Distance of allowance should help Doswell get to the front and stay there

ELMONT, N.Y. – A class drop and a stretch-out in distance should benefit Doswell as he takes on four other stakes winners in a salty third-level allowance/optional $80,000 claiming race on Thursday’s nine-race Belmont Park program, which begins at 3:05 p.m. The 1 1/4-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and up attracted eight horses.

Doswell, a 7-year-old gelding who has run only 13 times, won the Grade 2 Fort Lauderdale Stakes at Gulfstream Park last December and was beaten only 2 1/2 lengths when seventh to Colonel Liam in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational on Jan. 29. He was scratched from the Grade 2 Fort Marcy here on May 7 due to an extremely soft turf course.

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“The Pegasus didn’t turn out like we hoped,” said Robin Smullen, assistant to trainer Barclay Tagg. “He didn’t have enough speed to get there and he’s more comfortable in front than anywhere. We scratched him the other day because it was too soft.”

The Fort Lauderdale and the Pegasus were both 1 1/8-mile races. In 2020, Doswell won a first-level allowance race going 1 1/4 miles at Belmont.

“In my mind that’s his ideal distance because he can get to the front without having to really rush and then when he gets out there he relaxes and can open up a length,” Smullen said. “He’s got natural speed but he’s not rank.”

Kendrick Carmouche rides Doswell from post 5.

Bakers Bay impressed trainer Shug McGaughey with a solid workout over the turf here Sunday for Thursday’s race. Bakers Bay got the final quarter in 23.42 seconds of a 49-second move in company with the 3-year-old Limited Liability.

“That was a bit of a surprise this morning how well he breezed,” McGaughey said. “I’m just going to hold him around for Colonial or Kentucky Downs. If I ran him for a tag somebody would claim him and that’s what they would do with him, so hell, I might as well do it.”

Bakers Bay has won allowance races at 1 3/16 miles at Keeneland and 1 3/8 miles at Aqueduct.

“A mile and a quarter is fine,” said McGaughey, who has Flavien Prat to ride.

Moon Over Miami won the Dueling Grounds Derby in September 2020 and last year placed second or third in three consecutive graded stakes, including a neck defeat in the Grade 1 Man o’ War in May. He has not run since a sixth-place finish in last July’s Grade 2 Bowling Green at Saratoga.

“He was a little jammed up,” trainer Bill Mott said. “He was turned out for a good while and we brought him back. He’s not all the way cranked up but he’s ready for a race.”

Flop Shot, trained by Chad Brown, stretches out to 1 1/4 miles after winning a 1 1/16-mile allowance narrowly at Aqueduct in April.

It’s a Gamble, third in this condition going 1 1/16 miles on May 5, tries 1 1/4 miles for the first time. He is trained by Kelly Breen.

Ever Dangerous hasn’t run since finishing second to L’Imperator in this condition going 1 1/8 miles at Saratoga last August. Glynn County, third to L’Imperator in the Fort Marcy on May 7, looks to break an eight-race losing streak. Price Talk goes first off the $62,500 claim for Orlando Noda, who is running him for $80,000 in this spot.