Mott will send Speaker's Corner against Life Is Good in Nerud Stakes
ELMONT, N.Y. – Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 John Nerud Stakes got a little more interesting Monday when trainer Bill Mott confirmed that Speaker’s Corner, third to Flightline in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap on June 11, will run in the seven-furlong race.
That sets up a meeting with Life Is Good, the multiple Grade 1 winner who is scheduled to make his first start since his fourth-place finish in the Dubai World Cup on March 27.
Mott said the Grade 1 Forego on Aug. 27 at Saratoga is the summer target for Speaker’s Corner but that he doesn’t want to wait until then to run and feels the Nerud is a good spot regardless of competition.
“I think it’s the wrong thing to do, the way he is right now, not to run,” Mott said Monday. “My feeling is you can’t duck and dodge everybody. Every good race that comes up from now til the end of the year, you’re going to have one or two good horses in there. You can’t be afraid.”
Speaker’s Corner brought a three-race winning streak into the Met Mile and his confrontation with the unbeaten Flightline. Speaker’s Corner set the pace under Junior Alvarado, but could not successfully keep a slow-starting Flightline boxed in and was overtaken by both him and Happy Saver. Speaker’s Corner finished 8 1/4 lengths back.
Mott said Speaker’s Corner came out of the race “with a minor foot issue that has resolved and he’s doing great.”
Speaker’s Corner worked five furlongs in 59.60 seconds Saturday morning over the Belmont main track.
With Alvarado committed to ride Olympiad in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster on Saturday at Churchill Downs, Jose Ortiz has picked up the mount on Speaker’s Corner.
Life Is Good, who won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile last year and Pegasus World Cup this year, is hoping to use the Nerud as a stepping-stone to the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney on Aug. 6 at Saratoga.
With Life Is Good and Speaker’s Corner now in the race, the Nerud figures to be a small field numbers-wise. Harvard and War Tocsin are probable. Officiating is possible.
Meanwhile, Mott said Cody’s Wish, who is nominated to the Nerud, is running in the Hanshin Stakes on Saturday at Churchill Downs.