ELMONT, N.Y. – It’s Take 2 for Cozmic One.

The first foal out of the wildly popular Horse of the Year Zenyatta, Cozmic One will make his second career start Wednesday at Belmont Park in a $75,000 maiden race. The 1 1/16-mile race goes as the seventh (4:26 p.m. Eastern) on the nine-race program.

Cozmic One finished last in his debut at Santa Anita, a two-turn, one-mile race April 17.

“Mentally, he was never quite there,” trainer John Shirreffs said. “He was really immature. He wasn’t quite focused on what he was supposed to be doing. In the race, he dropped back instead of staying engaged, and that really hurt his chances. He made a nice little move on the turn to make up all the ground he was behind. At least he got up to be with the field, so that was a big move on his part, not just say, ‘What am I doing out here?’ He’s come a long way since then.”

Cozmic One shipped to Belmont in early May and has worked six times, including bullet five-furlong works June 25 and last Thursday.

“They weren’t done differently so much as he was starting to learn what was expected of him,” Shirreffs said. “Before, he wanted to hurry through everything. He’d get to the five-eighths pole and say, ‘I got to go’ and run for a quarter-mile and then say, ‘That’s enough, I’ve had it.’ No, the finish line is down there, you got to keep going. There was a lot of that going on. Now he seems to have put a lot of it together. I expect to see a big improvement.”

Cozmic One will break from post 8 under Rajiv Maragh.

Cozmic One will face eight rivals, including Indian Trail, a full brother to 2010 champion 2-year-old male Uncle Mo who finished fourth in his debut June 5 at Belmont after getting bumped and shuffled back at the break. Another contender is Abdaar, who, after finishing seventh in his sprint debut at Keeneland, finished second, beaten a neck, in his second start here May 24.

Chad Brown, who trains Abdaar, said the colt could not handle dirt getting kicked into his face at Keeneland in his first start.

“He got a lot of kickback; he never leveled off until the gallop-out,” Brown said. “When the running stopped for everyone else and the kickback stopped, he picked it up and galloped out well. As we stretched him out and got him out of the dirt, he did much better.”

Meanwhile, Shirreffs said that Ziconic, a 2-year-old colt out of Zenyatta by Tapit, is in training at Belmont.

“He’s a little more precocious,” Shirreffs said. “He’s better [mentally], a little more focused about it.”

Jess’s Dream not quite ready

Jess’s Dream, the first foal out of the popular Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra, is not quite ready to run. He’s suffering from some type of allergies, according to trainer Kiaran McLaughlin.

Jess’s Dream had been working regularly from late February to May. He was recently transferred from Belmont to Saratoga.

“He’s galloping every day,” McLaughlin said. “But he’s had some mucus. We’re trying to work on it and get it cleared up. No temperatures.”

Meanwhile, Rachel’s Valentina, the second foal out of Rachel Alexandra, looks like she’s getting close to the races. Trained by Todd Pletcher, Rachel’s Valentina, by Bernardini, has worked six times, including a five-furlong move in 1:01.67 last Saturday at Saratoga.