Mind Control, Firenze Fire might meet again in Forego
ELMONT, N.Y. – Mind Control and Firenze Fire came out of their seven-furlong slugfest in Sunday’s Grade 2, $250,000 John Nerud Stakes at Belmont Park in good order and both will be pointed to stakes at Saratoga.
Mind Control, under John Velazquez, raced outside of Firenze Fire every step of the way before prevailing by a head in the Nerud. He will be pointed to the Grade 1, $600,000 Forego at seven furlongs on Aug. 28. Mind Control at age 2 won the Grade 1 Hopeful and at 3 the H. Allen Jerkens, both Grade 1 stakes at seven furlongs at Saratoga.
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Firenze Fire, who is more accomplished at six furlongs, has the option of running in the Grade 1, $350,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt at six furlongs on July 31 if his connections choose to run him back in four weeks. Or, they could wait for the Forego and a rematch with Mind Control.
Todd Pletcher was running Mind Control for the first time in the Nerud. On Monday, he said Mind Control “looked good.”
“Surprised he wasn’t blowing that hard when he came back, and it seemed like he took it well,” Pletcher said.
Though the Nerud was a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, a six-furlong race at Del Mar on Nov. 6, Mind Control could also be considered for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, according to Rick Sacco, racing manager for Steve Brunetti’s Red Oak Stable, which owns the horse with Sol Kumin’s Madaket Stable.
“There is absolutely wiggle room for the Dirt Mile,” Sacco said.
Mind Control broke an eight-race losing streak in the Nerud, but Sacco believes there were legitimate excuses for several of those defeats. Mind Control caught sloppy tracks in the Grade 1 Carter and Grade 1 Forego last year, and he does not run well over such surfaces. Sacco said Mind Control got stopped cold finishing third in the Mr. Prospector at Monmouth Park last September, and a horse fell in front of him when he finished ninth in the Lafayette at Keeneland.
Pletcher said he had always followed Mind Control in part because he was a son of Stay Thirsty, a Grade 1 winner whom Pletcher trained.
“I certainly respected what he’d been able to accomplish, always seemed like a hard-trying, game kind of horse,” Pletcher said.
Mind Control displayed all of that Sunday, pressing Firenze Fire through a half-mile in 46.03 seconds and outfinishing the 13-time stakes winner to the wire while running seven furlongs in 1:21.94. He equaled a career high with a 99 Beyer Speed Figure.
Meanwhile, trainer Kelly Breen said Firenze Fire “ate up, looked good” Monday morning. There were no excuses needed or offered as Firenze Fire ran a terrific race, only giving way in the final strides. Firenze Fire had won two stakes at this meet. It remains to be seen if he runs back in four weeks again or is given more time before his next start.
“I’m sure we’ll be looking for a race at Saratoga,” Breen said.