Mile distance, drop in company should suit White Smoke Rising

ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Charlton Baker hopes a drop in class, a stretch out in distance and an equipment change can help White Smoke Rising return to his winning ways in Thursday’s second-level allowance/optional-claiming feature at Belmont Park.

White Smoke Rising is the lone 3-year-old in a field of nine males scheduled to run one mile in what goes as the third race on an eight-race card that begins at 1:10 p.m.

After getting beat a neck in his debut at Aqueduct in January, White Smoke Rising came off a four-month layoff to win a maiden at Aqueduct and a first-level allowance at Saratoga going 6 1/2 and seven furlongs, respectively.

Baker moved White Smoke Rising up into the Grade 2 Amsterdam at Saratoga, where he finished fifth, beaten six lengths by Local Knowledge and Solitude Dude, who finished heads apart in the 6 1/2-furlong race.

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“I thought he ran a good race, not a great race,” Baker said. “He just dropped too far back, made that run, had to go wide, and it was a speed-favoring track. You couldn’t come from that far back and so I thought he ran very creditable.”

On Thursday, White Smoke Rising will drop into allowance company while stretching out to a mile, a distance that Baker has felt all along would better suit White Smoke Rising.

“I think a mile might be his best distance overall,” Baker said. “Ever since we started training him, he always galloped out so good after his works. I thought that maybe a flat mile would suit him.”

Baker is also adding blinkers to White Smoke Rising, who hasn’t been smooth leaving the gate.

“Two times he broke and he hit the gate, last time he did the same thing when he came out of the gate,” Baker said. “Hopefully, he can pay attention and go forward. He’s got a good head, I don’t think it’s going to add speed to him.”

Ricardo Santana Jr., who won six races during the three-day opening week of the new Belmont Park, rides White Smoke Rising from the rail.

Dilger makes his first start in 11 months, or since he finished 10th in the Grade 3 Fayette Stakes at Keeneland last Oct. 25. Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. had scratched him from last Saturday’s Parx Dirt Mile - a race he finished second in last year - because he felt that spot was too tough. Dilger is seeking his first win since he captured a first-level allowance race going six furlongs at Gulfstream Park in March 2025.

Hill Road, who finished third in the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar and won the Grade 3 Peter Pan in May 2025 at Aqueduct, makes his first start since finishing 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Turf last Nov. 1.

Trained as a 3-year-old by Chad Brown, Hill Road is now in the barn of Whit Beckman, who had him training in Saratoga for the summer. Beckman said this allowance race is a starting point for longer races in the future.

“I don’t think this is what he wants to do. He’s a true mile-and-a-quarter type horse,” Beckman said. “Looking at his progression, rather than breeze him a hundred times and hope there’s a race for him in a month. Let’s hopefully get that fitness angle amped up and hopefully come back next month in a mile-and-an-eighth stakes that he’ll be ready for with a race under his belt.”

Secured Landing is coming off a front-running win going a mile in a $16,000 starter allowance/optional claimer at Saratoga on Aug. 26. He has speed, which could assist his trainer Linda Rice’s other horse, Eliminate, who stumbled badly at the break and finished sixth of seven in this condition at Saratoga. Two starts back, Eliminate won this condition when not in for the claiming price. On Thursday, he can be claimed for $80,000.

Ilkay Kantarmaci has a similar scenario with the speedy Otello and the stalker/closer Kinetic entered.

Emergence, going turf to dirt first off the claim for Jamie Ness, and Racing Driver, winless in eight starts this year, complete the field.

Velazquez suspended for Thursday

Jockey John Velazquez on Thursday will serve his one-day suspension issued by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority for overuse of the whip in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga.

Velazquez hit Napoleon Solo eight times, two more than permitted, in the Travers, a race in which he finished second, beaten a half-length by Leading Change. Velazquez must also pay a fine of $1,250, which is 10 percent of what he earned in the race.

Manny Franco was also cited by the New York Racing Association steward, who enforces the HISA regulations, for overuse of the whip in the Travers, having hit the winner, Leading Change, seven times in the race. Franco was suspended one day and fined $6,875. He has appealed the suspension.

Meanwhile, jockey Junior Alvarado will serve a two-day HISA suspension Thursday and Friday after he was cited for hitting Tiger Twenty Four seven times in a $55,000 claiming race in which he finished second, beaten a half-length at Saratoga on Aug. 30.

Alvarado had been suspended four days, because it was his fourth violation in an 180-day period, but on appeal it got reduced in half. He was also fined $2,000.

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