Firenze Fire needs better manners in Vosburgh
ELMONT, N.Y. – Firenze Fire looks to rebound from his savage incident in the Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga when he heads a five-horse field in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Vosburgh Stakes going six furlongs at Belmont Park.
At stake for Firenze Fire – as well as his four opponents – is a fees-paid berth to the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar on Nov. 6. Firenze Fire has competed in the last four Breeders’ Cups, starting with the 2017 Juvenile when the event was also held at Del Mar.
By the numbers, Firenze Fire outclasses his four rivals. Consider, this will be his 36th consecutive stakes start and he has won 13, including last year’s Vosburgh. His record at Belmont Park is 7 for 11 and his earnings of $1,133,000 at Belmont alone is almost as much as the rest of the field’s combined lifetime earnings ($1,221,489).
“He’s doing well,” trainer Kelly Breen said, adding that post 4 “is a good post for him. He’s back at his home track. It’s a small field, and it’s not an easy race, but if he shows up, he will be tough.”
Firenze Fire showed up in the Forego, but approaching the sixteenth pole he attempted to savage Yaupon, who didn’t flinch and beat Firenze Fire by a head.
“He’s never done it before,” Breen said. “He goes out to the track, walks out in a set, in company, doesn’t try to savage anybody.”
Firenze Fire, a 6-year-old son of Poseidon’s Warrior, has had some easy works until last Sunday, when he blew out three furlongs in a quick 34.60 over Belmont’s main track.
“It’s nice to know at his age when we ask for it, it’s there,” Breen said.
Irad Ortiz Jr., aboard for nine of Firenze Fire’s 13 stakes wins, is back aboard Saturday after Jose Ortiz had ridden him in his previous two starts.
The 3-year-olds Baby Yoda and Following Sea are the potential upsetters in this field. Baby Yoda, who debuted for maiden $10,000 claiming, is coming off a first-level allowance win for which he earned a whopping 114 Beyer Speed Figure.
His connections, including trainer Bill Mott, are running here to determine whether he should be supplemented to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
Following Sea earned a 100 Beyer Speed Figure when he won an allowance race here in June, his first start for trainer Todd Pletcher. He didn’t successfully stretch out around two turns when beaten 18 1/4 lengths in the Grade 1 Haskell. Most recently, he finished third, nine lengths behind Jackie’s Warrior and Life Is Good, in the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens. Both of those horses have since come back to win graded satkes.
John Velazquez, who rode Following Sea in the Jerkens, told Pletcher, “When he got kickback, he kind of backed up. Obviously, that was a super-fast race. He was third best on the day, but two awfully good horses in front of him.”
Following Sea, with Joel Rosario aboard, breaks from the outside on Saturday.
“He drew a good post. I think he can sit off a little bit, he’s not headstrong,” Pletcher said.
Jalen Journey, winner via disqualification in the Grade 3 Frank De Francis Memorial Stakes on Sept. 18, and Good Effort, a 6-year-old Irish-bred making his U.S. debut, complete the field.
The Vosburgh goes as race 5 on an 11-race card that begins at 12:35 p.m.