Diversify, Highland Sky likely for Jockey Club Gold Cup

ELMONT, N.Y. – Barring unsatisfactory workouts over the weekend, Diversify and Highland Sky are expected to join the field for next Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park.

Diversify, an 11 1/2-length winner of the Evan Shipman Stakes against New York-breds at Saratoga, could very well be the speed of the 1 1/4-mile Gold Cup. He was expected to work Saturday morning.

“I’m probably going to take a shot,” trainer Rick Violette said. “Aside from Destin, there doesn’t look to be other speed, and we’re probably quicker than him.”

Diversify, a gelding by Bellamy Road, is 6 for 9 in his career. In the Evan Shipman, he put up realistic fractions of 47.35 seconds for a half-mile and 1:11.09 for six furlongs before coming home quick and covering 1 1/8 miles in 1:47.48.

He would be trying 1 1/4 miles for the first time in the Gold Cup.

“It seems to me everything with him is about the pace,” Violette said. “Obviously, his best races have been on the lead. The farther you go, the pace is slower. If he’s able to get into a comfortable cruising speed, it probably makes him dangerous at any distance.”

Highland Sky, a son of Sky Mesa trained by Barclay Tagg, has made the first 12 starts of his career on turf, winning three. On Sept. 18, Highland Sky breezed four furlongs on dirt in 47.60 under jockey Rajiv Maragh. Though Highland Sky worked on turf last Sunday, he is expected to work on dirt this Sunday, after which a decision on the Gold Cup will be made.

“He did look pretty good on dirt, always has,” Tagg said. “He comes from a pretty darn good turf family.”

Trainer Todd Pletcher has three horses for the Gold Cup, including Keen Ice, the probable favorite; Destin; and Rally Cry. Good Samaritan, Pavel, and possibly Securitiz are expected to run in the Gold Cup, which offers a fees-paid berth into the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 4.