Hunt the Front stretches to marathon for Zito
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The late Triple Crown-winning trainer Laz Barrera once made a comment on 1 1/2-mile horses to Nick Zito, and the insight is one reason Zito is testing Hunt the Front at the distance Thursday in the featured eighth race at Oaklawn Park.
The allowance is for 3-year-olds and up who have never won three races. It highlights the first of four straight Thursday cards added to the meet to make up for winter weather cancellations.
Goalie could go favored after Market Analysis – the horse he ran second to in his last start – came back to win a Sunday allowance at Oaklawn. Super Constitution also will get good support as the son of the millionaire racemare Superior Storm.
Hunt the Front is making his second start of the year, after finishing a fast-closing fifth in a one-mile allowance Feb. 26 at Oaklawn. Zito feels the horse fits the bill for the added distance Thursday in part because of some training insight he once gleaned from Barrera, who won the 1978 Triple Crown with Affirmed and the 1976 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes with former sprinter Bold Forbes.
“I asked Laz about Bold Forbes – he was a great champion in Puerto Rico,” Zito said. “Now he’s going a mile and a half in the Belmont, so I said, ‘Laz, how could this horse go a mile and a half? I know you’re a great trainer . . .’
“Laz told me, ‘Nick, always remember it’s inside of them. What you as a trainer have to do is figure that out.’ In my opinion, with Hunt the Front, I believe it’s inside of him.”
Barrera died in 1991, and Zito would go on to win two runnings of the Belmont Stakes – in 2004 with Birdstone and 2008 with Da’ Tara – and enter the Hall of Fame alongside Barrera.
Zito, who also has seven second-place finishes in the Belmont Stakes, said Hunt the Front has a few key factors in his favor moving to the 1 1/2-mile distance Thursday. The horse will break from post 7 under Kelsi Harr.
“I always had it in my mind he could run all day,” Zito said. “No. 1, you’ve got to feel that he can go the distance because that’s a long way to go.
“I think you also need the right pilot, and that’s where we were fortunate in those Belmonts. With Kelsi, she knows this horse. She comes out and works the horse. There’s a good rapport with the horse. I’m happy she’s riding him.”
Zito trains Hunt the Front for Dream Walkin Farms.
Goalie will break from post 2. He’s one who also should appreciate the added ground he picks up off a start in a 1 1/16-mile allowance as he is a winner over 1 1/4 miles. David Cohen has the mount for trainer Robertino Diodoro.
Goalie is a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Midnight Storm, who earned $1.7 million and raced for one of Goalie’s owners, A Venneri Racing. Goalie also is owned by Michael Lomb.