Mr Speaker returns to turf for Hill Prince
ELMONT, N.Y. – His dirt career likely finished, Mr Speaker returns to turf for Saturday’s Grade 3, $500,000 Hill Prince Stakes for 3-year-olds at Belmont Park in what could be his last race this season.
Three months after winning the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Derby, Mr Speaker meets nine rivals in the Hill Prince, including U.S.-based stakes winners Tourist and Ring Weekend as well as a trio of allowance-winning European-based runners in Sloane Avenue, Blacktype, and Cabral.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 1 Ring Weekend. Trainer Graham Motion is 9-1-0-0 with a $0.65 ROI over the past two years in graded stakes turf routes at Belmont following a win. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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Trainer Shug McGaughey said he doesn’t have any notion of taking Mr Speaker to California for the Breeders’ Cup and said the Hill Prince “could possibly be” the colt’s last start of the year.
Mr Speaker, a two-time graded stakes winner on turf, comes off a fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Travers at Saratoga, where he simply didn’t handle the dirt surface. The Travers was a second opportunity for Mr Speaker on dirt – he ran seventh in the Grade 3 Holy Bull in January, with the Hill Prince as the next objective had he run poorly.
“This is what I had in my mind in case I was wrong” about the dirt, McGaughey said.
There is rain in the forecast for Saturday, but that shouldn’t bother Mr Speaker, who won the Belmont Derby over ground labeled “good” a day after the New York metropolitan area was socked by rain.
Tourist has three wins and a second in the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes, all on ground labeled “firm.” However, trainer Bill Mott said he doesn’t believe the ground at Arlington was firm for the Secretariat, based on the slow early fractions that were run.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 5 Tourist. Trainer Bill Mott is 10-3-0-2 with a $4.54 ROI over the past two years in graded stakes turf routes at Belmont following a layoff of between 31 and 60 days. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
“On firm ground, he’d run three-quarters in 1:10 and change, 1:11,” said Mott, noting that Tourist’s three-quarter fraction in the Secretariat was 1:13.60. “I think the ground was actually soft. He didn’t quite like it as much. He ran second, but I don’t think it was his best race.”
Ring Weekend won the Grade 3 Saranac on good ground at Saratoga, one race after finishing second to Tourist in the Sir Cat.
Sheldon, third in the Secretariat, has run his best races on less-than-firm turf and could be a live longshot.
◗ Cary Street and Ever Rider, the one-two finishers in the Grade 3 Greenwood Cup at Parx on Sept. 1, head a field of six entered in the $200,000 Temperence Hill Stakes going 1 5/8 miles on dirt.
Should rain create an off track, Ever Rider may hold the advantage with a record of 2-1-0 from three starts on wet tracks, though those races were run in Argentina.
Village Warrior, who is 2 for 4 on a wet track, has won two lesser races in gate-to-wire fashion and could be the one to catch here.
Hill Prince Stakes, race 9
KEY CONTENDERS
Mr Speaker (Last 3 Beyers 91-95-79)
◗ Mr Speaker won the Belmont Derby at 23-1 after running last as the 4-5 favorite in the Pennine Ridge Stakes here May 26, when he was kept too close to the pace.
“He’s got to be back,” McGaughey said.
He should get that chance with Tourist and Smooth Daddy in the field.
Tourist (Last 3 Beyers 93-99-98)
◗Front-running son of Tiznow had a three-race winning streak snapped when second to Belmont Derby runner-up Adelaide in the Grade 1 Secretariat at Arlington Park.
Loses jockey Joel Rosario, who is at Keeneland on Saturday, but gets the services of the underrated Manuel Franco, who rode him to victory in an allowance June 8.
Ring Weekend (Last 3 Beyers 100-95-N/A)
◗After finishing second to Tourist in the Sir Cat Stakes, he earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure with a 2 3/4-length victory in the Grade 3 Saranac.
“I thought he ran huge last time. His last two races have both been good,” trainer Graham Motion said. “I just worry about turf being really soft.”
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 3 Blacktype. Trainer Christophe Clement is 17-6-3-2 with a $5.04 ROI over the past five years in turf routes with foreign shippers new to his barn and getting Lasix for the first time. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan