Free Drop Billy works five furlongs for Belmont Stakes

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The morning before Triple Crown hopeful Justify is scheduled to have his final workout in preparation for the Belmont Stakes, it was a projected Belmont longshot, Free Drop Billy, that tuned up Sunday at Churchill Downs with a five-furlong breeze in 59 1/5 seconds.

Traveling over a freshly harrowed track that produced fast times, he went quickly early, covering his first quarter mile in 23 seconds before slowing his pace somewhat with a 36 1/5 split over his final three furlongs. He was timed galloping out six furlongs in 1:12 4/5 by Churchill Downs clockers.

Trainer Dale Romans, pleased with the move, is hoping to catch a fast track in the Belmont, in contrast to the slop over which the colt raced in the Kentucky Derby, in which he was 16th behind Justify. He is hopeful his horse’s Derby performance was not representative of how he stacks up in the Belmont.

“He went into it very healthy and came out of it very healthy,” Romans said of the Derby. “He didn’t run very good. I just don’t know. So let’s not worry about it.”

Free Drop Billy has gone winless in five starts since winning the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland in October. Prior to his Derby loss, he had been third in the Gotham and Bluegrass and second in the Holy Bull in his races at 3, following a ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in his final start of his 2-year-old year.

He is bred to stay the 1 1/2-mile trip of the Belmont, being by Union Rags, winner of the 2012 Belmont, and being out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Trensa, who produced Hawkbill, winner of the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic earlier this year on turf at 1 1/2 miles.

“He doesn’t look like a stereotypical mile-and-a-half horse, he’s a little smaller,” Romans said. “But he sure moves well, and that’s a big part of it.”

While Free Drop Billy was working, Justify was galloping, completing his routine training with his usual professionalism and energy. He is slated to breeze Monday before shipping to New York on Wednesday on a flight he will share with Free Drop Billy, among others.

Also working Sunday at Churchill was Kentucky Oaks winner Monomoy Girl, who zipped a half-mile in 47 1/5 seconds in company with Dazzling Gem, an older stakes-placed horse. Breezing to his outside, she spotted him a length or two early before finishing on even terms while under a hold. The divisional leader among 3-year-old fillies, she is being aimed for Saturday’s Grade 1 Acorn, one of nine supporting stakes on the Belmont Stakes undercard.