Hard Study should be well prepared in Flat Out

Nine long-winded runners will line up for the 1 3/8-mile Flat Out on Friday at Belmont Park. While some are proven at a marathon distance, the connections of others hope their charges are long-winded enough.

The $100,000 Flat Out is a stepping-stone to the Grade 2, $400,000 Brooklyn Invitational, a 1 1/2-mile race on Belmont Stakes Day.

Hard Study, Scuba, and Turco Bravo have all won at 1 3/4 miles. Hard Study, who is trained by Todd Pletcher, will be a solid favorite. Scuba and Turco Bravo will be seeking their form of past seasons.

Hard Study won the 1 3/4-mile Birdstone at Saratoga. He was then off for eight months before winning a high-level optional claimer at 1 1/8 miles on March 30 at Gulfstream Park.

Pletcher has since worked him three times at Palm Beach Downs. He should be ready. Manny Franco has the mount.

Zanotti won the 1 1/8-mile Queens County at Aqueduct in December. He has since finished second in three consecutive races. His Parx-based trainer Carlos Guerrero is using the Flat Out as an experiment to see if Zanotti can get the distance and move on to the Brooklyn.

“The 1 3/8 miles, we don’t know, but I don’t think he’ll have a problem with it,” Guerrero said. “He always gallops out strong in his races. My concern is this race is a little closer than I’d like.”

Zanotti will be returning on 27 days’ rest after finishing second in the 1 1/8-mile Excelsior at Aqueduct. Zanotti and jockey Paco Lopez got caught up in a three-horse pace, which set the table for $17.60 winner Discreet Lover to rally from well back.

“The plan was to have him settle, but he broke so good and Paco didn’t know him,” Guerrero said. “He had a loose rein and the other horse came to him and he got tough on Paco, so he had to go.”

Lopez is riding at Churchill Downs on Friday, and Kendrick Carmouche will be aboard Zanotti. Although it doesn’t show in Zanotti’s past performances, Guerrero said Carmouche worked Zanotti at Parx Racing last week.

“It was just a maintenance half,” Guerrero said. “Kendrick was happy with him.”

Zanotti’s two runner-up efforts prior to the Excelsior came at Laurel Park. He was second to eventual Charles Town Classic winner Something Awesome in the Harrison Johnson Memorial and second to Afleet Willy in the John B. Campbell. Afleet Willy finished fourth in the Charles Town Classic, beaten 1 1/2 lengths, after making the lead on the final bend.

Harlan Punch, who won a 1 1/4-mile optional claimer at Aqueduct in February, has had bad luck in his most recent starts. He broke slowly in the Excelsior, and then dragged his rider to the lead three wide early on the backstretch. He finished third, a neck behind Zanotti.

Two starts back, he had all sorts of traffic problems in the seven-furlong Caixa Eletronica on the New York Claiming Championships card.

The knock on Harlan Punch is that he has had a very busy winter and now stretches out to a marathon distance. This will be his eighth race since Jan. 20.