Lynch to have bigger presence in New York

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Brian Lynch did quite well last year shipping horses to New York from his Canadian base. From 20 starters, he won five races, including four stakes, and his horses finished in the money 55 percent of the time.

With that in mind, and with stricter regulations on the hiring of foreign workers in Canada, Lynch plans to stable 30 horses at Belmont Park this spring. His first runner in New York this year was to be Clearly Now in Saturday’s Grade 1 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct. Clearly Now, third in last year’s Carter, won the Grade 3 Belmont Sprint Championship last July.

Other horses Lynch won with in New York included Coffee Clique, who captured the Grade 1 Just a Game on Belmont Stakes Day and is pointing to that race again; Five Iron, who won the Grade 3 Fort Marcy at Belmont; and Heart to Heart, the winner of the Better Talk Now Stakes at Saratoga. Grand Arch was beaten a neck by Seek Again when second in the Grade 2 Fourstardave.

All but Five Iron will be back in New York this spring. Lynch also will have the intriguing turf sprinter Power Alert based at Belmont. Power Alert won his first two starts in this country and was scheduled to run in Saturday’s Shakertown Stakes at Keeneland.

Lynch, who will maintain a smaller string of about 12 at Woodbine, currently is based at Keeneland. He won’t ship to Belmont until late April or May.

“We’ll see if we can’t duplicate last summer,” Lynch said. “I obviously have some Canadian-breds for the Queen’s Plate, and they belong up there. JFK [Airport] is only an hour and a half from Toronto, so I’ll be doing a little back-and-forth.”