Fast Falcon launches comeback for Casse in allowance route

ELMONT, N.Y. – Four years after he nearly won the Travers and 21 months since he last competed, Fast Falcon returns to the races in a second-level allowance race Sunday at Belmont Park.

A 7-year-old son of Awesome Again owned by Richard Pell, Fast Falcon makes his first start since winning a first-level allowance on Dec. 31, 2014, at Gulfstream Park. Trained by Nick Zito then, he runs Sunday for Mark Casse.

“We started training for Richard Pell about a year ago,” Casse said. “We got Fast Falcon last August. He just needed some time, so we took him home and gave him a bunch of time.”

Though he only went 2 for 22 for Zito, Fast Falcon came close in several stakes. In the 2012 Travers at Saratoga, he finished a neck behind dead-heat winners Golden Ticket and Alpha. Prior to that, he lost the Grade 2 Dwyer at Belmont by a neck. At age 4, Fast Falcon lost the Albert the Great Stakes by a nose and finished third in the Grade 2 Suburban.

Fast Falcon shows six workouts at Belmont Park since returning to the track in July.

“He’s training very well,” Casse said. “With those old guys, it’s tough. It takes a race or two to get them going.”

Sunday’s seventh race is scheduled for 1 1/16 miles over the main track.

Among the eight entered are two from the barn of Jimmy Jerkens, Adulator and Securitiz, both owned by Centennial Farms. Jerkens said Friday he is leaning toward running just Adulator.

Adulator, the only 3-year-old in the field, is coming off a first-level allowance victory at Saratoga in his first race beyond seven furlongs.

Jerkens said he was looking for a stakes restricted to 3-year-olds but didn’t want to run last Monday at Parx in the Smarty Jones in a 14-horse field. Jerkens is hoping to use this race as a stepping-stone to the Discovery Handicap, a race typically run at Aqueduct in early November.

“That’s the one race I brought up to everybody,” Jerkens said. “That used to be a race where you got the stragglers. The last few years, it hasn’t been an easy race, but that seems like a logical spot.”