Martin well represented in co-features
The short and long of it Friday at Belmont Park is that trainer Carlos Martin will be bringing one horse back in seven days and another back off a 173-day layoff when he sends out High Tide and Tass in pair of second-level/optional $62,500 claiming turf events that highlight Friday’s nine-race Belmont Park program.
In race 6, scheduled for one mile on turf, Martin wheels High Tide right back after he won a first-level allowance last Friday at this same distance by two lengths. Martin said High Tide bounced out of last week’s race really well and noted that the next race in this category is scheduled for Belmont Stakes Day, which he anticipates could draw a much tougher field.
“The horse is good right now,” he said. “I like the spot. We’ll take a long look at it but I think it’s a good opportunity. For the way he’s doing, it’s a good spot to be in.”
In his victory last week, High Tide was last early, but with a dawdling pace the eager horse dragged Jose Lezcano to the front. Once there, High Tide settled nicely on the lead, and had plenty left with which to finish when challenged at the quarter pole.
“They were going so slow, Jose said ‘I’m not going to get into a fight with him,’ so he dropped his head, and once he made the lead he came back to him and relaxed very well,” Martin said.
This eight-horse field on turf includes Buy Land and See, who was beaten a half-length by Flop Shot at Aqueduct on April 14 in his first start on turf in five months. Buy Land and See won the one-mile Awad Stakes on turf here in the fall of 2019, but is 1 for 8 since. He is trained by Tony Dutrow.
Dutrow also has Price Talk entered in this spot. Claimed out of a win for $50,000 last year, Price Talk is in for the $62,500 tag on Friday. He is 2 for 3 at Belmont, including an allowance/optional $80,000 claiming win when he was not entered for the tag.
In race 7, at six furlongs, Martin brings Tass back 173 days after she finished third under Eric Cancel following a troubled start behind Miss J McKay at Aqueduct in a similar spot. Miss J McKay came out of that race to win the Abundantia Stakes at Gulfstream Park, and most recently won the License Fee Stakes here on May 1.
Regarding Tass’s last race, Martin said: “She did one of those flying leaps at the start. Cancel almost came off good. It was a good effort. Who knows if she had a clean beginning if she could have beaten a filly like Miss J McKay?”
With Lezcano aboard Friday, Tass will have the outside post in what should be a six-horse field following the scratches of three main-track-only entrants.
Bye Bye, winner of the Grade 3 Soaring Softly Stakes here last May, returns from an eight-month layoff in this spot for trainer Christophe Clement. Minaun was beaten a head as the even-money favorite in this same condition last month at Aqueduct for Chad Brown.