Name from the past returns in Knickerbocker

ELMONT, N.Y. – It’s not often you see a horse whose past performances include running lines from Hollywood Park before it became known as Betfair Hollywood Park and then closed.

Blingo, a lightly raced 6-year-old gelding who debuted four years ago at Hollywood Park, makes a return to the races off an 18-month layoff in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Knickerbocker Stakes at Belmont Park.

Blingo, who won the La Puente Stakes at Santa Anita on March 12, 2012, hasn’t raced since finishing third behind Game On Dude and Will Take Charge in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on March 8, 2014.

Trainer John Shirreffs said Blingo’s layoff was due to a pulled ligament in a hock. Shirreffs said that finding a race for Blingo isn’t simple because he is a two-time stakes winner on turf and a Grade 2 winner on dirt.

“It’s very important we get a race into him,” Shirreffs said. “This is the first race that came up that he could get into because he doesn’t have any conditions.”

Shirreffs said Blingo is “as good as he’s ever been” but noted that attempting to come back at 1 1/8 miles “is asking quite a bit.”

“I’m really looking forward to seeing how he runs,” Shirreffs said. “I know he’ll give it everything he’s got – he always does.”

One race before Blingo runs, Shirreffs starts the 7-year-old Mr. Commons in a one-mile allowance race that Blingo would have been eligible for.

Mr. Commons, who finished last in the Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita on March 7 in his last start, has lost 17 consecutive races since winning the Grade 2 Arcadia at Santa Anita in February 2013.

“He’s training very well,” Shirreffs said. “We’re excited to see them both run.”

Shirreffs said that Cozmic One, the first foal from Zenyatta who has lost his first two starts, could run here before the end of the meet. Ziconic, a 2-year-old out of Zenyatta, is galloping at Belmont but had his training interrupted by a shin splint, Shirreffs said.