Pat On the Back gets second crack at Commentator Stakes

ELMONT, N.Y. – Perhaps if the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap wasn’t coming up so tough, the connections of Pat On the Back would have taken their chances in one of the most prestigious races in the country.

Instead, they will settle for a second chance at winning the $200,000 Commentator Stakes at Belmont Park. The Commentator is one of six stakes and 11 races overall restricted to New York-breds on what is known as Big Apple Showcase Day. First post Monday is 1:30 p.m. Eastern.

Trainer Jeremiah Englehart said owner Harold Lerner has devised the schedule for Pat On the Back, and “he felt the Commentator was the right way to go right now.”

Last year, Pat On the Back came within a nose of upsetting Diversify in the Commentator. Pat On the Back would win two stakes, including the $300,000 Empire Classic, before finishing fifth in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile to end his 4-year-old season.

Pat On the Back, who is 4 for 9 at Belmont, made his 5-year-old debut on opening day of this meet and made up five lengths in the final furlong to win the Affirmed Success going six furlongs over a sloppy track.

“I went from thinking with three-eighths of a mile to go he wasn’t going to get anything, and in the back of my mind, I was going to be okay with it,” Englehart said. “A sloppy track, not his best distance, the horses got away from him, it’s hard to make up ground. But he’s got a will to win. You really like horses with that war-horse mentality that he has.”

While Diversify won’t be running in this year’s Commentator, Pat On the Back will have to take on Giant Expectations, a multiple Grade 2 stakes winner who is 0 for 7 over the last 18 months. Most recently, he finished fifth, beaten just one length by Quip, in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap.

“Little frustrating to run so well and get nothing for it,” trainer Peter Eurton said. “I felt for the clients more than I did for me. That was a big race; he ran great that day.”

Eurton is equipping Giant Expectations with blinkers, equipment he wore twice previously in his career without success.

Honor Up won a pair of New York-bred stakes during the winter, including the Haynesfield going a mile. He ran a solid third in the Grade 1 Carter, finishing 1 3/4 lengths behind World of Trouble.

Mr. Buff finished third behind Pat On the Back in the Empire Classic before reeling off four consecutive wins in races run around two turns. He is trying to rebound from a last-place finish in the Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap on March 23, a performance for which trainer John Kimmel did not have a legitimate excuse.

Syndergaard, Control Group, and Haul Anchor complete the field.

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Midnight Disguise in Critical Eye

If you can excuse her last two races, which were run on sloppy tracks, Midnight Disguise might offer some value in the $200,000 Critical Eye Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares at seven furlongs.

Midnight Disguise hasn’t won since taking the $200,000 Bouwerie Stakes going one turn a year ago.

At 3, Midnight Disguise went 3 for 5, with stakes wins in the Busanda, Busher and Bouwerie. She got injured subsequently and was sidelined for the remainder of the year. Midnight Disguise returned with a second-place finish to the loose-on-the-lead winner Frostie Anne in the one-mile Biogio’s Rose Stakes at Aqueduct in February.

Midnight Disguise then caught a wet track when soundly beaten in the Heavenly Prize and Top Flight Invitational stakes, both against open company, the latter run at 1 1/8 miles around two turns.

“I don’t think two turns is her game, and I think she’s better at one turn and back with New York-bred company,” trainer Linda Rice said.

Jose Ortiz will ride Midnight Disguise from post 2.

Still There may be the horse to beat in the Critical Eye. As a 4-year-old, she finished second to Marley’s Freedom in the Grade 1 Ballerina and fourth in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom. Trainer Dane Kobiskie told NYRA publicity he was going to run Still There in the Grade 1 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs, but she got sick.

“The Critical Eye looks like a good spot,” Kobiskie said. “She’s a very serious horse. She had some trouble in the race at Saratoga and still ran great. I wanted to give her the winter off. She was getting a little weary, but she’s doing great.”

Kathryn the Wise won the Critical Eye by 8 1/4 lengths in 2017. She has won only once in four starts since. She may have to avoid a duel with Frostie Anne.

Starlite Mission, Indy’s Lady, and Bonita Bianca complete the field.