Fire Plug field down to nine after Belmont quarantine scratches

Do Share, Life in Shambles, and Chief Lion will not be allowed to ship from Belmont Park to Laurel Park for the $100,000 Fire Plug Stakes on Saturday because the equine herpesvirus quarantine of Barn 44 at Belmont Park has not been lifted.

A Linda Rice-trained horse tested positive for the herpesvirus at Belmont on Jan. 9. The horse was retested this week but late Friday afternoon the results showed he was still positive for the virus.

The Maryland Jockey Club is not allowing horses to ship in from Belmont Park while the quarantine is in place. The three scratches reduce the Fire Plug field to nine runners.

The quarantine also means Mister Hayes, who is trained by Michelle Nevin, will have to scratch from race 2, and Catch Twenty Two, who races for Chad Brown, will be scratched from race 4.

Entries were accepted on the Belmont-based horses in the hope the quarantine would be over by race day.

The scratch of Chief Lion makes Favorite Tale and Awesome Banner the chief speed horses in the six-furlong race. Favorite Tale will start from post 1 and Awesome Banner has the outside post.

Favorite Tale will be coming back on 12 days’ rest after winning the $100,000 Dave’s Friend at Laurel. The Dave’s Friend was Favorite Tale’s first win in four starts following a 17-month layoff.

Despite the quick turnaround, trainer Lupe Preciado said Favorite Tale will start, partially because the Grade 3, $250,000 General George, a seven-furlong race at Laurel on Feb. 17, is a bit too far for him.

“He came back good from the race and there really isn’t much for him right now,” Preciado said. “I want to keep him at three-quarters. I have tried him several times at seven furlongs and he doesn’t finish.”

Favorite Tale, who finished third in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Sprint before injuring a knee the following spring, is now 7. His Dave’s Friend win increased his earnings to more than $1 million.

“He is more professional now,” Preciado said. “He knows why he is out there.”

Awesome Banner is coming off a fifth-place finish behind Chief Lion, Favorite Tale, and Flashy Kyem - who also is in the Fire Plug - in the $200,000 Fabulous Strike Stakes at Penn National in November. He has turned in three sharp works since that race.

Something Awesome was shipped to Maryland from Woodbine by the Stronach Stable in early October and turned over to trainer Jose Corrales. He has since turned in two career-best optional-claiming victories.

“Maybe it’s the surface,” Corrales said. “Maybe he likes my program, how I do things. And he’s not just a three-quarters horse. I think he will be able to go a mile, a mile and a sixteenth, and do it easier than he is doing three-quarters.”

Corrales’s association with Andy and Frank Stronach dates to 2010, when he was training in Ohio. He relocated to Maryland with horses for the Stronachs in late 2011 and now operates a public stable.

“The Stronachs have been so good to me,” Corrales said. “I want to win a stakes for them and to develop a nice horse for them. Something Awesome is the best horse I ever have trained.”

Someday Jones, a 5-year-old with six wins in 10 starts, has had two injury-related layoffs in his career, but comes into the Fire Plug off a sharp optional-claiming comeback score at Parx Racing.

“He has always had a ton of talent, he’s just been plagued by injury,” trainer John Servis said. “He’s still a really nice horse.”