Emerging Market, Chief Wallabee get easier spots before Travers
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Chief Wallabee and Emerging Market were among the buzz horses entering the Kentucky Derby, going off the fifth and sixth choices, respectively. Chief Wallabee ran fourth, Emerging Market finished 10th.
Both came back five weeks later in the Belmont Stakes, but that didn’t go well either, as Chief Wallabee again finished fourth while Emerging Market finished fifth.
With the goal of making it to the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers in late August, Chief Wallabee and Emerging Market will each take a step back with the hopes of moving forward.
Saturday, Emerging Market will drop into a second-level allowance race, where he will face older horses. Next Wednesday, Chief Wallabee will run in the listed $150,000 Curlin Stakes.
In just his second start, Emerging Market won the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby. Among the horses he beat was Golden Tempo, who ran third that day and who, of course, has since come back to win the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.
In both the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, Emerging Market lost his right front shoe. Trainer Chad Brown isn’t necessarily using that as an excuse, it’s just a fact. In the Belmont, Emerging Market lost his shoe at the start when he stumbled coming out of the gate.
Since then, Emerging Market has been training in glue-on shoes, which he will wear for the first time Saturday when he takes on seven older males going 1 1/8 miles.
“He needs a confidence builder, a positive experience,” Brown said. “Though the allowance is against older horses and his [outside] post is challenging, it’s likely to be an easier race for the future than the Jim Dandy.”
The field for Saturday’s allowance includes Wynstock, the 2023 Los Alamitos Futurity winner, and Resilience, the 2024 Wood Memorial winner, both of whom have seen better days. Dreamlike is coming off two solid second-place finishes in allowance company for Linda Rice.
The field for the Aug. 1 Jim Dandy is to be drawn on Sunday. The four confirmed runners include Grade 1 winners Renegade and Commandment, the runners-up in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes, respectively; Ohio Derby winner Chip Honcho; and Southwest Stakes winner Silent Tactic.
Meanwhile, trainer Bill Mott has been targeting the Curlin with Chief Wallabee since the Belmont. The Curlin is open to 3-year-olds who have not won a graded stakes. Chief Wallabee was second in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth and third in the Grade 1 Florida Derby before his tries in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont. Among those expected to be entered against him in the Curlin were Blackout Time, the 2025 Breeders’ Futurity runner-up who recently won an allowance at Churchill, Gulfy, fourth in the Peter Pan, Sea Strike, Tiernanogue, and Zihnal, the latter coming out of a fourth in the Grade 3 Indiana Derby.
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