Joseph sending in 16 horses; Skippylongstocking to Preakness or Peter Pan

ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. combined to win 13 races from 40 starters at Belmont Park’s two meets in 2021 and he will again have a presence in New York this summer as he plans to have 16 horses based here for the spring/summer meet that begins Thursday.

Among the group that will ultimately be here is Skippylongstocking, the third-place finisher in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 9. Skippylongstocking is scheduled to have his first work since the Wood on Friday at Gulfstream Park.

Joseph said Skippylongstocking could be considered for the Preakness on May 21 or the Grade 3, $200,000 Peter Pan Stakes here a week earlier. Either race could be used as stepping-stone to the Belmont Stakes on June 11.

“The Peter Pan is a nice distance, but it’s one turn,” Joseph said Wednesday from Florida where he is overseeing the training of White Abarrio for the May 1 Kentucky Derby. “We want to keep him two turns. He’s run his best races two turns.”

Joseph said A. P.’s Secret, who finished fourth in the Wood Memorial, is being considered for a start in the $300,000 Texas Derby at Lone Star Park on May 30.

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Joseph said that Anthony Gentry, the owner of A. P’s Secret, is from Texas “and would like to run there if all goes well.”

Joseph’s first two starters at Belmont will be Preposterous, a filly entered in a New York-bred allowance that goes as Friday’s second and Ny Traffic the likely favorite in Friday’s $100,000 Affirmed Success Stakes.

Preposterous, a daughter of Union Rags, in her third career start won an off-the-turf maiden race for New York-breds here last Oct. 28. Joseph had her at Fair Grounds early in the winter but did not find a suitable race for her to run in. He entered her in a New York-bred allowance at Aqueduct that did not fill.

“We’ve been waiting for a race to go,” Joseph said. “It worked out that she got a break, but she always was training.”

Preposterous figures to be the second choice in this 1 1 /16-mile race behind Stone Creator, a debut winner in January who has twice finished second in New York-bred stakes.