Doswell ready to put best foot forward in allowance race
ELMONT, N.Y. – Nearing the end of his 6-year-old year, Doswell has made just nine starts, owing to persistent foot issues that have forced his connections to be patient.
Thursday, his connections hope there is a reward for that patience when Doswell returns from a nine-month layoff in an optional $80,000 claiming/second-level allowance race at 1 1/16 miles on turf that serves as the feature on Belmont Park’s nine-race program.
Doswell, trained by Barclay Tagg for owner Joseph Allen, is making his first start since he finished third in the Grade 3 W.L. McKnight Stakes on Jan. 23 at Gulfstream Park.
“Mostly it’s his feet,” Robin Smullen, assistant to Tagg, said about the problems that have limited Doswell to just nine starts. “Every once in a while, he has other minor issues. It’s nothing ever serious, but you get one thing better and another thing shows up and it winds up taking so much time. But Joe is so patient. He loves this horse.”
In August 2020, Doswell came off an 11-month layoff – and a trainer switch to Tagg from Chad Brown – to win a 1 1/16-mile maiden race at Saratoga. He followed that with a front-running allowance win going 1 1/4 miles at Belmont. Off that allowance win, Doswell finished second in the Grade 2 Fort Lauderdale in December at Gulfstream before his third in the McKnight in January.
In his two wins, Doswell was in front at each point of call. In his two stakes tries, he came from off the pace.
“We think he’ll probably be forwardly placed,” Smullen said regarding Thursday’s race. “I don’t know that he’ll go right to the front. If he does, you don’t want to fight him, but he is very rateable. He’s in an outside post, which is a good spot. There are two horses that might be a little faster than him early and he can be third on the outside and won’t get into trouble.”
Smullen said the hope is Doswell runs well enough Thursday to point to the Grade 2, $200,000 Red Smith on Nov. 20 at Aqueduct.
Doswell, who is a sharp work horse on turf or dirt, will be ridden by Dylan Davis from outside in what figures to be an eight-horse field after the scratch of two main-track-only entrants.
The other two potential speeds in the field are Soulmate and Summer to Remember.
Trainer Mike Maker has a pair of entrants who figure to both be coming from off the pace in Bodecream and Atone.
Bodecream, one of four entered for the optional $80,000 claiming price, is part of a same-owner entry with Mo Ready (trained by Todd Pletcher). He finished second in a similar spot as this going a mile in May. Atone is coming off a first-level allowance win at Saratoga on closing day in a race run over yielding ground.
Attentive is making his first start off the claim for trainer Linda Rice, whose barn has heated up of late with eight wins from its last 23 starters (6 for 19 at Belmont), including two with horses running first off the claim.
The stakes winner Ballagh Rocks and Reconvene complete the field.