Firenze Fire works half-mile on Belmont training track

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Firenze Fire, the Grade 1 Champagne winner, was one of 18 horses credited with a timed workout Monday morning over the Belmont training track, the first time in four days the track was open.

Firenze Fire went a half-mile in 50.88 seconds in company with the 3-year-old maiden Daring Ego. Firenze Fire is expected to be a strong favorite in Saturday’s $150,000 Jerome Stakes for 3-year-olds at Aqueduct. Firenze Fire had basically jogged in the shed for the last four days.

“It’s not textbook, but what are you going to do?,” trainer Jason Servis said from south Florida. “We kept him moving in the barn. I put a bunch of shavings down, and we’ve been jogging in the barn. Lucky we could get that done.”

Servis said that Manny Franco would ride Firenze Fire in the Jerome, replacing Irad Ortiz Jr., who is committed to ride Heart to Heart in the Grade 2 Fort Lauderdale and Dream Dancing in the Grade 3 Marshua’s River on Saturday at Gulfstream Park.

The Jerome was originally carded for Jan. 1, but was rescheduled when weather forced the cancellation of that day’s card.

The Jerome will be re-drawn Wednesday.