Haskell likely to feature three Grade 1 winners

Monmouth’s signature race of the season, the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational on July 20, could lure as many as three Grade 1 winners when the race is drawn Wednesday – and that doesn’t even include Mindframe, who has yet to win a stakes race of any sort, yet probably would’ve won the Belmont, if not for inexperience.

Presumed starters in the 1 1/8-mile Haskell as of Friday include Dornoch, who actually did win the Belmont, adding that prize to Grade 2 victories in the Remsen and Fountain of Youth, and locally based Sea Streak, entirely unproven at this class.

Trainer Todd Pletcher said via text message Friday that he still has three horses aimed toward the Haskell – Mindframe, Fierceness, and Tuscan Sky. That trio has Saratoga workouts scheduled for Saturday morning, after which final assessments will be made regarding the colts’ status. Tuscan Sky, who exits a Monmouth win in the Pegasus Stakes, breezed inside of Mindframe on June 28, getting moderately outworked, and outside Fierceness on July 5, when he was definitively outworked, albeit in a drill that appeared more serious for Fierceness than Tuscan Sky.

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Mindframe, making his stakes debut, shied from the crop after taking a midstretch lead in the Belmont, allowing Dornoch to re-rally along the rail and snatch away victory. Fierceness hasn’t raced since finishing 15th as the Kentucky Derby favorite but appears, from workout video, to have added a considerable amount of much-needed heft to his frame since leaving Louisville. Repole Stables owns Fierceness and co-owns Mindframe with St. Elias Stables.

Timberlake, winner of the Grade 1 Champagne last fall, captured the Rebel Stakes in his 3-year-old bow but hasn’t started since a disappointing fourth-place finish March 30 in the Arkansas Derby. Based at Churchill Downs with trainer Brad Cox, Timberlake is due to breeze this weekend and will be entered in the Haskell, Cox said in a text message Friday.

Preakness winner Seize the Grey, who struggled home seventh in the Belmont, was originally slated for the Haskell, will now run in the Jim Dandy at Saratoga on July 27.

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