Diversify will soon ship to Belmont Park for 6-year-old campaign

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Diversify, recently crowned New York-bred Horse of the Year, will soon be returning to New York to begin preparations for his 6-year-old campaign.

Diversify is at the Fair Hill Training Center in Northeast, Md. Jonathan Thomas, who was recently given the horse to train by owner Ralph Evans, said Diversify will likely ship to Belmont by mid-April.

Thomas said Diversify has been at Fair Hill for about five weeks, in part to take advantage of that facility’s Aquatred, a pool for horses.

“My thought process with him is he would benefit from some therapeutic equipment and the Aquatred is one of them,” Thomas said. “He’ll have 40 days there. This helps add another layer of fitness.”

Thomas said he has not plotted a campaign for Diversify, but said he hopes to be able to get him to the races at Belmont in June or July. Thomas said that just because Diversify won the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga last year does not necessarily mean he will run in that race this year.

“I’m not sure we’ll let last year’s schedule dictate this year’s schedule,” Thomas said.

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Last year, under the tutelage of Rick Violette, Diversify won the Grade 2 Suburban and the Whitney before he finished fifth in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Violette died on Oct. 21 and rather than move the horse to somebody else for the Breeders’ Cup or any other races, Evans decided to turn the horse out and bring Diversify back to the races this year. In January, Evans announced that Thomas would get the gelding.

Diversify will have some familiar faces around him when he gets to New York. Thomas has hired Melissa Cohen, a former longtime assistant to Violette, as his New York-based assistant. Thomas and Cohen both said that other barn employees who previously worked for Violette will also join the team.

“It was a pretty well-oiled machine when she was running [Violette’s barn] and I just want to give her all the tools possible,” Thomas said.

Said Cohen: “I’m super-excited to have the gang back together.”

Thomas planned to ship in his first group of horses from Florida to Belmont on Monday. Ultimately, he will have 18 head based at Belmont, including Catholic Boy, last year’s Travers and Belmont Derby winner.

Catholic