Palace fresh for True North

ELMONT, N.Y. – Having captured yet another stakes victory with her talented female sprinter La Verdad last weekend, trainer Linda Rice will now concentrate on winning a graded stakes – or perhaps two – with her top two male sprinters this weekend at Belmont Park.

Rice entered both Palace and Marriedtothemusic in Friday’s Grade 2, $250,000 True North Stakes but is likely to run just one in the six-furlong dirt race. Rice said it is quite likely that on Wednesday she will enter Marriedtothemusic back in Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Jaipur Invitational on turf.

Palace, a New York-bred son of City Zip, won the Grade 3 Fall Highweight Handicap last November before finishing second in the Gravesend and Gold and Roses stakes. Palace finished fourth as the favorite in the Grade 3 General George Handicap on Feb. 17 and was found to have bled.

“I turned him out for 60 days, and he’s coming back very well,” said Rice, who had Palace breeze a sharp six furlongs in 1:12.80 on Sunday over the Belmont training track.

Under the allowance conditions of the True North, Palace is carrying the top weight of 124 pounds, spotting the rest of the field two to eight pounds.

“That is a concern, but I’m leaning toward running,” said Rice, who has Jose Ortiz to ride from post 7.

Trainers David Jacobson and Chad Brown each entered two horses in the race. Jacobson put in Salutos Amigos and Royal Currier, while Brown entered Integrity and Bakken.

Salutos Amigos has won three straight races since Jacobson purchased the horse privately from Michael Moreno’s Southern Equine Stable. Southern Equine recently bought back into the 4-year-old gelding, who had been trained by Eric Guillot.

Dads Caps, the Grade 1 Carter winner, is cutting back to six furlongs in the True North. Others entered include Eastwood and Well Spelled.

The True North is the first leg of a daily double wager linking to Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Metropolitan Handicap.

Twelve in Belmont Gold Cup

After an unproductive trip to Dubai, Twilight Eclipse will try to pick up where he left off in North America when he runs in Friday’s $200,000 Belmont Gold Cup Invitational, a two-mile race on turf.

Twilight Eclipse, a 5-year-old Purim gelding trained by Tom Albertrani, won the William McKnight at Calder in December and the Mac Diarmida at Gulfstream in February before finishing 12th in the Sheema Classic at Meydan in March.

Albertrani said he is using this race as a stepping-stone to the Grade 2 Bowling Green Handicap on July 12.

Twilight Eclipse drew post 11 in a field of 12.

Trainer Graham Motion entered the trio of Auld Alliance, Draw Two, and Eagle Poise.

The others entered are Wings of Fortune, Sky Blazer, Charming Kitten, Reflecting, Spy in the Sky, Irish Mission, Comes the Dream, and Mambo Man.

The Belmont Gold Cup is the first leg of a two-day daily double wager that links to the Belmont Stakes.