Mind Control, Joevia getting settled with Sacco string at Belmont Park

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The multiple Grade 1 winner Mind Control and his Grade 1-placed stablemate Joevia both arrived at Belmont Park Sunday morning and will be based there this winter as they prepare for their 4-year-old seasons.

Mind Control has not run since winning the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens by a nose over Hog Creek Hustle at Saratoga on Aug. 24. At 2, Mind Control won the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga. He spent last winter in New York winning the Jerome and the Grade 3 Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct, sandwiched around a second-place finish to Haikal in the Grade 3 Gotham.

Joevia, second to Haikal in the Jimmy Winkfield Stakes at Aqueduct last February, has not run since finishing third to Sir Winston in the Belmont Stakes on June 8. He was entered in but scratched from the Grade 1 Haskell at Monmouth Park on July 20 due to a foot injury.

Trainer Gregg Sacco, who will have about 20 horses based in New York for the winter, said both horses got a break and started training at Good Chance Farm in Ocala, Fla. Sacco said both horses would gallop this week and could have workouts next week.

Sacco has not yet mapped out a 2020 campaign for either horse, but did say he thought both could be ready to run in January.

“They both look great, I’ve been getting updates and pictures, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed,” Sacco said.

Sacco did say that he would like to stretch Mind Control out in distance in 2020. The only time he’s run around two turns was in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile when he finished seventh, beaten 18 1/4 lengths by Game Winner. The horse had gotten a temperature when he first arrived at Churchill Downs for that race.

“I can’t wait to run him two turns,” Sacco said. “I think he’d be a very tough horse to get to, and to get past.”

Sacco said Joevia needed time off following the injury that forced him to miss the Haskell.

“If we had pushed him we would have been looking at other issues,” Sacco said.

In addition to those two horses, Sacco has brought a handful of 2-year-olds to New York. Hedonistic, a son of Tiznow, finished fourth in his debut in the slop at Monmouth. Intuitive, a son of Street Sense, is an unraced 2-year-old out of the dam Final Heiress, who is a half-sister to stakes winners Wildcat Heir, Forest Heiress, and Forest Heir.