Mind Control works for the Carter Handicap

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Gregg Sacco was pleasantly surprised that the New York Racing Association rescheduled the Grade 1 Carter Handicap for June 6, even if the purse had to be cut by $150,000. The race was originally scheduled for April 4 but was one of 19 cards scrapped at Aqueduct due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Sacco is the trainer of Mind Control, who will look to win a Grade 1 race for the third consecutive year when he runs in the Carter. Mind Control has been training at Belmont all year and on Friday he breezed a half-mile in 49.48 seconds over the main track, his ninth breeze since he won the Grade 3 Tom Fool on March 7 at Aqueduct.

“He’s real fit and happy, we’re just trying to keep his mindset right,” Sacco said. “He’s breezed all along, once a week, with nice strong gallops in between. We’re just trying to fine-tune him and get him over there with the right mindset on Carter Day.”

Mind Control won the Grade 1 Hopeful at 2 and the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens at 3. In addition to winning the Tom Fool, Mind Control also won the Grade 3 Toboggan in January.

Sacco noted that when Mind Control runs in the Carter, it will be the first time since he won his maiden in August 2018 that he’s run at the same track at which he is based.

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Sacco said John Velazquez will ride Mind Control in the Carter.

Others pointing to the race include Performer, Vekoma, Network Effect, Nicodemus, Firenze Fire, and Wicked Trick.

Nicodemus came within a nose of Mind Control in the Toboggan. After two subsequent workouts, Nicodemus suffered an ankle injury and only returned to the work tab on May 6. On Thursday, Nicodemus worked five furlongs in 1:02.58 over Belmont’s training track.

“Last year, Nicodemus won the Westchester, but the Carter is a better distance for him,” trainer Linda Rice said. “Maybe he only won it because of the mud that day.

Wicked Trick had a six-race winning streak snapped when he finished fifth in the Stymie on March 7.

◗ Max Player, the Grade 3 Withers winner, worked six furlongs in 1:13.50 on Friday morning over the Belmont training track in preparation for the Belmont Stakes.

Rice had considered Saturday’s Matt Winn at Churchill Downs, but that was before NYRA announced the date of the Belmont.

“It looks like we’re going to have plenty of pace,” Rice said of the prospective Belmont field.

Rice said she plans two more works for Max Player before the Belmont.

Rice said Montauk Traffic, who won the Jimmy Winkfield in February, is getting time off due to an ankle injury.