McKinzie may shine brightest in stellar Met Mile field

ELMONT, N.Y. – Bob Baffert over the last two years on Belmont Stakes Day has been virtually perfect. In 2017, when he didn’t have a horse in the Belmont Stakes, he went 4 for 4, including three graded stakes victories. Last year, he won three graded stakes on the card, topped by Justify’s Triple Crown-clinching victory in the Belmont. Baffert’s other entrant, Restoring Hope, finished eighth.

If Baffert is to continue his high rate of success on Belmont Day, McKinzie will have to run a nearly perfect race in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.2 million Metropolitan Handicap.

The Met Mile, race 9 on the 13-race card, drew a stellar field that has combined to win 53 of 124 races (42.7 percent), 32 graded or group stakes, and record earnings of $24.8 million.

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McKinzie has won five graded stakes, three of those being Grade 1’s. With the exception of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic – a race Baffert said he probably shouldn’t have run him in – he has never finished worse than second in nine races.

In his last race, he won the Grade 2 Alysheba at Churchill Downs, a two-turn 1 1/16-mile race. He was on the lead, dropped back off the pace, then came running again to win by 4 3/4 lengths under Mike Smith.

“He ran a bang-up race last time. He’s a good horse. I can’t believe he’s not undefeated,” said Baffert, who won the 2017 Met Mile with Mor Spirit. “Mike is figuring him out. He figured him out at the half-mile pole at Churchill Downs.”

Smith will be aboard McKinzie from post 2 on Saturday.

Though he is cutting back to one turn, McKinzie won a maiden race and the Grade 1 Malibu going seven furlongs around one turn.

“I view him as a running son of a gun,” said Baffert, whose only other starter here Saturday is Much Better in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens.

While McKinzie will be cutting back in distance, Mitole will be stretching out a furlong. Mitole, a 4-year-old son of Eskendereya, is coming off a 3 1/2 length victory in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes going seven furlongs. This will be his first try at a mile.

“I thought his last race was his best to date,” said trainer Steve Asmussen, who won last year’s Met Mile with Bee Jersey. “He’s always been very brilliant, and he is training exceptionally well. Nothing but respect for the competition, but I expect him to run extremely well Saturday.”

Mitole breaks from post 3 under Ricardo Santana Jr.

If ever there was a horse for course, it’s Firenze Fire at Belmont Park. The Florida-bred son of Poseidon’s Warrior is 3 for 3 here, winning the Grade 1 Champagne at 2 and the Grade 3 Dwyer at 3 – both at a mile – and the listed Runhappy Stakes last out.

He should get a beautiful stalking trip from post 7 under Irad Ortiz Jr.

Coal Front is not one of the five Grade 1 winners in the field, but he is 7 for 9 lifetime, including five graded stakes wins, and enters off a gutty victory in the Group 2 Godolphin Mile at Meydan on March 30.

“At the sixteenth pole, it still looked like he had a lot to do. He kept finding more and more,” said trainer Todd Pletcher, a two-time Met Mile winner.

After a brief freshening at WinStar Farm, Coal Front has returned to Belmont and has trained exceptionally well. He will break from the rail under Jose Ortiz.

“You never really want to break from the rail in these types of races, but everything’s gone as smoothly as we could hope for,” Pletcher said. “He’s training great, it’s just a super-tough race.”

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Pletcher also sends out Prince Lucky, who was in great form until he caught a sloppy track in the Grade 3 Westchester and finished sixth of seven. Last year on Belmont Day, Prince Lucky won the Easy Goer Stakes.

The wild card of the race may be Thunder Snow. He has won the last two runnings of the Dubai World Cup at 1 1/4 miles but now shortens up to a mile, a distance at which his rider, Christophe Soumillon, believes he will thrive, according to Tommy Burns, assistant trainer to Saeed bin Suroor.

On Thursday, Thunder Snow blew out three furlongs in 36.41 seconds over Belmont’s main track.

“He just needed to clear his wind. All went well. We’re happy with it,” Burns said.

Promises Fulfilled was third to Mitole in the Churchill Downs, but was good enough to win the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens last summer at Saratoga.

Pavel finished fourth in last year’s Dubai World Cup and came back to win the Grade 1 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs. He enters off a fourth in this year’s Dubai World Cup.

Tale of Silence will be the longest shot on the board, but in 2017 he was second in the Dwyer Stakes at 43-1. He won last year’s Westchester at 12-1.

The Met Mile is a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Santa Anita this fall.