Haynesfield works at Belmont Park for Whitney

Haynesfield, the Suburban Handicap winner, completed preparations for his expected start in Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Whitney Handicap by working four furlongs in 49.06 seconds Tuesday morning over the training track at Belmont Park.
Track clockers caught Haynesfield’s first quarter in 24.81 seconds and his second quarter in 24.25. He galloped out five furlongs in 1:02.80
Haynesfield, a New York-bred son of Speightstown, has won 8 of 11 races overall and brings a four-race winning streak into the Whitney, where he will face Quality Road and Blame. After winning a statebred allowance race off a seven-month layoff, Haynesfield came back in three weeks to upset I Want Revenge in the Suburban, a race he won by 2 3/4 lengths and one in which he earned a lifetime-best Beyer Speed Figure of 104.
“If everything wasn’t going well we wouldn’t be pointing for this race,” said Toby Sheets, the Belmont-based assistant for trainer Steve Asmussen. “He definitely matured as he’s gotten older. I think he’s coming into himself. Hopefully, we’re this caliber.”
Haynesfield has enough speed to be up close to Quality Road in the early stages of the Whitney. However, in his two-turn races, he has shown the ability to sit off of another horse. He did that in the Count Fleet Stakes early in his 3-year-old year and again winning the Grade 3 Discovery in his final start last year.
“I think he’s relaxed a lot, he’s settled a lot,” Sheets said. “He’s an older horse now, he does basically whatever you want.”
Sheets said it hadn’t yet been decided when Haynesfield would ship to Saratoga. He has run only once at the Spa, that being a third-place finish in his debut going 5 1/2 furlongs as a 2-year-old.